Hello Roger,
Nice to see you back online, if only for an instant.
I have an interesting aside for you. You'll recall the difficulty I
had trying to find flights for you from Jamaica to Cuba. Well, I
recently answered a question about American travel to Cuba and found
out not only that it is *generally* prohibited for American citizens,
but also residents in the USA and anyone traveling through the USA en
route to Cuba. To top it off, specific travel agents must be used that
are approved by the US government.
So, you can see why this all appeared to be "blacked out" to me.
However, your current journeys should prove to be a little less
daunting.
I started by establishing a benchmark using Just The Ticket. Business
Class flights from London to Hong Kong had a wide range of prices on
the dates you have chosen. All had at least one connection. The lowest
was £402.00 and connected through Bangladesh on Biman Bangladesh
Airlines. Perhaps more realistic a choice would be AEROFLOT via Moscow
for £550 or a more known carrier (at least to me) with Lufthansa at
£957. This translates into a range of $657 - 1565 on the better buys,
and of course there are flights into the many thousands of pounds
range. But, having established an idea of value, I was eager to leave
the extremely poor web interface that Just the Ticket provides to
navigate their site.
Expedia.com found a low price of $1893 on Emirates Air through Dubai
and a second choice of $3823.73 on Thai Air. Obviously, not the low
price leader. This was for June 10th . I also checked the 11th to find
exactly the same choices. I also checked all of the alternate airports
around London. There were no better deals on Expedia. Adios Expedia.
Orbitz can not process flight fare requests that originate outside of
the US. Pity, best interface yet.
Travelocity, even with Business Class and restrictions still starts at
1890 USD.
These are probably the most popular US travel sites and compared to
the prices at Just The Ticket, they don't fare well (pun intended!).
I decided to search a bit to see where else might be worth a look. And
then quickly decided to try a few phone calls.
Cathay Pacific
I decided to present your trip as London to Cairns with a stopover in
Hong Kong. I think this will actually produce better fares but is very
difficult to check online.
Cathay Pacific closes at 6PM. Does that amaze you as much as me?
United could not help on this trip but suggested that staying on one
carrier would be preferable cost wise. They recommend British Airways
or Qantas. Having looked at the prices online at British, I called
Qantas.
They suggest buying round trip with an open return date back through
the Us that can be used within a year of the start of travel. An
interesting idea and I appreciated their advice. At the moment, I
limited my pricing to one way, but let this idea percolate a bit.
As we investigated further, I found a fabulous deal for you!!!!!!!!
Its called the 'Round the World Fare and includes travel on:
Qantas
British Air
Cathay
Aer Lingus
American Airlines
Finnair
Iberia
Lan Chile and others.
You can make up to 10 legs within a year and all business class for
$4519 plus taxes!
Now here are details on how it works:
You must return to the same airport you started at within one year
from the date of travel. So, if you start at Heathrow on British, you
must return to Heathrow.
You can not change the first leg of the trip. If London-Hong Kong is
booked, you can not change the city. You can cancel for a 10% penalty.
You must book all legs 7 days in advance. So if you wish to leave June
10th, you must do this tomorrow. You will also have to book the
outbound flight from Hong Kong to Cairns as you will be leaving there
before 7 days passes after your arrival.
From there, you can then add and book legs up to a total of 10 ( and
this is a minimum - the agent thought it used to be 20 and could not
verify the actual number this evening) each at 7 day notice. A change
of time or date then has no penalty. A change of destination is $75.
You must go "Round the World" and will have to travel through the US
on your way back to London.
You can go to Thailand or India on this fare and buy silk for the
kids!
Considering one way Business Class from London to Cairns is $7109.68,
this is one amazing deal.
You can book this through Qantas or British Air, but Qantas was so
helpful, I would recommend them as first point of contact.
Roger, I think you may find this to be an amazing value with minimal
restrictions. Do let me know if you need me to drill down further,
uncover more details or if for some reason this package is not
feasible and you require alternate solutions. I do hope this works for
you as it seems like a fabulous travel buy.
Best regards,
-=clouseau's travel=- |
Request for Answer Clarification by
bwll77-ga
on
03 Jun 2003 06:28 PDT
Good Morning Clouseau, good to have you researching my travel
requirements again. Yesterday I was exhausted and went to bed
immediately after posting my ticket requirements. Managed to find the
lad a hugh batch of Dub/Jamaican records at real good value. So had a
very fruitful day. Now 8.15am Tuesday morning Kingston time. Your
excitement at finding that extremely good value travel package is hard
to hide! Regretfully such tickets are not much use to me as I am
continually changing my plans etc. I probably have about 4 round the
world tickets no longer of any use to me due to time lapse, conditions
etc. etc. No more of those tickets for me. But thanks anyway, and I
certainly agree the value is there....if you use it!
Due to my tiredness/laziness last night I considered that a
London/Thailand/HK/Cairns ticket would be too difficult to find for
ordinary GAR's; and subsequently posted the question the way I did.
Now my friend that you are at the reins I have no hesitation in
requesting you find a way to get me from: London to Thailand (or New
Delhi) then on to Hong Kong for 24 hours or so (must be a business day
in HK...as I have banking to do.) ...then on to Cairns...Business
Class all the way. Last night due to the tiredness I suppose I had
decided to let the silk thing go. But they do need the silk and the
silk destinations are in my flight path...so lets see if we can do it.
Leave it with you Clouseau and will check back (hopefully) about 1pm
today. Got to get all these records itemised, packed and off to Fedex
etc. Catch up with you later kind regards and thank you from: Roger
|
Clarification of Answer by
clouseau-ga
on
03 Jun 2003 10:40 PDT
Good morning Roger,
Slept in a bit this morning and just found your clarification. Its
true, I was/am excited at this find.
Since you seem familiar with this concept of "Round the World"
ticketing, perhaps you can explain what pitfall I am not seeing in the
following scenario:
As this ticket is about two thirds of the cost of a just standard
business class flight from London to Australia and would allow you to
travel London, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia and perhaps more, what
would be the downside of using it in this manner and never completing
the trip back to London through the USA? You would still be far ahead
of the game cost-wise even if you then booked new tickets to as yet
unknown destinations from Australia. Is there a penalty I was not
informed of for not completing the trip as it was described to me?
Assuming that there is something else about this, I am happy to find
alternatives and will continue to search at your request.
Are there airlines you prefer not to fly? There are many with which I
have no personal experience such as Aeroflot, Emirates, Pakistani,
etc. Do let me know if there are any you either strongly prefer or
wish to avoid.
Also, how long do you desire to stay in Thailand? I assume we are now
looking for London depart on June 11, Thailand depart several days
later for Hong Kong, 48 hours in Hong Kong and on to Cairns.
I'll monitor for your clarification and continue to seek new options
for you this afternoon.
-=clouseau=-
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
bwll77-ga
on
03 Jun 2003 11:15 PDT
Good afternoon Clouseau. It is right on 1.15 pm Kingston as I write
this brief message. Perhaps the best analagoy I can give for these
"special" tickets like the one you have found is that they are a
little bit like like a smorgsborg luncheon for say $25 per person (eat
what you like) within a certain limited time frame. Excellent value
for a larger person and/or a person with a real healthy appitite. But
for someone on a diet or a light eater those smorgsborgs are a bit of
a "trap" and dont really represent true value.
The ticket you have found is a lot like that. On face value it looks
great! But in reality, I have found I never quite get around to using
them like you are supposed to. As I indicated earlier I have several
of them (expired)...one even being a First Class Ticket around the
world. The problem is you have to keep going in the one direction,
this and that etc etc. The bottom line is I just dont like them. They
dont suit my style of travel.
I find it better to just purchase a ticket at the time I want to
travel for the best price I can find at the time. Just like right now.
I am flying into London and will, one way or the other, purchase a
ticket to where I wsant to go when I need to.
Your "guesstimates" are pretty spot on. I would probably need at least
3/4 days in Thailand or India for the silk; and as long as I am in
Hong Kong on a business day. That would be great. If you could
finalize it for me on that basis I would appreciate it and apologise
for my inability to share your enthusiasm for the (so called) "value
package". The date out of London is also flexible. Will leave it with
you and look forward to your next posting.
Thanking you from: Roger
|
Clarification of Answer by
clouseau-ga
on
03 Jun 2003 11:27 PDT
Ok, Roger. I am on it.
Give me a few hours to continue the research and I shall be back to post.
-=clouseau=-
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
bwll77-ga
on
03 Jun 2003 12:08 PDT
Hi again Clouseau,
Glad you have the idea of what I want/need.
In an effort to explain myself further. Allow me to respectfully suggest
that a good starting point is the 33% discounted Cathay Pacific Business
Class ticket London to Cairns via Hong Kong quoted at 1139 Brithish Pounds.
That's approx USD$1850.00
So that's all I need/want to spend to get back to Cairns. (USD1850.00)
Why spend 3 or 4 thousand when I Ican get home for under two thousand??
Problem is that I have been unable to get "justtheticket.com" to reply
to any of my emails to confirm that this is a genuine offer! And/or if I
can stop over 24 hours in Hong Kong. For the moment let's assume it is
a genuine offer and that I can stopover in Hong Kong 24 hours.
Analogy: Why spend $25.00 on a smorgosbourg (or 5 star)luncheon when my
appetite will be satisfied and my pocket less strained with a burger from
BurgerKing. I am currently in a so called "5-star" hotel yet quite often I
wander up the road a couple of hundred yards to BurgerKing where I purchase
a Junior Cheese Burger. Quite tasty, made with lots of fresh salad and very
satisfying. I am impressed. Never had BurgerKing before. I think they leave
Maca's way behind. Good value, tasty and satisfying. And all for less than
USD$5.00 Now if only we can find similar value in an airline ticket.
In closing this little clarification note Clouseau allow me to indicate that
I am ever so fortunate not to have financial problems or limitations. Having
said that I dont think it is "petty" of me to look for value if it is there
to find! If it is not there what the heck..... I'll pay what I have to...
to travel when I want to in the style I want to. A classic example is that
I have just recently upgraded my Business Class ticket Kington to London
to first class. For the simple reason I have 4 extra suitcases full of cigars,
which with just a modicum of good luck will go through first class without
any (or very little) excess baggage costs. The USD$750 upgrade cost will be
less than the extra baggage costs if I stayed Business Class and paid the
excess baggage costs. Note: I plan to repack this excessive luggage in London
and send it on as freight or unaccompanied luggage. That's something else I
have to tackle and if you are interested I may well post a special question
for you Clouseau in regards to that. Over and out for now and I await your
next posting. Kind regards from: Roger
|
Clarification of Answer by
clouseau-ga
on
03 Jun 2003 12:45 PDT
Hello again Roger,
Here is a bit of fresh information on today's travel inquiries. I'll
detail my progress as I go:
I first called Air New Zealand who recommended I call Thai Airways.
Air NZ had approx a £5300 fare, but thought that could be bettered
substantially by Thai.
As I am finding, Thai said the best they could do from a call (not
passenger) originating form the US is about $ 8,147. BUT, they claim
there are special fares called Ex-Charter that can only be arranged
from a travel agent in the UK. They thought these would be VERY
inexpensive and even if they were booked as London Bangok round trip,
then Bangok Brisbane with a stop in Hong Kong and the return flight
from Bangok went unused, you would find this to be very preferential
price-wise. But, these can only be quoted from the UK and you must ask
for Ex-Charter flight rates.
I have email in to www.travelbag.co.uk that advertises great fares,
but I fear they might not reply until tomorrow.
I next called several US travel agents. For example, Discover
Wholesale Travel in Irvine, California. Here I learned some very
interesting information that was alluded to in my last travel search
for you:
US travel agents can not legally book travel that originates outside
of the US. Once here, they can takeover and often, for example, have
Japanese visitors book flights to Hawaii ROUND TRIP and then never use
the return leg ticket and then pick up with bargain flights arranged
in the US including another ROUND TRIP ticket from the US back to
Japan. But, as explained, it is actually against the law to ticket
when it originates from outside the USA.
The airlines themselves can arrange this travel from their USA
offices, but as explained to me, it will be at least double the cost
of using a wholesale travel agent. So, my calling Qantas, Cathay,
British, Thai, etc from the US will do you little good, Roger.
However, Wholesale Travel has an associate that they have worked with
for many years located near London that they thought would be able to
arrange very competitive travel for you not only for this trip, but
ongoing travel. They suggested you email her directly at:
Toni Sheehy
toni.sheehy@tq3.uk.co and/or
toni.sheehy@phoenixtravel.co.uk
So, it seems that either establishing a relationship with someone like
Toni Sheehy, calling the airlines in the UK like Thai and requesting
Ex-Charter rates or perhaps requesting a Google Researcher that is
either UK based or in the country of your current originating flight
needs would be best for finding advantageous fares.
I'd be happy to actually continue to find airline quotes for you from
the US offices of the airlines, but as mentioned these would not be
cost effective. I think the above solutions will serve you much better
than I am able to from California.
I hope these latest discoveries have provided value for you and
explain why this has proven to be a difficult task for a US based
researcher. Do let me know if you wish me to investigate anything
further for you.
Best,
-=clouseau=-
PS. Just noticed your latest RFC.
You do need to try Inn and Out Burger! Far superior to Burger King in
my humble opinion.
And I don't think it is petty at all to seek to pay as little as
possible for products and services. I do the same. Unfortunately in
this case, being based in the US is a distinct limitation on the
information I have available for your travel needs. I'm sorry my
search for fares was not more fruitful, but perhaps the introduction
to Ms. Sheehy might be of long term benefit to you.
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