Originally Posted by
brahms77
Anyone had any successes booking ex-South Africa explorer tickets?
With Mindpearl out of the question, I am thinking of getting CX to issue my ticket (CX is the first carrier). Any other suggestion (in case I need to do the other way around where CX is not the first carrier - they are a bit stingy about this as it seems like).
Yes! I finally got my RTW ex-JNB ticketed through QF, which is my first carrier. However, before you run off and call QF, be warned: my experience was much like
cphurley's. It took three PNR's, six or seven phone calls (the longest of which was 2 1/2 hours), four payment attempts, and a ton of patience to actually get the thing ticketed. Time from first booking to final ticketing was just under three weeks.
Qantas doesn't have a RTW desk or specialist, so you're dealing with QF booking agents who rarely, if ever, handle RTW tix. While OW markets the RTW ticket as a seamless travel option, it really does have a lot of moving parts.
The ticketing process can get hung up for a number of reasons: QF system errors, partner airlines cancelling segments that aren't ticketed or paid for within a specified timeframe, and so on. One agent told me that AA cancels flights that aren't ticketed by QF within 20 minutes of ticketing (?!). I also had a RJ segment cancelled because they hadn't received payment -- because QF exceeded RJ's time to ticket the flight. A lot of the waiting had to do with "finding a ticketing agent on the floor to ticket the booking." It went on and on. Fortunately all of the QF agents were friendly and did their best to be helpful. In the end, it felt like a huge victory when I finally got that e-ticket.
My suggestions: make sure you know the rules, complete your booking through the OW tool then follow up by phone within 24 hours, and buckle up for what could be a bumpy ride. Be patient, but persistent.
Wine helps too.