A contact of mine is trying to book a DONE3 ex-Oslo and tried to get AA's RTW desk to help put the trip together. Sadly (but consistently with what I've read here) they had great difficulty in making the agent at the RTW desk understand why they wanted to start in Norway when their home is in Chicagoland. Then a period of 40 minutes of hold ensued, then the line went dead. Sound familiar?

Anyway, on a hunch, I just phoned Alaska Airlines' 800 number and asked a representative if there's anybody at AS who knows anything about the RTW or CPAC products, and she immediately said that their international/partners desk has been trained up and is capable of making bookings on the phone. I didn't pursue it right away, but if it's true, what great news! If anybody is in the process of putting a trip together, and has the courage to see if AS can do the booking, please leave a note on this thread. Thanks.