Originally Posted by
JohnAx
Ah, the infamous Booking Tool! My first encounter has me running to the 'bugs' thread, although I can't tell a bug from an inexperienced user at this point. Either way, I did read this thread, apologize if I missed key answers, and offer thanks for hints.
I'm planning ex-JNB AONE4 starting mid-July and will be happy entering a straw-man trip that I can amend for $125 after flying a couple of segments.
So I selected JNB-LAX-HKG-LHR-JNB, expected to pick AA codeshares JNB-LHR-LAX to get AA pricing, but was offered only BA flight numbers to LHR, followed by only BA non-stops to LAX. The tool did offer LHR-LAX via DFW, MIA, or ORD that included AA segments.
ITA offers AA codeshares JNB-LHR-LAX, and the date I was using showed A7 on EF.
What say the wise ones?
Secondary user training: my understanding is that if I can cajole the online tool into accepting my input, it'll personally collect my payment at the proper ex-JNB price and inform AA to please issue an e-ticket, after which all I'll need to do is watch my email anxiously. Correct?
Tertiary: anything special I need to know about doing business with Mindspring, if it comes to that? (I haven't searched...)
Oh, and finally (for now): I foolishly entered JNB-LHR-LAX to start, and HKG-LHR-JNB to end, and the tool slapped me around about the 'one entry' rule rather than politely reminding me to make sure one was a transit. But suppose I wanted the transit to be the second time, but wanted to route via LHR for whatever reason? Is there a way to get the tool to let me schedule the transit?
The tool will default to the operator of the first segment for ticketing purposes; in this case BA. If your assumption is that by ticketing through AA and specifying AA codes on BA metal, you'll manage to escape BA fuel surcharges on the first (and subsequent BA) segments, unfortunately it no longer appears that this will happen. The last time I ticketed through Mind
pearl in CPT (and I believe others have subsequently corroborated this) they
did pass through BA YQs on the ticket (again regardless of the flight number) but not on all flights, just BA metal. It's worth asking them, but don't get your hopes up. Notwithstanding that, Mindpearl is easy to work with. You can set up the itinerary with the AA RTW desk and have them queue it to Mindpearl; after pricing you'll have to transmit credit card information to Mindpearl and they'll issue the e-ticket.
As for the HKG-xLHR-JNB return, South Africa is not on the list of approved countries for 2nd entry via Europe, so you'll have to either return to SA from HKG, or else end up in one of the eligible countries, i.e. Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya or Uganda.