oneworld - My very recent OW RTW F ticketing experience.

My tickets just arrived from AA via Fedex. I
started my reservation experience in early
March first with a local travel agent and
then with AA RTW desk when carriers dropped
their TA commissions to zip. My local agent
was going to charge $150 to issue and $100
more to hand write. After seeing that I
could save some serious money I attempted to
start my travel from Vancouver. In mid-April
the OW airlines started this thing were you
also have to ticket in Canada to get the
local C$ rate. With the help of a nice
fellow FT I got the name of a Canadian TA.
After a month of that I decided it best to
go back to the AA RTW desk and start my
travel from US. I called AA RTW desk the
other day to ticket and was informed could
not be delivered to office address as not
same as credit card address and office
address not also listed on AA EXP account.
Finally after calling AA CS I got my address
on my AA account. Now calling AA RTW desk to
send I am told will be delivered via mail.
No thanks, $9k ticket in mail please Fedex.
Arrives today via Fedex. Hand written. Yet
to audit. In short I am fiscal conservative
and would have loved to save $. The
additional time and effort along with cost
to fly to YVR, hotel, recent currency
translation US$ vs C$ and lack of clear
definition made it necessary for me to go
with AA RTW desk. Attitude from AA RTW desk
after actually being ticketed 100% better.
It was a good learning experience. I may go
the Canadian TA route again with another more
work and research. My itin is now-
smf dfw mia lax hkg nrt hkg dps hkg syd per
mel akl syd lhr via bkk ist lhr dxb lhr then
lgw to dfw anc dfw smf. It only gets more
difficult with time. Just my opinion.

Is the commission really zero?

Isn't the commission only "zero" if you ticket using AA ticket stock?

I think if you got it ticketed with CX ticket stock, the travel agent would still be able to get commission.

On my original going out on AA and a hand
write. Local TA has some system linked to
UA. They acted like it was zero.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RTWSTARALLIANCE:
My itin is now-
smf dfw mia lax hkg nrt hkg dps hkg syd per
mel akl syd lhr via bkk ist lhr dxb lhr then
lgw to dfw anc dfw smf.</font>
Nice routing. Be sure to get the 744s in F for the trans-Tasman legs (well worth it despite the less-convenient times, e.g. AKL-SYD is at 6:45 am but you get into Sydney before 8 am). SYD-PER on the 7:20 pm flight is a good choice (it is a 742, much more comfortable seats and a good meal service ... the narrow-body flights are significantly poorer for the QF domestic legs). You can change dates and flights without reissuing the ticket. Similarly be sure to get the F service HKG-NRT-HKG (most flights only have C). The non-stop has Kaiseki meal available (the 1-stop through TPE does not). This meal is remarkably authentic (it would cost well over USD100 in a restaurant in Tokyo).
Personally I would have flown SYD-LHR via HKG on CX (presume you are doing it on QF). At least you can visit the LHR lounge for the middle east legs (be sure to visit the Concorde lounge as this is the real F lounge, the "First" lounge is not for paying F passengers, but for Oneworld saphires not flying F. I hate it when airlines play these games.
Anchorage is a beautiful place to visit (be sure to get a window seat on the right side DFW-ANC, the view is often spectacular ... I was once on a DL flight SLC-ANC and the plane started making big S curves half-way between Juneau and Anchorage ... turns out we were ahead of schedule, and the captain had 4 of his kids on the plane and was showing them the sights ... quite an experience and I still remember some of that scenery).

Thanks for those great tips. I will review
my itin to max out ideas. Printing this
post now.

"At least you can visit the LHR lounge for the middle east legs (be sure to visit the Concorde lounge as this is the real F lounge, the "First" lounge is not for paying F passengers, but for Oneworld saphires not flying F. I hate it when airlines play these games. "

Currently BA are typically allowing 1st passengers into the Concorde Room, but this is not a right and may well be withdrawn, especially once the 2nd daily service recommences. The official policy for Concorde Room access is Concorde ticket or 1st Ticket PLUS OW Emerald status.

Dave

BA is still allowing paid F passengers in the COncerde room at T4. However, the place was packed like sardines in a can at about 9 AM on a recent weekday (lot of flts to the MiddleEast, NorthAmerica, etc - One of the key bank of flts I guess).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by enjoystravel:
BA is still allowing paid F passengers in the COncerde room at T4. However, the place was packed like sardines in a can at about 9 AM on a recent weekday (lot of flts to the MiddleEast, NorthAmerica, etc - One of the key bank of flts I guess).</font>
Not to mention the up to 100 Concorde passengers! Does "packed like sardines" mean every seat was taken? The fullest I have ever seen the Concorde room was about 2/3 of seating capacity (and the dining room empty, that adds another 50 seats). Be sure to try their English bacon sandwich, remarkably good (also good are strawberries and cream in the spring, they get some very special strawberries).

Your local travel agent should not have asked to charge $150 to issue the ticket. As the 1st international sectors are on CX, (as are the majority of the international flights), your agent would have gotten at least US$100 for his/her effort. Hand written tickets should not cost an extra $150 either! Maybe an extra $50.

A smart agent would ask if you intend to change your route somewhere along the way. The ticket would then be issued up to a maximimum of 24 segments, then reissued at a later time which would only costs $75 to you.

Just my 2 cents worth.

The TA referred to above, I believe, eventually got me ticketed using Qantas, including a machine-printed 24-segment ticket.

I was pretty unhappy with the Qantas rate desk - they took forever, and from the snippets of feedback I got, I'm pretty sure the problems were at the Qantas end. In the end they made me pay for extra segments within SWP at C rates. I had a couple of perfectly fine Y-class segments within the bunch, but the Qantas person was convinced that the ones s/he had to charge extra for were the fifth and sixth in order, no my choice of two.

At any rate, I certainly would not begrudge a TA $150 to ticket an OWE if in the process I save the difference between ex-USA and ex-Canada fares.