Help needed with Circle Asia and South West Pacific Fare

[Timtammi]

Hi there all

I'm hoping some of you experts out there can help me. We have recently expanded our business into Asia and we need to make an extensive run through in September to visit customers. This is going to be a regular trip so I want to work out the best way to do it, minimising cost and maximising QF ff points and status credits.

The cities we need to visit are SIN, KUL, SGN, HKG, TPE, PVG, PEK, ICN, MNL and it will all be ex MEL. We are not tied into any real order but want to avoid unnecessary flying unless it really makes sense from a FF SC point of view.

I came across the above fair which I think will work and I have signed up for Expert Flyer to help me. I have tried a few different combinations but am having trouble making it all work. I know the max is 8 segments (what counts as a segment, if a flight is not direct but goes via a another city is that 2 segments? or is each flight number a segment?) I also see another rule that says you can only buy 5 segments initially (the extra 3 are extra) and they cant be bought in country of origin? How does this work?

This will all be done in economy I'm afraid, thats all we can afford, small business and all. It will be done in mid-late September.

Once we work out an itinerary that works for us we will probably do it 2-3 times per year. At the moment Japan is not part of it but from September next year it will be.

Any suggestions to point me in the right direction would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Timtammi

[Dave Noble]

If you book a through flight such as SYD-LHR on QF2 , this would be 1 segment even though the plane stops in BKK . If you book it as 2 sectors SYD-BKK BKK-LHR, then this would be 2 segments

Looking at the fare rules, it says that a maximum of 8 flight segments are permitted; I cannot see anything that suggests that only 5 can be purchased initially

The detailed rules are given at http://www.oneworld.com/content/libr..._24jul2007.pdf

Based on 8 sectors max, I think it will be hard to fit all those locations in during 1 trip without purchasing other sectors

Dave

[jasonja3]

As I understand it (and I am no expert) each flight number will count as a segment, others here will be able to clarify this.

Segments are limited to 8, no additional are available. What you will need to purchase is additional stopovers at US$100ea as the 17000m fare only has 5, and the 13000m fare three..

Because you are limited to 8 segments, I would be looking to purchase some seperate tickets to make up the additional segments required. eg hkg-tpe-mnl-hkg or sin-kul-sin, then hkg-mnl-hkg. Remember also that a surface sector is counter as a segment.

You will find some difficulty getting around China on Oneworld, and remember that Cathay code shares (ie: CX flight number but code share with KA)do not earn points. The problem will go later in the year when Dragon Air joins Oneworld.

Using EF is a good start to working out your intin. I have attached the Oneworld fare rules for the Circle Asia fare. There is also a Star Alliance circle asia fare which might suit you, but I know very little about this. Once again other here may be able to help.

Good luck!!

[Timtammi]

Thanks for that guys. The detailed rules are helpful too. I did realise we have more than 8 sectors so knew we would have to buy some extra tickets to make it work. I thought if we made it the shortest most obvious ones then we would minimise extra costs.

Does anyone have any suggestions about suggested routings to include the above cities and work (with minimal extras) for the above fare? Or any other fare that anyone could suggest?

We do prefer to stay with OW airlines if possible. We are QF Bronze and Silver now and want to maximise our chance to getting as high as possible, plus we are QP members and like to be able to use the lounge as much as possible. I know right now we cant unless we are actually flying QF but if we can get higher in OW status we will be able to access the other OW lounges as well.

We work very hard in our own business and trips like this are exhausting, the above itinerary is going to done in approx 2 weeks with multiple meetings in each city.

Thanks again

Timtammi

[simongr]

Have you had a look at mileage monkey

MileageMonkey 0.95013

If you play around with the point-to-point option it could give you a route.

You could tyhen download the oneworld timetables program and you could look up flights that fit into the routing.

It will be a laborious process but shouldnt be too hard

[Evan]

Also Cathay (CX) have some multistop around Asia fares i have used in the past, books into L class if you check in expert flyer and L class is usually reasonably available.

I am not exactly sure what the actual fare is called but you don;t need to cly only CX, i have included QF legs in the fare.
Seem to remember something like Asia pass ??

E

[Mal]

Originally Posted by Evan

Also Cathay (CX) have some multistop around Asia fares i have used in the past, books into L class if you check in expert flyer and L class is usually reasonably available.

Asia Passport:

http://downloads.cathaypacific.com/c...-8_14Feb07.pdf

Not sure it fit's the OP's requirements though as it is pretty heavily restricted on the number of sectors.

[Timtammi]

Thanks again everyone for the input.

Could someone who understands better than I do how to interpret fare rules please look at this and see if it would work for the Circle Asia and South West Explorer fare (see fare conditions very kindly attached by previous poster).

MEL-SIN
SIN-KUL then KUL-SGN (sidetrip not included in above fare)
SGN-HKG then HKG-MNL-HKG (sidetrip not included in above fare)
HKG-PVG then PVG-PEK (sidetrip not included in above fare)
PEK-SYD
SYD-MEL (not sure if this can be included or not under fare rules).

I count this as 5 stopovers (rules say where a passengers disembarks at one point and re-emabrks at another point it counts as single stopover) and 5 or 6 segments (depending on whether you can include Sydney).

Mileage I come up with 12955 using the great circle mapper and including surface segments between KUL-SGN and PVG-PEK so it would fall under the 13000 required for the lower fare with one stopover requiring to be purchased at an extra $100 USD?

Have I missed anything? Misinterpreted something? It was hard to find flights that fitted and were OW and this also gives 2 long QF ones thereby maximising ff points - PEK-SYD and MEL-SIN. Most of the rest that would fall into the fare would be on CX and I think would earn .5 points?

What about status credits how would that work?

Thanks in advance

Timtammi

[Timtammi]

Ooops, just realised I've left out Taipei.

*sigh*

Back to the drawing board...

[jasonja3]

Originally Posted by Timtammi

Ooops, just realised I've left out Taipei.

*sigh*

Back to the drawing board...

In TPE Flounge at the moment in the middle of a Circle Asia Fare....

Apart from leaving out TPE, your itin. works, so you are on the right track.

The hard part of visting Taiwan as there are no direct flights between Taiwan and China, so you really need to route through Japan or Korea after visiting China, or include TPE as a seperate ticket to your main fare because TPE and HKG are different regions. This has been a difficulty of mine also.

I think you are correct with the CX points and your SC earn will be discount economy

Let us know how you go with your revised itin.