RTW in the age of a weak dollar.

[dragonman]

I have been buying DONE 4 trips for years now. The weakness of the AUD and the cost of repositioning have me thinking I might have to buy this one out of Australia and let Qantas manage it.

Has anyone had experience with QF managing the fare? Do they charge for date changes? Is it worth trying to get AA to ticket it? Any advice appreciated.

 

[Danger]

My last DONE4 was purchased through QF. It was ex-Mozambique and cost me a smidge over AUD4500. It was booked literally in the dying hours of the fare, before it was pulled. In fact, I actually had the fare on hold while I was in the UAE. I woke up the next morning to find the fare pulled. Qantas honoured it (I was floored); the same fare I had on hold with AA was not honoured.

My experience with Qantas is that they really don't know the rules of the oneworld Explorer product. It is ridiculously convoluted to begin with and there's no dedicated agents or desk to handle it. That's where AA is ahead, although still not without its faults. On my last fare it took nearly an hour to convince the agents that while Morocco is geographically in Africa, it's considered part of Europe/Middle East for the purposes of the fare product. It's right there in the fare rules but it still took a hell of a lot of effort to convince them.

For us in Australia, I think Japan and possibly the Philippines are probably cheaper origins, even considering positioning flights.

 

[pyffii]

I have been buying DONE4 ex JNB for the past 8 years and with the movement of the Rand against to AUD its become a bit too expensive so this year we completed a DONE4 ex Japan and have just paid for another DONE4 ex Japan for next year....In all cases I have used the AA RTW desk and in the main they are brilliant especially the longer serving consultants so no hestition in using them...QF are hopeless unless you strike it lucky with a seasoned consultant....the advantage for us in creating a DONE4 outside Austtralia is that we get an eastern seaboard domestic trip included so in our case MEL-BNE-MEL which is a definite bonus for us and helps offset the increased pricing....The base price is almost the same everywhere so the ticket price becomes in reality a currency play....JNB was about $500 cheaper than Japan but the cost of repositioning outweighed any potential savings