Oneworld Explorer ticketing

[dairyfloss]

LONE4 (in AUD) today from
NZ $3,980
Oz $4,069
Sing $6,175
Japan $3,714

So it looks like you want to avoid Singapore, the rest are all in the same ballpark of $4K

Data from Expert Flyer

Incredibly, that oz price is within a few hundred dollars of the last LONE4 I booked in about 2008... inflation?! Pfft!

 

[knagelli]

Have read the rules and had a good play around with a combo of "Flight Connections", "Expert Flyer", the QANTAS Status Calculator and the xONEx rules.

My objective was to go to some interesting places and try out as many business class long haul cabins as I can in a DONE4 for Aug-Oct next year, while hitting 1210 status credits by end Oct to get Platinum given the Status Credits I already have in hand (will lose it end this Oct, have a few flights in Dec/Jan which will gives some SCs)

Pricing a few countries, Japan is indeed the cheapest so will start there
View attachment 345184
and here we have the path, keeping in mind that Casablanca is considered to be part of Europe (or maybe the middle east)

View attachment 345185

So
Start Sydney and position to Tokyo using a FF ticket

Then
Tokyo -> Honolulu on a JAL 787 (lay flat bed)
Honolulu -> Dallas on a AA 787 (lay flat bed)
Dallas -> New York on a AA domestic 737
New York -> San Fran on a 3 class A321 (lay flat bed)
San Fran -> Doha on a QATAR QSuite A350 (lay flat bed)
Doha -> Casablanca on a QATAR 777 (lay flat bed)
Casablanca -> Istanbul on a Royal Air Maroc 787 (lay flat bed)
Istanbul -> London on a British Air el cougho A320
London -> Madrid on a Iberia A330 (lay flat bed)
Madrid -> Hong Kong on a Cathay A350 (lay flat bed)
Hong Kong -> Kuala Lumpur on a Cathay A330 (lay flat bed)
Kuala Lumpur -> Bangalore on a Malay 737 puddle jumper
Bangalore -> Sydney on a QANTAS 330-200 (lay flat bed)

Live in Sydney so I am home, aim to be home by Oct 31st so trigger platinum again
(1350 Status Credits by this time)

Then have a trip to Lord Howe Island to take in the 1st half of 2025

Finally 'finish' the trip by flying back to Tokyo on a QANTAS A330 (lay flat bed) to start the next DONE4 some time around August 2025

1,605 status
97,500 FF points (assuming gold)
48,850 miles

I think this valid, but would appreciate someone knowledgeable checking it

11 of the 16 flights are on aircraft with lay flat beds and it covers 7 airlines Long Haul cabins (JAL, QANTAS, American, QATAR, Royal Maroc, Iberia & Cathay)

View attachment 345295

Reds are intercontinental sectors, greens are local sectors

Thoughts?
Errors?

I appreciate your efforts and the detailed information. Quite impressive and good starters for newbie like me looking forward to oneworld.

 

[Berlin]

Gosh, out of pure curiosity I've just wasted about 20 minutes on this artificial not-so intelligent chatbot. Worse than many and they pretty much all are bad in my experience.

As an aside, connected to these experiences: Unless the Terminators want us all to live in blissful ignorance of what's coming for us and play dumb on purpose, I am totally not afraid in the slightest of AI taking over our world. It's not going to happen, at least not in time before we've burnt or nuked it down ourselves.

 

[wrldtrvllr]

Have read the rules and had a good play around with a combo of "Flight Connections", "Expert Flyer", the QANTAS Status Calculator and the xONEx rules.

My objective was to go to some interesting places and try out as many business class long haul cabins as I can in a DONE4 for Aug-Oct next year, while hitting 1210 status credits by end Oct to get Platinum given the Status Credits I already have in hand (will lose it end this Oct, have a few flights in Dec/Jan which will gives some SCs)

Pricing a few countries, Japan is indeed the cheapest so will start there
View attachment 345184
and here we have the path, keeping in mind that Casablanca is considered to be part of Europe (or maybe the middle east)

View attachment 345185

So
Start Sydney and position to Tokyo using a FF ticket

Then
Tokyo -> Honolulu on a JAL 787 (lay flat bed)
Honolulu -> Dallas on a AA 787 (lay flat bed)
Dallas -> New York on a AA domestic 737
New York -> San Fran on a 3 class A321 (lay flat bed)
San Fran -> Doha on a QATAR QSuite A350 (lay flat bed)
Doha -> Casablanca on a QATAR 777 (lay flat bed)
Casablanca -> Istanbul on a Royal Air Maroc 787 (lay flat bed)
Istanbul -> London on a British Air el cougho A320
London -> Madrid on a Iberia A330 (lay flat bed)
Madrid -> Hong Kong on a Cathay A350 (lay flat bed)
Hong Kong -> Kuala Lumpur on a Cathay A330 (lay flat bed)
Kuala Lumpur -> Bangalore on a Malay 737 puddle jumper
Bangalore -> Sydney on a QANTAS 330-200 (lay flat bed)

Live in Sydney so I am home, aim to be home by Oct 31st so trigger platinum again
(1350 Status Credits by this time)

Then have a trip to Lord Howe Island to take in the 1st half of 2025

Finally 'finish' the trip by flying back to Tokyo on a QANTAS A330 (lay flat bed) to start the next DONE4 some time around August 2025

1,605 status
97,500 FF points (assuming gold)
48,850 miles

I think this valid, but would appreciate someone knowledgeable checking it

11 of the 16 flights are on aircraft with lay flat beds and it covers 7 airlines Long Haul cabins (JAL, QANTAS, American, QATAR, Royal Maroc, Iberia & Cathay)

View attachment 345295

Reds are intercontinental sectors, greens are local sectors

Thoughts?
Errors?

Did you end up ticketing this? And what was the final costing?

I'm actually a bit confused on your routing from EUR-ASIA-SWP-ASIA - I thought that violates the intercontinental segment rules, in that you are essentially backtracking continents, namely ASIA.

 

[oz_boater]

Did you end up ticketing this? And what was the final costing?

I'm actually a bit confused on your routing from EUR-ASIA-SWP-ASIA - I thought that violates the intercontinental segment rules, in that you are essentially backtracking continents, namely ASIA.

No, have not ticketed it.

Not sure I want to do that much flying.

As to Asia, see 4(e)2 on page 3 and 4(b) on page 2.

4(e)2 allows you to leave Asia twice and arrive in it twice, but [4(b)] requires you go TC1>2>3 (or visa versa) so in practice this means you must one of those arrival/departures must be to/from SWP (or maybe Africa)

https://assets.ctfassets.net/m9ph4qvas97u/uRxza3JJwPccskH0XoYow/4014342b98a9fa4c3cab48202350a1f0/230421-oneworld-alliance-round-the-world-oneworld-explorer.pdf

 

[Rosh]

Hello everyone,
this is my first post as I don't fly frequently. I recently bought a oneworld rtw ticket as I am going to the US for a study tour and then to Vietnam for a family trip. When booking I chose the 9th of July for my return from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney, but it turns out my family wants to stay longer so I tried changing the flight to the 14th of July instead.

Does anyone here have experience with changing flight for rtw tickets? I tried my luck with the AA hotline twice and wasted 4h of my life just to be told that they had to book me in the same booking class and that there were no seats available on my first call. On my second call I was told they could rebook me on a different airline but I would have to pay A$ 930 just for the flight from SGN to SYD...

At this point I am thinking of just buying a new one way ticket for half the price...

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[wandering_fred]

Hello everyone,
this is my first post as I don't fly frequently. I recently bought a oneworld rtw ticket as I am going to the US for a study tour and then to Vietnam for a family trip. When booking I chose the 9th of July for my return from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney, but it turns out my family wants to stay longer so I tried changing the flight to the 14th of July instead.

Does anyone here have experience with changing flight for rtw tickets? I tried my luck with the AA hotline twice and wasted 4h of my life just to be told that they had to book me in the same booking class and that there were no seats available on my first call. On my second call I was told they could rebook me on a different airline but I would have to pay A$ 930 just for the flight from SGN to SYD...

At this point I am thinking of just buying a new one way ticket for half the price...

Any advice would be appreciated.

What is the actual fare basis for the ticket? It hopefully is something like xONEx which is the generic code for a OneWorld Explorer ticket. Changes must be handled by the airline that issued the ticket.
Changing dates for a particular routing on those tickets should be able to be done for the airline service charge but yes the corresponding fare class does need to be available though another airline in OW may be used(minor exceptions apply).

Hope that helps with your wandering
Fred

 

[Himeno]

Does anyone here have experience with changing flight for rtw tickets? I tried my luck with the AA hotline twice and wasted 4h of my life just to be told that they had to book me in the same booking class and that there were no seats available on my first call. On my second call I was told they could rebook me on a different airline but I would have to pay A$ 930 just for the flight from SGN to SYD...

Depends on which sort of RTW ticket it is. oneworld has 2 options, the more common continent based xONEx which only allows the use of members of the alliance and the mileage based xGLOBnn which allows a handful of non member airlines.

You are able to change flights freely, provided you don't change ticketed points and subject to availability of the required booking class (L, D or A depending on cabin class). They can book you into a lower cabin class if the needed booking class for your booked cabin isn't available (eg L instead of D). Even if there are still seats available in economy, if they aren't any available in L, you can't change to that flight.

You can change ticketed points and cabin class for a price. Some agents may charge service fees, even for changes that the rules list as free.

Any oneworld airline should in theory be able to make changes to the ticket (at least to their own flights), but in practice that has been getting rarer. I used to be able to get changes made easily by talking to the airline operating the flight I wanted to change. That's been becoming harder. (I once tried to get Malaysian Airlines to change one of their own flights on a LONE4 at their downtown travel center in KUL, and the agent came back telling me to talk to Singapore Airlines [who was not involved with the ticket in any way and isn't even a oneworld member])

 

[Rosh]

What is the actual fare basis for the ticket? It hopefully is something like xONEx which is the generic code for a OneWorld Explorer ticket. Changes must be handled by the airline that issued the ticket.
Changing dates for a particular routing on those tickets should be able to be done for the airline service charge but yes the corresponding fare class does need to be available though another airline in OW may be used(minor exceptions apply).

Hope that helps with your wandering
Fred

This is all that shows up on my booking confirmation.

Since you only mentioned the service charge I assume they shouldn't be charging me over A$ 900 for my SGN to SYD flight. So would you suggest I call the AA hotline again and hope to talk to a more helpful service agent?

 

[Rosh]

Depends on which sort of RTW ticket it is. oneworld has 2 options, the more common continent based xONEx which only allows the use of members of the alliance and the mileage based xGLOBnn which allows a handful of non member airlines.

You are able to change flights freely, provided you don't change ticketed points and subject to availability of the required booking class (L, D or A depending on cabin class). They can book you into a lower cabin class if the needed booking class for your booked cabin isn't available (eg L instead of D). Even if there are still seats available in economy, if they aren't any available in L, you can't change to that flight.

You can change ticketed points and cabin class for a price. Some agents may charge service fees, even for changes that the rules list as free.

Any oneworld airline should in theory be able to make changes to the ticket (at least to their own flights), but in practice that has been getting rarer. I used to be able to get changes made easily by talking to the airline operating the flight I wanted to change. That's been becoming harder. (I once tried to get Malaysian Airlines to change one of their own flights on a LONE4 at their downtown travel center in KUL, and the agent came back telling me to talk to Singapore Airlines [who was not involved with the ticket in any way and isn't even a oneworld member])

Thanks for the info about the operating airline, so far I only tried calling AA as my booking confirmation mentioned them.

My last flight was booked on Qantas code share with Jetstar, so I will try calling Jetsar and Qantas to see if they can help me out, otherwise I might have to buy a ticket from Jetstar directly as it still shows up as available on booking sites and only costs A$ 400 instead of 900+

 

[Cynicor]

What’s the first 3 digits of your ticker number?
That will tell you the ticketing airline.
It’s a global explorer or xGLOB fare so the rules should be readily findable online

 

[Rosh]

What’s the first 3 digits of your ticker number?
That will tell you the ticketing airline.
It’s a global explorer or xGLOB fare so the rules should be readily findable online

It's 001 and in the booking confirmation it does mention that I should contact AA which I have done, but as mentioned they weren't very helpful. The first service agent told me there were no flight available in booking class y and the second one offered me a different flight for more than 900 bucks. I can buy a new one way ticket for half the amount.

I was hoping that someone in this forum had dealt with rescheduling oneworld global explorer tickets and might have some advice on how to go about changing flights.

 

[wandering_fred]

You need to contact the AA round the world desk as general agents do not have adequate experience in these tickets
AA RTW is 1-800-247-3247 (USA number and timings)
They will need your ticket PNR or number.
As far as the replacement flight goes, Expert Flyer can easily suggest what alternatives should have the L class availabilty,
You probably could get someone to do a one time lookup for you.
EDIT: there are no L class on the QF codeshare for the direct flight on 14 July
Connecting through Hong Kong has at least two possibilities
If there are no direct flights and you have not already scheduled 16 flight segments on the ticket (the max allowed) alternate routings should be available for a US$125 change fee.
The Flyertalk (.)com/forum/oneworld-411 website has MANY threads devoted to RTW ticketing issues.
May you continue to be happy in your wandering
Fred

 

[Rosh]

You need to contact the AA round the world desk as general agents do not have adequate experience in these tickets
AA RTW is 1-800-247-3247 (USA number and timings)
They will need your ticket PNR or number.
As far as the replacement flight goes, Expert Flyer can easily suggest what alternatives should have the L class availabilty,
You probably could get someone to do a one time lookup for you.
EDIT: there are no L class on the QF codeshare for the direct flight on 14 July
Connecting through Hong Kong has at least two possibilities
If there are no direct flights and you have not already scheduled 16 flight segments on the ticket (the max allowed) alternate routings should be available for a US$125 change fee.
The Flyertalk (.)com/forum/oneworld-411 website has MANY threads devoted to RTW ticketing issues.
May you continue to be happy in your wandering
Fred

Oh wow. Thank you so much for the help, it is much appreciated.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Hello everyone,
this is my first post as I don't fly frequently. I recently bought a oneworld rtw ticket as I am going to the US for a study tour and then to Vietnam for a family trip. When booking I chose the 9th of July for my return from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney, but it turns out my family wants to stay longer so I tried changing the flight to the 14th of July instead.

Does anyone here have experience with changing flight for rtw tickets? I tried my luck with the AA hotline twice and wasted 4h of my life just to be told that they had to book me in the same booking class and that there were no seats available on my first call. On my second call I was told they could rebook me on a different airline but I would have to pay A$ 930 just for the flight from SGN to SYD...

At this point I am thinking of just buying a new one way ticket for half the price...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Does all the family want to stay longer? Or just some. If only some the PNR needs to be split.
Date changes on the same route are supposed to be at nil cost. Changing airline on the same route also nil. But some airlines charge a service fee.
If on your new date the exact same route is not available and you add a segment so xx_-zzz becomes xx_-www-zzz that is change at US$125, plus any adjustment for taxes & fees. As above, if at the 16 segment limit already you have a problem.
Changing transits<--->stopovers can also result in a new tax claulaton, as some countries have different real taxes for transits vs stopovers.

As an 001 AA ticket far better to deal with AA by a very large margin. You are fortunate in not having to deal with QF.
Best to have found a flight that fits the rules before phoning. How many family members in the PNR/tickets?

 

[serfty]

Date changes on the same route are supposed to be at nil cost. Changing airline on the same route also nil. But some airlines charge a service fee.

To be clear, if a date change alters stopover(s) into transit(s), vice versa or both, even though the airports may be the same, then it is considered a routing change.

 

[Rosh]

To be clear, if a date change alters stopover(s) into transit(s), vice versa or both, even though the airports may be the same, then it is considered a routing change.

I called the rtw hotline wandering fred had mentioned and what you mention seems to be the case for me. My original flight was a direct flight and the alternatives have a stop in either Hong Kong or Kuala Lumpur, it would change the mileage. So I have to pay for that and the $ 125. It seems I can only hope that a seat in L class opens up or buy a one way ticket from SGN. Thank you everyone for your help and input.

 

[wandering_fred]

You mentioned au$930 for the direct flight. Routing through SIN or KUL adds about 400 miles
Unless there are other considerations (exceeding segments or current mileage limit?) , I think I would take the indirect routing and us$125.
Alternatively air fares from SGN to SIN/KUL and onto SYD are "cheap" and a connecting ticket should be a lot less than the Jetstar "fee" for the direct. My son was happy flying Scoot..... or AirAsia.

Happy wandering
Fred

 

[dairyfloss]

I called the rtw hotline wandering fred had mentioned and what you mention seems to be the case for me. My original flight was a direct flight and the alternatives have a stop in either Hong Kong or Kuala Lumpur, it would change the mileage. So I have to pay for that and the $ 125. It seems I can only hope that a seat in L class opens up or buy a one way ticket from SGN. Thank you everyone for your help and input.

Routing via HKG or KUL would at least get you onto a full service carrier in CX, QF or MH... I'd be doing that for USD$125 rather than face a JQ all-nighter! In any event, good luck!

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[Rosh]

You mentioned au$930 for the direct flight. Routing through SIN or KUL adds about 400 miles
Unless there are other considerations (exceeding segments or current mileage limit?) , I think I would take the indirect routing and us$125.
Alternatively air fares from SGN to SIN/KUL and onto SYD are "cheap" and a connecting ticket should be a lot less than the Jetstar "fee" for the direct. My son was happy flying Scoot..... or AirAsia.

Happy wandering
Fred

Oh the indirect routing would cost me A$ 930 + $ 125 fee. Buying a new one way ticket with Jetstar would "only" cost around A$ 400. Thanks for the tip with scoot, I'll look into that.