Originally Posted by
angetenar
My understanding was that booking a *A RTW ticket through a travel agent meant that they were supposed to ticket it according to the carrier on the first overseas leg (but some made exceptions to this rule), while if you were booking directly with the airline, then the ticket could be issued by any of the airlines, regardless of the first overseas segment.
Clearly there are a lot of misconceptions floating around, because one TA told me "it has to be built directly by the fares department of the first airline involved in the itinerary" (note that's first airline, not first over the water). But I've already posted above what the people at the Star Alliance fares desk said.