Mistake Fare – One Way First Class Originating in Myanmar is Back!

by Gary Leff

Some months ago there was a major mistake fare where you could fly first or business class direct cheap as long as your trip started in Yangon, Myanmar.

Sounds crazy to many, but frequent flyers from all over the world have been descending upon that country to start trips.

Now – crazy thing that it is – someone has pointed out on Milepoint that the fare is back.

It appears to you fly between Yangon (RGN) and cities in Eastern Canada for under $600. Here’s business class on ANA from Yangon to Tokyo and then continuing on in Swiss first class to Zurich and then JFK, with American (economy) up to Montreal.

One could of course just get off in New York, or without checked bags in Zurich if one preferred.

Getting the Yangon – Tokyo flight on ANA, operated just 3 days a week, is key to making this work.

I’ve managed to price this in business class on Travelocity using multi-city search but I haven’t been able to price it on a live, bookable site in first class yet. (The screen shot above is from the ITA Matrix.) So this is a work in progress, I play to play with the various country Expedia websites next.

Bear in mind that a visa is required for Myanmar.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Pingbacks

Comments

  1. There’s no data in that thread on MP. Did you perhaps the advantage of the fact that you’re an admin on the site to read the previously edited post and share details which had been redacted??

  2. Great, now that you outed this on the blogosphere, Round 3 will certainly be shut down much sooner. Well done!!!

  4. @Seth – I do not have any ability to see redacted posts. That post, and the replies, clued me into what was going on and I started searching fares.

  5. If you see your deal pull the trigger people.. If its gone in an hour or a week shouldn’t make a difference.. Book ur flights or don’t, this is a blog about travel deals folks, if you don’t like it, don’t click!

  7. @Frank – for what it’s worth, writing about travel that starts in Myanmar is unlikely to drive ‘clicks’. 🙂

    @Rab I worked on this for like 2 hours before posting it. It was posted on a public frequent flyer community, Milepoint. But that was just the clue that it was out there. I had to deduce everything for myself, that took quite a bit of time. Sounds like a whole bunch of other people were aware of this…. well, if you had shared it with me, under a request not to share further, then I wouldn’t have. I’ve never broken that sort of trust. But when I have to figure it out for myself, I may go ahead and post it.

    Kinda makes the complaint crew wish y’all had sent me an email to let me know about this, no?

  9. Gary, if you click through on travelocity it will book the exact flights you show in A class (F).

  12. I see the dates/itinerary I want pricing out at $567, but I can’t seem to book on travelocity. Any tips?

  14. Gary, apologies…I see the fare on the ITA matrix (exact same routing as your screenshot, but just different day) but can’t replicate on Travelocity using multi-city option

  16. I’m having trouble pulling this up on ITA. I’m typing in RGN and YUL but nothing like this comes up, all way higher priced…any pointers?

  20. Same routing, made sure to leave RGN on MWF and clicked through on Travelocity, C on ANA to NRT, F NRT-ZRH-JFK, Y AA JFK-YUL.

    Would love NRT-LHR NH F and ZRH-JFK or YUL LX F on same itinerary if any body is able to find it

  24. Just booked as well for 734 but no ticket number as well, hope it’s good. Thanks for the heads up Gary.

  25. On the issue of the visa — I was in Yangon in August and there was a visa-on-demand counter in the arrivals section. Don’t know if it’s operational or only offered to certain passport holders (I had my visa already from the consulate in NYC).

  26. just booked the direct ZRH-YUL to shave 200.00 off the fare 566 a/i for what should be a boat load of *A miles….that is if it tickets.

  32. Thanks gary! Also a shout out to colpuck. Followed your lead to reduce the price by $200. Booked on Travelocity. Waiting to see if this tickets. We will be in Australia so just a little hop, skip and jump to get to Myanmar.

  36. Just booked on travelocity, searching each segment individually in “multiple destinations”. I searched business class and it actually gave me results for First on the Swiss segments saying “business class is not available”. I think the trick is just picking the right dates–I couldn’t get it for Gary’s dates above but the following Monday worked. Meanwhile, the last leg only gave AC options, not AA, but I wouldn’t plan to take that part anyway. Same here though, no ticket number yet.

  37. To clarify, I booked RGN-NRT-ZRH-JFK-YUL starting 7/3/2013, LX F on the 2 long hauls. On travelocity US, ticket is not yet issued, $597

  41. Just curious to see if anyone has gotten this to actually ticket? I booked but have yet to receive an email from travelocity. It doesn’t even show up under my trips, but yet I can pull it up if I use the trip look up function with the trip id.

  42. Booked RGN-NRT-FRA-ZRH-YUL with NRT-FRA and ZRH-YUL in F. LH A380 from NRT-FRA. NH 777 was also an option but I couldn’t get it to book. No ticket #s yet.

    Anyone know the cancellation policy for Travelocity? I couldn’t get my preferred dates to book so I booked another week then got my preferred dates to work on Expedia.

  44. Finally kick through on tcity.ca, having a trip to China next march so this is quite a tricky catch. Finger crossed.

  50. just booked RGN-NRT-ZRH(21 hr layover)-YUL one-way on Travelocity

    RGN-NRT on ANA Business Class
    NRT-ZRH on SWISS First Class
    ZRH-YUL on SWISS First Class

    can’t wait to try this all out for $566.79 a.i !

    1 Adult: $130.00
    Taxes + Airline & Agency Fees: $436.79
    Total: $566.79

    THANKS GARY!

  54. I had to avoid LX-operated flights to get it to price to ticketing presumably.

    Swiss may have become aware of this as their inventory dropped like a fly hit by a hard fly swatter

  57. @guwonder, my ticketed was issued by swiss, so they don’t even have the pleasure of billing someone else for this debacle.

  58. was able to book RGN-NRT-ZRH-JFK-YUL leaving 5/29/2013 on Travelocity for $715. No email or ticket # yet.

  62. Colpuck said,
    @KenY, it is pricing on MH/RJ if you are in OW but only in J.

    ——————–

    What is the routing? Thanx!

  63. Booked! Sadly, if this sticks, I will have to cancel my SQ F award (NOT A380). Oh well, I prefer LX F over SQ F anyways.

  64. Booked, will see if they honour it 😀

    RGN-NRT-ZRH-JFK-YYZ-YUL $734

    Had a hard time even getting a reservation done, on travelocity was failing at the last step. Finally found some dates in June that stuck.

  65. @Gene just got May on Travelocity following flight advice above

    @Colpuck any tips on an OW itinerary? I’m trying to validate on RJ in J but haven’t found the magic flights yet.

  70. Got a confirmation from Travelocity, got an e-ticket number issued by SWISS and it pulls up fine on their website…

  73. @Chris – How long did the ticket numbers take? I’ve been waiting over 40 minutes with no email from travelocity?

  74. @Chris, I know someone who got RGN-KUL-AMM-YUL to price out. That’s all I know. RGN-KUL on MH, KUL-AMM-YUL on RJ.

  76. Thanks for this one, got 2 tix for president’s day week w/ my son. Booked a UA SFO-ICN-BKK positioning flight, will use regional budget airlines from there.

  78. Got a OW to book end of April: RGN-HKG-LHR-ORD-YUL for 633.19 ticketed by CX on Travelocity. RGN-HKG is via KUL on MH and CX then CX to LHR and AA to ORD.

  80. @SOLTATIO Mine probably took 45-60 min if I had to guess.

    @Colpuck Thanks. I figured it out – I was overcomplicating it.

  82. Mine still hasn’t ticketed on Travelocity? Can replicate it on Expedia for a few days later. Maybe I must pull the trigger on that and then cancel the travelocity one if they don’t come through?

  85. First Class (A) inventory is going fast on the NRT-ZRH leg – now booking into business (C) at higher price $672.

  86. Travelocity leads me through the whole process, to the final booking screen, and then says “one or more flights could not be confirmed”. Same thing with other dates.

  87. I only get Thai or Korean offered on Travelocity for Sat, Mon departures (3/9 or 3/11). How do I get ANA offered?

  90. Just got Expedia to ticket it in 5 minutes. Still nothing from Travelocity. Guess I will cancel that within 24 hours.

  91. Colpuck, thanks for the heads up! Too bad MH doesn’t earn MQMs on DL and RJ only gives 1x EQM and 0.25x bonus on AA. This just doesn’t work as a MR, and not sure if it’s worth it even if I wanted to do a AA Plat challenge. 🙁

  92. Booked the RGN-NRT-ZRH-JFK-YUL (NH J-LX F-LX F-AC Y/J) prototype on lastminute.co.uk, 5.29.13 departure, GBP 456. Got a confirmation email within a few minutes. No E-tix number, but a booking code that works on Swiss.com. Thanks, Gary!

  93. Finding RGN-KUL-FRA (on Malaysia J)-FRA-YUL (Srilankan codeshare of AC Y)for $258 for some Saturdays in Feb.

  95. Got it to price for $8-900 on KLM, but at 9500 miles on those legs, even with a Z class fare at 1.5x MQM and 2.5x total miles banked with elite bonus, it just doesn’t cut it…

  96. I started the Milepoint thread, but I wanted to work out the bugs before I posted further. For people trying to book various itineraries, try routing through RGN-HAN- and on or RGN-NRT and on, via Europe and JFK. You can route yourself on Qantas A380 F, ANA A380 F, Thai A380 F, and lots of other options. I found availability on Swiss, Alitalia, Delta, BA, Thai, ANA, Finnair, Cathay and Singapore. And I think a few others I’m forgetting.

    Myself, I went for a $333 itinerary that includes AF A380 in First from CDG-JFK. It’s a great option for Skyteam folks, RGN-HGN-CDG-JFK-YUL.

    For the adventurous, it’s the same base fare of $115 to St. Johns, Newfoundland, and Halifax.

  99. Thank you wildway. Can you provide the routing you used to get AF A380F and Qantas A380F ? On whose stock are these tickets issued (what airline gets stuck with the bill?)

  100. This only works from RGN? I have to find way to get to rgn from west coast? What would be the cheapest wAy to Rgn from lax?

  101. @gary, we booked three for Jan 20th $258 RGN-KUL-FRA business, FRA-YUL economy, but I’ll take it. Thanks for the heads up as usual, couldn’t get the F to work, expedia may have solved it as NONE of their fares were showing up, Travelocity still appears to be alive but after “roaming alone” episode I have my doubts until it’s ticketed and in my inbox.

    Thanks again, fingers crossed!

  102. @wildway,

    Thanks for the OP, and the HAN alternative- are there particular days of the week for the RGN – HAN flight to work?

  104. I went RGN-HAN-CDG-JFK-YUL, and i saw a lot of Sunday and Thursday availability. (1/24 for me). I used month long ITA searches to find the dates that worked, RGN-YUL, with advanced routing codes thrown in there to explore various options.

    I note that I was only able to price a small portion of what I actually found on ITA. But when it was working, it was RGN-HAN-SIN-LHR, which yielded the Qantas A380 F options. And Singapore, as well.

    But there’s a huge range of available routes, at least as far as ITA is concerned. RGN-HAN-KIX-FCO-JFK-YUL.

  105. Just purchased itinerary on travelocity in December (departing 22/12/2012) RGN-PEK-ZRH-YUL in F for $572 USD… How long does it take for a ticketing confirmation from travelocity to arrive ?

  106. Also, I booked everything through the US to make sure the DOT protection would be there. I’d recommend that to everyone considering this fare.

  112. I booked RGN-HKG-LHR-JFK-YUL. About $680, CX first and BA business across atlantic. THanks!

    Now time to wait and see *glee*

  113. ITA is showing $2354 as the lowest price from now until end of calendar…does that mean it’s dead? Was hoping to go to Myanmar next year anyways, would have been perfect!

  114. Got nervous and pulled the trigger on RGN-NRT-ZRH-NYC-YUL for 7/15/13 at $586 without searching other options. NH business, LX First. Purchased on travelocity.com about 7 hours ago. No email, no ticket numbers yet. Reservation shows up in my Travelocity account. PNR pulls up itinerary with Ana and Swiss. Thanks Wildway & Gary.

  115. I was just called by Travelocity about my RGN-PEK-ZRH-YUL in about a month purchased ~2.5 hours ago to confirm my CC information. Received the confirmation email a moment later. It is ticketed on Swiss (724) stock.

  116. So this is the secretive first strike then? Well thanks! Im glad I didnt bother trying to figure out what it was since you actually have to fly the first leg.

  117. @ClearedCustoms – call Travelocity and ask for your ticket number. No ticket number means no chance.

  119. Anyone have a direct line to Travelocity Revenue Management? I’m in Singapore and my US cell won’t ring here. A CSR just told me I needed to wait another 4-6 hours for Revenue Management to complete a review of the transaction, then hung up on me when I asked to be transferred to them. Am I getting hosed?

  121. pulled the trigger on RGN-PEK-(a380)FRA-PHL-YUL for $366 US. too bad could not get FRA-WAS and just dump the rest of the ticket. Any chance i can do this after the fact since its booked in F??

  124. Fare Rules From Expertflyer

    Fare basis code FIFOW3

    Generic IATA Fares YY

    STOPOVERS
    UNLIMITED FREE STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT.

    TRANSFERS
    UNLIMITED TRANSFERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT.
    FARE BREAK AND EMBEDDED SURFACE SECTORS PERMITTED ON THE FARE COMPONENT.

    PENALTIES
    NO PENALTIES APPLY.

  125. Found a roundtrip that works if anyone is interested. Prices just under $1100

    RGN-NRT-ZRH-YUL-AMS-KUL-RGN

    Outbound is on NH and LX in in C and F and return on KL and MH in J. search for the return as YUL-KUL, KUL-RGN

  126. @douze, still waiting for confirmation, although its hit my CC already and have booking reference numbers
    RGN-PEK (with a connection in KMG) F China Airlines Feb 3
    PEK-FRA F LH a380 Feb 4
    FRA-PHL C (envoy US Air) Feb 5
    PHL-YUL F (US AIR) FEB 5 (going to be dumped) and will either amtrak or bus back to DC

  131. thanks. best of luck. let me know if you are the same flights.. cheapoair.com had it for slightly more give or take US$100

  133. @z thanks so much. got it!!!! still playing around with it. these dates do sound enticing though 🙂

  135. In my opinion, I would stay away from Air China. In the past, I had a problem with them for not crediting miles to my United account. Regarding to a possibility for a ticket being cancelled, I would stay away. Maybe I am wrong here. Who knows? Here we are all gaming with the booking.

  137. Heads up availiabilty in August 2013.
    Booked & Ticketed via SIN in F on SQ & Swiss.$689.00 AI
    Several dates in August.

  138. @z – What segments did you search for? Can’t seem to reproduce that, searching multiple dates.

  140. No, they did not credit miles to my United account. Even I paid full fare for economy ticket on their flights to Southeast Asia. After several tries, emails, I decided to give up. Wasted so much time with their people.

    So for this kind of mistake fair, I am highly doubt that they would credit miles to UA account.

  141. Booked 4 hours ago and no Ticket Number. Got an email saying the flight isn’t available, but 1 min later got a confirmation with no ticket number. I made the stupid mistake to call Travelocity and was told the ticket is under revenue control. Has this happened to anyone else? Should I not count on this to be ticketed and book another using a different account?

  143. the segments were
    RGN-PEK
    PEK-FRA
    FRA-PHL
    PHL- YUl on the dates listed above

    Tried looking on both cheapo and traveloicty.ca and xpedia.ca, cant seem to find them. Chas might be right they pulled the fare. i got a call from travelocity.ca through my Chase fraud department number to authenticate my purchase. hopefully that means a ticket number is forthcoming

  144. I know this is kinda taboo, but I am new to this game and would really appreciate the help. I would like to take advantage of this and stopover in Paris long enough to propose to my girlfriend in the city. I am looking at the return being after new years day. Can anyone help me or point me to a pay service that can take care of this for me?

    What my plan is: Spend New Years eve in Hawaii or Tokyo. After that I will take advantage of this offer, so I am thinking the routing needs to start on the 3rd. I would like to route throug CDG and have enough time there to propose to my girlfriend at the Eiffel Tower. Then return to the US. Obviously as much use of First class or even first class on an A380 would make this trip all the more memorable.

    Thanks for the help or for pointing me in the direction of someone who can.

  146. Looks dead to me – *may* be bookable on some sites that don’t update immediately, but fare has definitely been pulled.

  147. Got on RGN-KUL-SIN-CDG-JFK-YUL for $683 in mid-February. RGN-KUL-SIN on Malaysia business class, SIN-CDG in Singapore suite, CDG-JFK in Air France first. Both SQ and AF on A380.

    @SH_BK: I am planning to redeem United miles to BKK or SGN and figure out a cheap fare to RGN from there.

  148. I managed to book on expedia this morning, and have ticket numbers.

    RGN – KUL – SIN – ZRH – JFK // LGA – YUL. I get to fly SQ R-class on an A380, and LX F. Sweet

    At $850 it is not as good a deal as others, but still an amazing deal!

    Now my question is as follows: SQ gives 300% for R class in KrisFlyer miles, and United 150%. I have about 180,000MP already in the bank : should I start building up a KrisFlyer account with the SQ flight?

  150. my ticket was just voided, anyone else’s? Have an eticket number..
    OTA:travelocity.ca
    claiming the fare was “expired”

  154. @SH_BK United one-way awards to South Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, or Laos) are 32.5/60/70 in y/j/f. I personally want NH LAX-NRT-MNL in biz. Rev Y ticket from MNL to BKK, then overland to Lao, then Myanmar. Lets hope this is honored. Me, my girlfriend, and a best friend are all on the same RGN-YUL return.

    Another AviancaTaca bonus on purchased miles could be handy too.

  155. Well got some great tickets thanks. rgn-kul-sin-lhr [A380First]yul $517. Got all my ticket # and now lets hope this one sticks. the others I routed via jfk so Dot can enforce the ticket 🙂

  156. Quote by Gleff:
    ——————————————————-
    “@Frank – for what it’s worth, writing about travel that starts in Myanmar is unlikely to drive ‘clicks’.”
    ——————————————————-

    LOL, as this post is at 152 replies already within the first 24 hours. Haven’t seen that many replies on a View From the Wing blogpost in quite some time…………….yeah, unlikely to drive clicks my foot. 😉

  157. @gregorygrady – and my traffic stats which i what i was writing about were pretty normal for a thursday and a friday. Comments aren’t clicks.

  158. @gregorygrady Well Im honestly glad that Gary opened up the possibility for his readers. I saw the thread on Milepoint and booked before he posted but his great explanation about how to go to work really helped many newbies and even helped when travelocity didnt issue my tickets after a few hours to try the expedia sites and keep looking for F when originally I could only find J. Thanks a mil @Gary

  159. @Gary Thank you for sharing this deal on your blog. I managed to get a RGN-KUL-SIN-LHR-YUL booking ticketed so now it’s wait and see.
    @gregorygrady this deal was already being covered off in the usual FT and MP forums which i would imagine provides most of the readership for the boarding area blogs. in the time this deal (and blog post) was live again it wouldn’t have hit the top of google pages thrown up for yangon so additional traffic would be minimal.

  160. @ClearedCustoms – Travelocity Revenue Management can be contacted at +1 (866) 488 6333. They cleared my ticket in under 2 minutes.

  161. @David Thanks, I did get in touch with them. Not sure what was going on behind the scenes as CS said RM was reviewing it, and RM told me to tell CS they were not reviewing it. Etickets (on 724) eventually came through around the 20 hour mark 🙂

  162. well i booked one of my tickets 23hours ago it just confirmed 10 minutes ago???? etickets on 724.

    WOW! shocked

  163. @ClearedCustoms – It is just strange stuff with the Gnome. Full credit though for instant ticketing once the RM guys have press OK.

  166. I managed to get two tickets with the following route: RGN-NRT-FRA-ZRH-YUL and RGN-KMG-SIN-CDG-PHL-YUL. I was wondering if I can start my first trip at NRT and the second trip at SIN then end at PHL without any problems? I don’t think that would be an issue. However, I saw some comments on flyertalk that I might be denied boarding. Any idea? Thanks for your helps in advance.

  168. Forget me for not understanding this better. I am just thinking that as long as I am here for the flights, they have to check me in, right? Do they have the right to cancel the rest of my flights?? Or they assume since you are not showing up for your previous flights, you might not make the rest of the flights so then they can cancel the rest? If this is related to the passenger load issue, could it help if I check in for the flights I want to take in advance? I will be in Taiwan during the time so I was just thinking buying a ticket to connect in NRT for trip #1 and SIN at trip #2. Will they definitely cancel your flights if you dont make the first one? Just trying to figure out if this is worth the risk. Thank you for your input.

  169. @Neil you must fly all ticketed segments in order or you lose the rest of your itinerary. If you do not show up for your first flight you lose all the rest of your flights.

  170. @Neil – you must fly all the sectors in order, which means starting in RGN otherwise your ticket will be void. Your reservations won’t be cancelled as per what others said because you hold different airlines’ flights. But your e-ticket will be null which means you cannot use it.

  171. Thanks Gary, I was able to snag 4 one way tickets RGN-KUL-SIN, SIN-LHR, LHR-YUL for next june. Works out perfectly for me as I am moving my family back to eastern U.S. next summer. I do have a question though and hoping you can help. I actually have 5 people in my family including a 10 month old (at time of travel). There wasnt availability for 5 people so I booked 4, hoping to be able to add a lap-infant. I dont mind paying about $1500-$2000 to add her, just wondering if that will create issues if i contact the airlines? thanks

  172. @Alex I think you’ll be fine contacting the airline, it’s a pretty normal request you’re going to be making. Although my guess is it’ll be complicated. First, where did you book the tickets? You may wind up needing to work through them and they may be clueless. Second, your other option is owrking through the tcketing carrier, whose ticket is it? (What are the first 3 numbers in the ticket?)

  173. Thank you, Gary and WIll! You are very helpful. I will be Asia then so I can just position myself to fly out of RGN. I have anther question. I booked two tickets and one looks like is charged by ANA and I have the e-ticket numbers and all. Does this mean that I can start making other travel arrangements? The other ticket I booked is supposed to be through Singapore Airline. I have the e-ticket number and has not heard anything from TL. However, the credit card shows pending charges from Air China? Not sure why. Does this mean that I might lose this ticket? Thanks!

  174. hello again Gary, I took your advice and called Travelocity, and was connected to a representative with a middle eastern accent. He told me that I had to call Sri Lankan Airlines, which is the issuing stock. However, i am hesitant as when I initially called travelocity, the automated system said there was a problem with my itinerary. I have heard that since I booked thru Travelocity US website, I have DOT protection on this, is it true? or does DOT protection only apply if it touches US Soil? My routing is RGN-KUL-SIN, SIN-LHR, LHR-YUL, thanks again

  176. Gary, don’t know how to contact you, but I just want to thank you as I am wrapping up an amazing month long vacation with my family partially thru the RGN mistake fare and will be going to the FCT in a couple of days. If you can spread the word, I have two rooms at the Frankfurt Sheraton for this Friday that I cannot use, and will go to any two people that you may want to choose, or first come first serve.

Comments are closed.