Some sticky questions re DONE 4 ex JNB

[pmk]

Hi. I am a new member but have often looked at your site. I live in Melbourne. I have purchased a number of LONE/DONE tickets on-line in the past mainly ex AKL but one was ex Hanoi.
I am about to purchase a DONE 4 ex JNB. (Just waiting for AIR Berlin flights to come through on 1 April to the RTW planner).
I understand the ticket rules quite well but obviously not as well as some of your experienced members!!. My questions are:

1. A number of entries on this forum refer to contacting agents or the AA office in the country you are starting your ticket in. I would prefer to just purchase the ticket on-line even if it is a little more expensive. Has anyone been able to purchase a ticket on-line ex JNB successfully?
2. If so did the electronic ticket come through automatically? (My on-line tickets ex AKL have had no issues, though ex Hanoi required me to frontup to Cathay in Hanoi)
3. I have got a valid itinerary starting JNB-LHR-MAD which uses AA code share and prices in USD rather than rand and is a great price. Has anyone done this and if so can you confirm ticket comes out as an AA ticket.
4. If I select on the planning tool an indirect flight, say SEA-BDL and choose the legs that go via DFW am I locked into this routing. i.e. If I had to change dates (date changes are free) could I change to SEA-BDL via ORD without a resultant change to the itinerary and hence a fee.

Thanks for your great forum. Hope someone can reassure me as I have got a fantastic itinerary and an award flight to JNB booked

 

[Danger]

Welcome, pmk.

Question 1. I've booked two DONE4s ex-South Africa (one from Johanessburg and one from Windhoek, Namibia). Both were done using AA's agent in Cape Town. I thoroughly recommend them. You can reach them at [email protected]. You can even construct your trip using the oneworld RTW planner or just the oneworld desktop itinerary planner and email it to them. They'll confirm receipt of your email and get back to you with a quote within three or so days.

Question 2. Even though I booked remotely with the AA agent in Cape Town, I did not have to present in person to their office. I did need to complete a simple single page credit card authorisation form that they emailed me and send a copy of my passport. That's it.

Question 3. Both of my ex-South Africa DONE4s had BA as the first intercontinental flight (both JNB-LHR I think) and booked on the BA flight number. However, from memory, AA owned the ticket and were happy to make any changes. I was also able to easily liaise with the AA agent in South Africa to make changes, even over email.

Question 4. Changes to date, time and carrier are permitted free of charge (subject to an agent or airline's service fee but I've never had to pay that on either DONE4 I've done). However, routing changes incur a cost of, from memory USD125. More importantly, it requires the ticket to be revalidated which means if there has been any changes to taxes or, God forbid, the base fare, you'll be slugged the difference. In your example, you'd be changing the routing, even if you're only using DFW or ORD as transits. It's a good idea to be certain on your routing before booking.

Also, your post wasn't clear but the majority of oneworld carriers only release flights about 330 days out. So if you're looking for an Air Berlin flight on 1 April 2013, you'll need to wait until late April this year at the earliest until they're available.

And if you're game, there's a few of us here (certainly me) who'd be interested in your routing and the USD cost. I am curious, too, as to how you've managed an ex-South Africa fare to be priced in USD rather than ZAR.

 

[pmk]

Wow am I impressed with this forum and to receive a detailed response so quickly. Thank you very much Danger.

You have clarified the routing question 4 perfectly - and also warned me of other possible costs, so thanks.

Sorry re confusion with dates. My trip is planned to commence late May 2012. At the moment you cannot book Air Berlin flights with the RTW planning/booking tool although you can see what flights exists with the timetable option. I believe AIR Berlin come online to the booking tool in 2 days time on 1 April. Am waiting for this as I want to include Reykavic in my itinerary.

Thanks for all the other useful info re booking from the african continent and the agent's name. all very useful.

I would still prefer to use the on-line booking rather than an agent (time, convenience, control) Would be great if I could hear from someone who had used it successfully ex JNB.
Or is there some trap I am not aware of which would warrant using an agent in South Africa rather than the on-line booking tool?

 

[pmk]

Danger you asked how I managed to get quoted in USD instead of RAND. Hope this is of interest to a few of you as I have learned much from all of you.

Selected JNB-LHR-MAD (transit only LHR) as first flights AA664, AA6278. These AA codeshare options instead of BA only came up on a few dates, the price was then returned in USD with low taxes, quite a bit cheaper than the rand option.

I Have noticed the same thing applies (cheaper price, USD price) if you select the 6:05 LAN flight from AKL-SYD

Hope this makes sense. Happy to share my itinerary but at the moment it includes a couple of dummy segments as waiting to use air berlin to be available get to reykavic. (This will be an ecomomy flight but I am more intersted in getting where I want to than maximising status points as a DONE easily renews my platinum status)

 

[serfty]

AA's fuel surcharges are generally much lower than BA's.

This means that AA ticketed itineries are generally less expensive than BA's for the same route.

The online tool uses the marketing carrier of the first segment for the ticketing.

Similar applies for LAN who don't charge fuel surcharges at all.

Posted on a wing and a prayer ...

 

[pmk]

Just wanted to thank DANGER for the contact information re ASA@mindpearl. I tried to book a DONE5 online ex Joberg but the booking failed. It turns out that by selecting AA codeshares from Joberg (which led to a quoted price IN USD) is only valid if you are proceeding directly to USA.
The price was much better than if I booked online with BA as first flight.

I am delighted. The only slight disappointment was the Air Berlin flights to Reyjkavik I was waiting to use are not accessible through the RTW tool.

Thank you again for your wise and generous assistance