Originally Posted by
Brianek
Interesting. So if you use a Travel Agent, is it possible to choose which carrier to ticket on regardless of who the first flight is with ? I booked a DONE4 starting in CMB in February on which the first flight is UL and ticketed via UL because I thought you had to ticket via whoever your first flight was on. I would have far preferred to ticket on BA because then I could manage it via the BA Executive club website. Also, dealing with UL is extremely painful. BA is tortuous enough, even as a executive club gold member, but I imagine making changes via a TA would be a lot simpler.
Originally Posted by
anabolism
Yes, although some TAs are reluctant to ticket on a carrier other than that of the first flight. Any TA that is authorized to issue tickets on a OneWorld carrier than issue a RTW ticket on that carrier. For subsequent changes, you'd normally go through the original TA, although the ticketing carrier may be willing to make changes for you, and sometimes (less so these days) a subsequent carrier is willing to take over the ticket and make changes.
To clarify, at least in Sabre, when an RTW is autopriced, the validating carrier (ticketing stock) defaults to the first airline that takes you across Traffic Conference areas (TCs), i. e., the first flight between the Americas, EMEA, and Asia/Oceania. This is not necessarily the first segment of an RTW. The agent can enter an extra commend to force a different validating carrier to be used, and as long as the carrier is present in the itinerary (even if just a domestic flight or a code-share flight), it can be validated and subsequently ticketed. The issue is whether the ticketing carrier will be unhappy with the agency and whether the agency would risk that.