SelectSys

I just checked on my application and I saw availability of Ubers from the cruise port. The fare is 44 pesos from the port exit to “Papas & Beer” at the current time.

Wow! I had no idea it had been that long. It can't be a real priority as while constrained route planning/scheduling is a hard problem it at least is a well understood problem for the airlines. Maybe they don't really want it to work... Okay Seems only fair for AA. Fortunately, more and more flights seem to be codeshared these days. That is what I thought. It really is a trade-off in terms of cost versus convenience. Thanks again for all your help. These tickets really look to be a good deal if you can plan ahead and have sufficient time/resources to travel.

Thanks so much!. I started punching in various departure countries into the Oneworld tool. The tool will list base prices at the outset of a planning session. I did note that a small reduction is possible for starting in Canada as opposed to the US. Central and South America are worse. I noticed that as well. It seemed anecdotally that Australia and New Zealand have high fees. London Heathrow and maybe BA are best avoided as well. Thanks again! There is really lots to think about. I guess once you are done planning, the tool ships the itinerary off to the airline for ticketing. I am not sure if it's best to do this or simply call the airline directly once you actually have a planned trip. BTW - It's a good thing Oneworld calls their planning tool a "beta." It is super finicky and really doesn't work all that well. It really takes effort to get a valid route with actual flights assigned.

Thanks for this tip. I have been playing with Oneworld's trip planner to find a RTW ticket and I like your idea of embedding some US domestic travel as part of the overall trip as well as initiating the trip outside the US. Do you know of other locations to try above and beyond Oslo? Thanks in advance for any help on this subject.

This makes sense. Especially if as in the post below, it seems like 4 ports were planned in 7 days. I think the reason is exactly as stated - fuel efficiency (i.e., lower ship's cost.) 3 ports is normal for a 7 day cruise on the west coast. The ship would need to be really moving to get another port in the allotted time.

To the far end of the tourist zone is about a mile walk all in. I picked "Papas and Beer" as the end destination even though I would personally recommend to go around the corner to "Hussong's." The Ensenada tourist area is extremely safe and even more so during the day.

Total BS. Exactly

I am going to ignore the chatter about immigration. Please realize that your friend is not alone. I know someone from a country that came to the US seeking asylum and has been waiting 8 years to get their case heard. In all of this time they have not been able to leave the US without jeopardizing their asylum claim. It was only by filing a lawsuit against USCIS were they able to finally get a hearing to consider their case and that is still about a year away. I would not be so sure of this. Anything relating to what you posted would only be relevant to someone who entered under an I-131 process. Asylum cases and refugees use a different process. To the OP - this topic more than anything else I have seen on CC really requires specific knowledge. I wouldn't even tempt anything without consulting a real immigration expert such as an attorney or agent. Anything you read hear is useless and is for entertainment purposes only. BTW - In my opinion, which is worth nothing, your friend should simply stick to the terms of their entry conditions and not subject themselves to additional risk. The good news is that the US is a large country and has many travel options.

Innovators and disrupters sometimes make existing competitors go away all together as well as creating entirely new business models.

The logistics of getting a normal transatlantic cruise to coincide with a wedding in Iceland would likely difficult. There are some sites on the internet that list all of the scheduled cruise ship stops on the net which you can probably google up looking for search terms like "cruise ship calendar." Of course what happens if the Iceland port stop gets cancelled by weather? A ferry service also exists from Denmark to Iceland if you really want to go by sea to Iceland. My own idea would be to first go on an Ireland cruise which is most often combined with a UK cruise too and then simply fly to the wedding and then home. In all cases I would separate the Irish portion of the trip from the wedding in terms of planning. I personally would look at simply doing Ireland by land as well to get a more immersive experience than is possibly by cruise. Good luck.

Call me a "Bufadora hater," but in my opinion this is a completely forgettable waste of time. The one benefit would be the enormous number of souvenir stands hawking their merchandise to the tourists if that's what you want. BTW - The traffic can make the drive even longer at times.

It was already started at least on the flight to San Diego in premium economy. I flew home from the UK on Monday and it was being served. And as a corollary the airfares can be cheaper too in comparison to peak holiday travel days making those runs more affordable too.

Two of my cousins are named Cathy. Both are great people. Regardless of who Cathy is, I am sorry to be so offensive to you with a typo. The bottom line is that the airline based in Hong Kong is has lots of issues even though they turned a first profit this year. This airline's problems might be more challenging when the Chinese carriers start flying more normal schedules. I am not sure of the UK, but the Chinese airline rights to the US are and remain highly limited in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. And none of this includes the political risk of being a Hong Kong based business. https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/US-and-China-agree-to-double-air-connectivity Over the long run the market does a pretty good job. Certainly better than policy makers who attempt to intervene and generally waste other people's money. BTW - here is an interesting perspective on Qantas from an investor board that I like. What I find relevant is that the company has really squeezed on the both the operating and capital cost front to turn a profit and is now looking at a big outlays just to maintain capacity over the coming years. Add in some additional economic headwinds and things could be even tougher for the airline. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4591886-qantas-is-not-the-long-term-buy-it-appears

Seems kind of self serving from a pilot's point of view. Good thing that he works for a "too big to fail" airline! Given all that I hear regarding looming and actual pilot shortages, I don't expect too many issues for the pilots. Thanks for that qualification. I had never looked at this although it explains why lounge access is granted to OW members flying on Fiji through Nadi. I guess this merger could put additional pressure on Fiji if it comes to pass. I already do this. It's more a question of changing focus. Some are, some aren't. Probably the worst is Cathy Pacific. Malaysian while returning to profitability is still a shell of itself. We will see how it goes for Qantas. I suppose you believe yourself to be some kind of market sage? Regardless, history is littered with powerful companies that guessed wrong and are now on the scrap heap or carry on in a much reduced capacity. Sure, what bridge are you trying to sell? I love recurring income from long-lived assets where tolls exist.

Interesting, but not too surprising given the risks and rewards of carrying paid passengers. I guess the only "working freighter" carrying passengers would be the Aranui 5 which is also a cruise ship too. Anything else out there like the Aranui 5?

This is key. I always tell people to avoid the tourist pharmacies for better pricing and perhaps quality too. Stick to a well known chain and you are good.

They are also trying to establish a new brand at the high end of the market. It could be they are trying to "buy their way" into the market in the short run, but being private certainly helps. I believe that their mass market line, MSC, was very aggressive on pricing when they upped their presence in the US market. Is this still the case as they have become more known in a market? This is exactly what I believe - The cruise lines are intentionally trying to drive passengers into an upsell while maintaining a low base fare. On our last cruise, the only good meals we ate onboard were in the specialty dining restaurants. Everything else was average at best.

Perhaps on some, but certainly not on all or even on most. I have sat on too many WN flights with stops were one group of passengers gets on pretty much after the last group left. They pick up trash and do a passenger count and that's about it. I doubt this type of cleaning happens for aircraft flying through major hubs with only an hour or so on the ground. Perhaps some deeper cleaning is done at the end of so many cycles, but I just can't seeing it happen on every flight.

This is true. It is also true that profits invite competition. I ask myself all the time is it worth it to continue on with Oneworld? If I was starting from scratch now, Skyteam would be a better match for me. Especially so with the almost complete disappearance of Oneworld from South America. QF is not without its challenges. There was quite a bit of uproar locally, including by investors, against the company when I was in Australia during November. The market, which is a predictor of longer run performance hasn't been as kind to the Qantas as of late and it would have been worse without the recent buyback. At least they have some cash to buy themselves out of their problems, but the general competitive market will be putting pressure on them too. https://www.ft.com/content/be9beb57-05da-4fc9-9c05-e6fe2ac3510a

Whoops - substituting a state abbreviation for an airline!

So this policy was started in the name of "environmental protection" with the consequence of new airlines serving the country taking the hit in term of reduced slots which takes on an anti-competitive dimension as well. It could be that the new Dutch government, which is trying to be formed now, will push back on this and other similar policies like farming restrictions which contributed to the loss of the elections by the existing government.

As both a San Diegan and Oneworld member, I am really interested in this combination. AK has really grown its service in San Diego. I think that AK is now #1 in terms of nonstop destinations from SAN ahead of WN. This deal will certainly be interesting to watch. It's a good thing they are leaving the two brands alone as the fleets and services provided are so different. Better schedule coordination may be enough to get substantial benefits for the combined company along with back office savings. The good news for AK is the transaction appears to be fairly low risk as they funding it from existing cash and aren't issuing any new debt to make the deal happen. I think a chance at the Asian / Pacific market as a long term play is a big part the deal rationale. How many times have we all heard that this is the Asian century? Hawaiian offers the chance at reasonable cost connecting service between North America and many parts of the Asia Pacific region. Two points: 1) While they don't serve Seattle, Fiji Airways - an existing Oneworld member - does provide some of this connectivity from the West Coast. That said, I believe the AK/HA combination has the potential to be much larger in terms of feeder traffic if the demand really exists from the Western US and maybe Canada too. 2) Oneworld truly seems to be the worst of the alliances right now. Both Qantas and Cathy Pacific are really hurting right now. The prices their carriers charge almost always seem to get beat - at least for me - by other the other alliances if searching by price. I would be curious what others think of Oneworld versus the other alliances.

I think the main reason the airlines don't care about this practice is that it is possible to implement the strategy outside of a single carrier - e.g., outer ticket AA and inner ticket DL. I really think this may be why Saturday night stays went away as consumer behavior drove the airlines to change their ticketing model. While I have never done hidden city ticketing, I have thrown away a dummy return ticket for a better price which I guess did effect other passenger pricing to some small extent.

I have been shopping of late and have noticed that SAS is really competitive right now on price. I am thinking it may be they are desperate to raise cash by year end as part of its ongoing bankruptcy process. Maybe the move from Star to SkyTeam may also be part of it as well in terms of reduced passenger volumes. I believe SAS and their new investors (including KLM-AirFrance) will figure this out and remain flying and so purchasing a ticket right now may be a really good deal. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/swedish-airline-sas-secures-eu-approval-915-million-recapitalisation-2023-11-29/

Somewhat interesting thread. I am not sure how well the OP's strategy works, but attempts at the "gaming" of any system are always present. I recently posted a thread on my attempts to get a better price by booking a nested tickets. Is that bad? Does it effect other passengers? I doubt it, but don't know. Perhaps "nested ticket" purchases are the reason why airlines eliminated Saturday night stay over requirements? Regardless, everyone should expect people will do what they can to maximize their benefit. If the impacts are significant enough we should also expect the airlines to react just like casinos not permitting card counting. Just my $.02