headinclouds

No luck for me at AA. I tried to book a AONE4, MPM-DOH-CDG-LHR-DXB-LHR-MIA-LAX-HKG-LHR-xACC and was told no flight segments between Europe/Middle East if starting in Africa. Did consult with the better agents per recommendation of our former favorite AA agent Sarah. AA said that the text in 4(h) that refers to 4(e) 3.1.3 or 3.2.3 is still valid. Of course there is no 4(e) 3.1.3 or 3.2.3 any more. The agents did say to try BA or QR. The oneworld website stated that the itinerary was valid, but hangs up when trying to price it. Thoughts???

Gardyloo

I truly wish that somebody at Oneworld would write a set of rules that made sense, saving us from having to parse them like we're students of the Talmud. But for the time being it's not to be, and arguing with the AA RTW desk over phantom rules or zombie routing restrictions seems beyond frustrating. But more importantly, it seems risky given this comment from pandaperth above -
I think this is wise, and I would mentally commit to spending US$125 to argue the route in a re-issue after I locked in a fare that might go away soon. Remember Mauritius.

pandaperth

The on-line tool still has not been updated to handle the new backtracking rules. See my post #335 in this thread - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...ule-sheet.html

Also, the on-line tool has never been able to price up an itinerary that begins with a QR flight.

pandaperth

And to answer my own question - the answer is "Yes"

And I found the AA RTW Desk to be very efficient

• I phoned at 3pm Dallas time
• The agent and I took 20mins to set up my ex-MPM itinerary
• I requested it be priced up at the ex-Mozambique price, converted to AUD
• I checked on-line 5hrs later and the itinerary had been priced, in AUD (approx. AUD6000 for a DONE6)

The aa web site now provides a bit of a breakdown of the all-in price:

• base fare
• taxes
• carrier-imposed fees

Himeno

The last time I used the AA RTW desk, we got into this argument about the then existing Canadian exception, and then the price when they priced a DONE3 as an AONE3 (and still had everything booked as a DONE3).

skunker

I just called to book an exMPM DONE5 with AA RTW desk and I was told that the following was not allowed: MPM-DOH-US-S. America-xUS-HKG-LHR-CPT. The agent said I could not transit Europe as it would be considered backtracking continents. She only allowed HKG-DOH-CPT.

I know I will be calling to change routing and dates after I fly the first legs, so I may just let it stand for now.

The agent did say she has booked about 10 exMPM tickets in the past week. She wanted to know who on FT found the cheap fares, but she didn't believe me when I said I did.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24709603-post2.html

pbd456

she set up a pnr for me in 45 minutes. she also handled 5 other tickets my sister booked.. (my pnr expired as i ticket elsewhere.)

pandaperth

I have just paid for this ticket by phoning the AA Australian number. The agent wanted to charge me a $60 booking fee, but I moaned and he waived it
Waiting now for it to be ticketed

I decided to pull the trigger now because it is July 29 today and fares are usually changed on the first of the month

Dr. HFH

Anyone flown ex-MPM yet? How is everyone dealing with visa issues? Anyone fly in on QR then back to DOH immediately on the return? Is it doable? Were you able to stay airside at MPM? How about JNB-MPM-DOH?

aaupgrade

I would be interested in any insights from those flying ex-MPM too as my trip is not until the end of the year. I plan on flying JNB-MPM in the morning arriving at 10:40 AM with a MPM-DOH 15:35 departure.

I did call the Mozambique embassy in DC and they said a Visa is required when transiting MPM.

I have no actual experience with MPM yet and have been unable to find much useful information online, so any real life experiences would be appreciated.

danger

As others have suggested, instead of going through a TA it's perfectly possible nowadays to utilise the AA RTW desk for one of these bookings. And I have every intention of doing that when I return from my current travels.

In the meantime, I wanted to provide a couple bits of information further to my (earlier) attempts to price an itinerary through other means.

First, after the Mozambique agent came back with the above comment from QR, I pointed out the rules to them (via the agent). Qatar then came back with:
Obviously, also wrong. So I went back to the agent with the appropriate rule where different start and end points are permitted. In a further sign of its incompetence the agent has come back with the following from QR:
I have told the agent that if QR can't play by the rules then there's obviously no point in continuing.

Second, in an attempt to get a price through the oneworld tool, I had an issue with the tool displaying the direct flights between LIM and EZE. It would only display connections via SCL. I emailed LATAM and, to my surprise, they got back to me within 24 hours. Naturally, they didn't answer the question, but they did offer to price an itinerary for me. I thought I had nothing to lose so I sent them the above itinerary. A couple of days later they reverted with an outrageous base fare of USD10500 and a total fare of USD11508.61.

So I guess the takeaway is QR and LATAM are airlines to be avoided if you're in the market for an xONEx.

skunker

This priced out at $3,459. That's cheaper than exKRT!

wijibintheair

I really hope they don't make changes until 01 September

SDandi

So is anyone booking an ex- MPM ticket able to transit Europe?
Skunker- are you saying you are going to add it in when you change your routing?

pandaperth

Yes. Me

My itinerary is MPM-xDOH-BKK ... ATL-LHR-MAD-DKR

This has been priced and paid for with AA (it has not been ticketed yet, but since the first flight is not until June 2017, I guess it is low on AA's list of priorities)

This itinerary does not run foul of AA's interpretation of the backtracking rule (it has no flight segments between Europe and Middle East), so I had no problems getting AA to price it up.

skunker's proposed itinerary is essentially the same as mine. The only difference is that it heads West from DOH (to the US) at the beginning and comes into Europe at the end from the East (HKG-LHR).
So I really don't understand how the AAgent that dealt with this had the belief that the itinerary was invalid.
(Either DOH or LHR must be a transfer without stopover, but I'm sure skunker would know that and anyway that is not the problem the AAgent had with the itinerary.)