Originally Posted by
LHSEN
I have booked a RTW last year via a travel agent in Canada ... the difficulties (to me) was to try to change anything before departure - in my case, I wanted to change operating carrier of a later flight segment. I called the airlines who issued the ticket and the airlines who operated the segment which I needed to change, they all told me they couldn't change unless I have flown the first segment and told me to call the travel agent to change ... in my case, the travel agent was not responsive at all!! So, I ended up doing the change after using the first segment.
That's standard procedure for all agency bookings (not only RTW) - the TA 'owns' the PNR prior to departure. After departure you can either go back to the TA or have the issuing airline take over the booking for 'ongoing maintenance.'
I prefer to book with the airline directly too but in this case I couldn't for reasons detailed in other threads. The TA i used in Seoul seems extremely responsive no matter how big or small my requests are. But I don't intend to do any changes till after departure to avoid any complications.