Newbie booking LONE4 - my experience (so far) and questions

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huwcar

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Jan 16, 2009
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Hi everyone,

I've enjoying being a member and reading everyone's stories and learning from their experiences for a few weeks now.

Along with the Mrs, I'm heading off on a RTW ticket for about 5 weeks starting in mid July and I thought I'd share my experience (with the online OW booking tool) so far, as well as pose some questions.

Firstly, about me:
QFF NB, currently with 0 SC and about 120k points.
Live in and returning to MEL
We have to travel around this time to be in the UK in early August for some weddings

Taking advantage of having to go OS anyway, we have decided to make the most of it over about 5 weeks and this is our current WIP itinerary:
MEL-xLAX-LAS-NYC-TOR-xMIA-ANU-LON-AMM-DEL-HKG-SIN-MEL

The online tool allows you to select specific flight numbers (and therefore who tickets the flights for you) so for the above itinerary:
First flight on QF = $4450 AU
First flight on AA = $3777 AU
Mind you, this is for the exact same flights.

I also read that LONE4 flights ex NZ are more economical, so with the slight tweak of (and again with exact same flights):
AKL-xLAX-LAS-NYC-TOR-xMIA-ANU-LON-AMM-DEL-HKG-SIN-MEL-AKL
First flight on QF (quoted in NZ$) = $3770 AU
First flight on AA (quoted in US$) = $3099 AU

Obviously QF +++ is ridiculous, and it makes me angry that most people in AUS would be blindly handing over their hard earned $$! Hopefully that info can help others with booking an LONE4 and trying to pinch the pennies.

At this stage of the process, I also have a couple of questions:
* Is my AA ex-Akl LONE4 the most economical option?
* Will I earn QFF points booking this way, if not what program should I join?
* Are there itinerary tweaks I can make to maximise FF and SC if applicable?
* Will I be able to select seats on the flights and how else can I help to ensure the most comfort on the flights? (I'm quite tall BTW)
* Would there be any benefit in joining QP? Is there some other lounge club that might be better to join?

If you made it to the end of this post, well done! Have a gold star: *

-Huwcar.
 
Sounding good, but dont forget to fator in the cost of MEL-AKL flight.

To maintain/get status on QFF, you need 4 flights with them per year (I dont beleive "AA" flights on QF metal counts).

There's probably room for a couple of hops within europe if you have time. (ie route LON-xx_-yyy-AMM) or similar.
 
Was also thinking:

Try routing SYD-AKL on LAN - and ticket ex-chile or ex-NZ. It seemed to shave about $1k off the +++ when i was planing an upcoming LONE4 for mrsdoc and myself.
 
Sounding good, but dont forget to factor in the cost of MEL-AKL flight. ...
MEL-AKL-MEL will set you back $415 (booked on Qantas.com)

OR (For $388)
MEL-AKL will set you back $232
AKL-MEL will set you back ~$153 (NZD190, booked on [noparse]www.qantas.co.nz[/noparse])
 
... Try routing SYD-AKL on LAN - and ticket ex-chile or ex-NZ. It seemed to shave about $1k off the +++ when i was planing an upcoming LONE4 for mrsdoc and myself.
I believe LAN do not charge any fuel fines ...
 
I don't think AA is charging any fuel fine either - I did a slightly modified test booking having AKL-SYD-LAX-etc at the start, the cost is exactly the same ticketed though LAN or AA.

For interest's sake, the +++ is detailed as:

Adult traveller(s)
Immigration and Naturalization Service Fee
14.00 USD
Tax description unavailable (WKMU)
25.00 USD
U.S. Customs Fee 11.00 USD
U.S. Animal and Plant Inspection Service Users Fee
10.00 USD
Tax description unavailable (WOMU)
5.70
USD
Tax description unavailable (SGAD) 18.49 USD
Tax description unavailable (IASE) 8.08 USD
Tax description unavailable (KKEC) 6.82
USD
Australian Passenger Service Charge 16.50 USD
Tax description unavailable (JOAD) 14.12 USD
UK Air Passenger Duty 57.13 USD
Tax description unavailable (KKEM) 6.82 USD
Passenger Facility Charges
4.50 USD
Tax description unavailable (WGSE)
3.51 USD
UK Passenger Service Charge
30.28
USD
Tax description unavailable (HQAE) 28.24 USD
September 11th Security Fee
12.50 USD
Australia Passenger Movement Charge
29.72 USD
302.41 USD


And is quoted in US$ either way.

re: Extra European stops, we may throw in ...-LON-DUB-BUD-AMM-... to visit some more friends. We also may take out the DEL stop as Indian visas can be pricey and need to be sorted in advance of leaving. We could do less than 72 hours on a transit visa, but this still needs to be sorted at an embassy and is only valid from 15 days of issue (I think). The DEL (or possible BOM) stop is only for shopping and to break up the flights a bit anyway.

-Huwcar
 
Last edited:
Have a look at LHR-DXB-HKG (BA then CX) too.
 
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