More than two weeks ago I posted about a RTW ex-JNB, and FT folks have been very helpful. I've managed to create an itinerary that meets the rules and book it online using the OW tool.

I wish I could say it's all ended well, but not so. Since Dec 13, I have rebooked the itinerary twice, including completing the process online and paying by card. Trouble seems to be not with booking, but with getting the ticket issued, which seems to be an impossible task.

Twice my booking was cancelled: once due to expiration (booking wasn't ticketed within 72 hours, so automatic cancellation) and once because flights kept dropping out of the booking. According to one QF agent I spoke with as she was recreating my booking, AA gives them 20 minutes to ticket a flight or they yank the booking. (?!) Unfortunately, the QF booking/ticketing process takes so incredibly long, that you get stuck in a cycle of fighting to keep the AA flights in the itinerary before they disappear. After spending 2 hours and 45 minutes on the phone with a booking agent for my third attempt, still no ticketed booking.

Most of my flights are on QF and AA, so I initially contacted QF to issue the ticket as they're the first carrier on my itinerary. Suffice to say, no one there knows how to issue a RTW ticket. Sure, they can book flights, and put me on hold for 45 minutes to "get a price" -- even thought I've already had a price and paid for the ticket online. Once they get a price, I have to confirm, then they have to find a ticket agent to actually issue the ticket. And here's where everything falls down. It's like a black hole. According to QF FF, there's no "rtw desk," so you're sent back to reservations.

One of the booking agents told me the ticket was in the queue, but some issues needed to be resolved by the "Sydney office." I asked for the number to call directly, and it turns out that the number she gave me was for QF FFs (which I am not), and unless I was using points to book the ticket, they couldn't help me. But they could send me back to reservations who could help me. Ugh! That was another five-day delay.

At this stage I just want to get the d*mn ticket issued. So, wise and experience FT folks: what do you recommend?

AA's SA desk seems to be a no-go, based on other threads I've read. (Mindperl no longer accepting non-SA credit cards.) QF is beyond useless. Any suggestions as to who might actually be able to ticket this thing?? I've seen that some FT-ers have had luck with BA's desk in SA, but I don't have any BA flights on the RTW ticket, nor do I have status with BA. I've been planning this trip for a big birthday coming up next year, but the process has really taken some of the joy out of things, and I'm no closer to an actual ticket than I was a month ago, when I started this project.