What SC will I earn on this DONE4?

[Emkay]

I am still unclear on QFF SC earning under the new T&C. I would really welcome a second opinion on what SC I could expect to earn from the following DONE4 itinerary - and third and fourth opinions too, of course! I have included my 'reading' of the new earn rates (totaling 1600) as a target for shooting down.

Cabin Class : BUSINESS (except AA domestic, where it will be First)
Number of Continents: 4
Number of Segments : 16
Number of Stopovers : 4
Routing: Hong Kong - London - Los Angeles - Chicago - Dallas/Ft. Worth - Charlotte - Dallas/Ft. Worth - Chicago - Los Angeles - Sydney - Brisbane - Darwin - Perth - Sydney - Singapore - Tokyo - Hong Kong

Dep-Arr Flight Miles SC?
HKG-LHR CX251 5994 80

LHR-LAX BA260 5456 140
LAX-ORD AA1062 1744 120
ORD-DFW AA2305 802 90
DFW-CLT AA1041 936 90

CLT-DFW AA1301 936 90
DFW-ORD AA2303 802 90
ORD-LAX AA1060 1744 120
LAX-SYD QF12 7488 200
SYD-BNE QF512 467 40

BNE-DRW QF824 1771 80
DRW-PER QF793 1644 80
PER-SYD QF568 2041 80
SYD-SIN QF81 3908 120

SIN-HND QF4017 3288 100(+?)
HND-HKG CX549 1805 80

Thanks!

 

[equus]

I agree with all except LAX-SYD. I think you will find that D is Business, not Flexible Business and as a West Coast USA to Australia will earn 180SC.

 

[moa999]

Looks right to me, save for equus comment that I think D will be regular Business and thus LAX-SYD earns 180SC
Equally think SIN-HND will be 100SC only.

and assuming all your US legs do not have Business cabins (AA1060 was the only one I wan't sure about).
I like your route selection in the US.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Out of curiosity, what price are you getting for this DONE4? - If you're prepared to share of course.

 

[Emkay]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the confirmation (well, as confirmed as it can be with the rules so hazy!) I didn't want to shell out the $$ without some form of checking.

Out of curiosity, what price are you getting for this DONE4? - If you're prepared to share of course.

So far, I haven't found any way of buying this fare at much less than the standard ex-HKG price on offer at the OW RTW Plan and Book site -
https://rtw.oneworld.com/rtw/
The TA in HK that has previously sold me well-priced D and A CIR26s doesn't seem to have much room to move on the DONE4 price, but maybe they are just waiting for me to roll over. Trying to find someone keener!

 

[amaroo]

Out of curiosity, what price are you getting for this DONE4? - If you're prepared to share of course.

+ 1

Have never looked at these fares before but I'm starting to get interested!

 

[Emkay]

+ 1

Have never looked at these fares before but I'm starting to get interested!

There used to be a website showing prices of ow ONE and CIR fares from a mass of starting points around the globe, but it disappeared. Differences were quite significant. Does anyone know where to find such info now?

 

[serfty]

Expert flyer or KVS ...

... but you will need to search origin country by origin country ...

Other option is to put simple itineries from various origins into the oneworld Explorer booking tool and record the base fares.

 

[Himeno]

and assuming all your US legs do not have Business cabins (AA1060 was the only one I wan't sure about).

With the AA 762s being retired, the only 3 class North American routes are the A320T JFK-SFO/LAX and the 777 MIA-LAX transcons. DONE's book in to A on all other north american routes, unless A is sold out or the aircraft not having an F cabin.

Out of curiosity, what price are you getting for this DONE4? - If you're prepared to share of course.

An ex-HKG DONE4 costs 88,810HKD + taxes etc.

There used to be a website showing prices of ow ONE and CIR fares from a mass of starting points around the globe, but it disappeared. Differences were quite significant. Does anyone know where to find such info now?

The base prices used to be listed on the oneworld website. Other 3rd party tools pulled their data from there. The prices were pulled from the oneworld site about 2 years ago for unstated reasons, presumably due to many places around the world having legal requirements that only the full airfare be advertised and as that is impossible without knowing the routing and airline used, oneworld could not keep the data in public view. A full price is available during the planning process with the online booking tool (though good luck getting that to complete a booking) and the base fares are available on GDS look up sites like KVS and Expert Flyer (but only for one star/end country at a time).

 

[Emkay]

An ex-HKG DONE4 costs 88,810HKD + taxes etc.

I followed Sefty's advice and obtained the following base prices, for comparison with the HKD price quoted by Himeno:

ex PDG CNY74,690
ex HAN USD11,352
ex SYD AUD12,006

Additional charges for taxes etc vary with routing and sectors flown but can total nearly A$2K for a 16 sector itinerary.

Relativity in A$ will fluctuate daily, but at this evening's buying rates, the base prices equate to
ex Australia A$12,006
ex Vietnam A$12,655
ex Hong Kong A$12,775
ex China A$13,715

Is Aus becoming the poor wh.. trash of Asia as long ago predicted, given a discount for our inability to pay the prices that our more affluent neighbors can afford?

I guess it's possible that oneworld has rebalanced their pricing between countries to reduce the differences, and that these diffs are just due to forex fluctuations since the last adjustment - or is their pricing being adjusted on the fly to reflect my IP address? Either way, looks like the days of hunting for a 'çheap' starting point might be over?

 

[Himeno]

I guess it's possible that oneworld has rebalanced their pricing between countries to reduce the differences, and that these diffs are just due to forex fluctuations since the last adjustment - or is their pricing being adjusted on the fly to reflect my IP address? Either way, looks like the days of hunting for a 'çheap' starting point might be over?

Where did you get those prices from? Are they all for DONE4s?
I've been getting DONE3's out of Japan or Korea (with a DAS13 between AU and the DONE3 starting point) for the last few years.
The booking tool doesn't base the price on the IP address. It assumes you are in the starting point selected for the ticket and prices accordingly.

A lot of people used to make use of the "Canadian Exception" which got around the rule of paying the higher price of "Country of Origin" and "Country of Sale" instead paying the "Country of Origin" price in CAD. But that was option removed 2 years ago Now people either have to use the tool to get the right price (assuming you can get the tool to work all the way through to payment) or find an agent in the "Country of Origin" willing to ticket online.

 

[Emkay]

Just created DONE4 itineraries in the ow RTW site starting in the diferent cities, and got the site to calculate the price for each

 

[Cynicor]

Doesn't seem right to me, but I haven't priced a DONEx in a while. I suggest that AU should still be more expensive than the others. Not sure how to explain the prices you have, howeverz

 

[Emkay]

Doesn't seem right to me, but I haven't priced a DONEx in a while. I suggest that AU should still be more expensive than the others. Not sure how to explain the prices you have, howeverz

A lot of the higher cost of the non-Oz fares is due to the loss on conversion. The A$ amounts I quoted above were calculated using the foreign currency 'buy cash' price on the ANZ website. Credit cards may give better rates than those. If you can work out how to pay using OzForex ( OzForex - Australian Forex - International Money Transfers ) you would probably lose less again. Converted at their 'market rate', the comparisons are:

ex Australia A$12,006
ex Vietnam A$12,076
ex Hong Kong A$12,184
ex China A$12,741

This way, they are much closer together, but still suggest that 'çheap' o/s starting points may be history.

Could someone with a non-Oz IP address try the ow RTW tool and see if the base price of a DONE4 ex-HKG is the same as the HKD88,810 I got last night? I put in the full 16 sectors, but you can get a price with a simpler routing that meets the rules. I think HKG-LHR-LAX-SYD-HKG with a couple of stopovers would probably work.

 

[Skyring]

My last DONE4 was out of JNB and cost me about $6.5K plus fees. Plus the cost of getting there, of course, but if the last leg of the previous DONE4 is used to get to JNB to start the next, that's okay. You have twelve months to complete the trip and it is possible to have a couple of the things on the go.

The US routing to maximise those First flights is critical. You're also limited to six sectors and one transcontinental. In theory, flying LHR-LAX is a good way to maximise miles/SC on the transatlantic leg, but flying in a premium cabin out of the UK attracts some fairly savage taxes. AA71 FRA-DFW is my preference to make that leg.

My last routing was DFW-SEA-ORD-MIA-SFO-ORD-JFK and QF108 JFK-SYD.

QF108 is a sweet flight for a DONE4 - it's just one sector of the sixteen and a transcon to boot. (It stops in LAX to refuel.)

One problem is that a DONE4 with Africa and Australia as two of the four pretty much locks you into BA JNB-LHR (or vice versa, but see above for the tax problem). A DONE5 opens up a range of flights to Asia, but you are still limited to sixteen sectors, so the extra miles/SC may not be worth the added cost.

Of course, there are other airports in Africa beyond JNB, but the only OW flight from Australia is QF63 SYD-JNB, so you have to burn a flight to get somewhere else other than JNB. Some of the other countries have some very attractive prices, but I'm such a wuss about places like Khartoum.

 

[Danger]

The additional of QR to oneworld gives two new options ex-South Africa - CPT and JNB to DOH and then a plethora of choices to avoid BA. I have done the JNB-LHR twice on a DONE4 and enjoyed it, however, and I suspect, without looking, that the mileage difference is quite considerable.