Last August 1st RTW was to end in CAI and the 2nd RTW was to commence a few days later in CAI. Well because of the problems in the Middle East I had to figure out how to connect the two. The 2nd ticket was issued through a travel agent and the travel agent stated that the only offer from QF was to originate the 2nd RTW from DOH. They refused the travel agent’s request to travel on MEA or even RJ through AMM. At the same time they refused to reroute the 1st RTW to DOH (from AMM) and I was forced to purchase my own ticket (full J) from AMM to DOH. At the time I figured that was a good thing and I had an extra segment to play with.
Fast forward 6 months to wanting to make all of the final changes to get going again and the travel agent now says QF is repricing the entire itinerary (using historical pricing) but ex DOH and wanting nearly AU$9000 as an additional fare collect! I’ve been spending the last several weeks putting together piece by piece another 15 segments of perfection and I’m left with a skeleton booking that I can either fly a portion of or just give it up altogether! So I’m left with a DONE5 with only one segment flown and it’s virtually useless for me except maybe the next 2 segments. I’m really upset as I had some really special plans in mind this spring/autumn depending on the hemisphere.
Unfortunately I find I have no real recourse as a result of having used the travel agent. Toward the end of my journey on the 1st ticket I was asking about changing the 2nd ticket and each airline had a look at the record and said they couldn’t touch it because it was a travel agency ticket. I haven’t even tried to contact Qantas as I have a feeling they will just point the finger at the travel agent and say it was a voluntary change. Lesson learned that as tempting as it may be to use a travel agent on these tickets they are simply impossible for the airlines to change and obviate the whole idea of any Oneworld carrier taking over the ticket during your journey as they can’t touch a travel agent ticket!
/rant