As some of you might be aware that IATA has indicated that all paper tickets will be done away with come Dec 31st 2007, and that all future ticketing will be electronic.

We know that most CRS' can only handle 16 segments maximum on issuing e-tickets, so does this mean the end of the 20 segment OWEs?

I think airlines will put the restriction on the maximum 16 segments to be currently issued, and then the 'additional' 4 segments to be added and reissued after you're flown 4 segments.

For one thing, it will easier to rebook reservations as 'open dated' tickets may cease to exist. But for some airlines, eg AA, even a date change requires a reissue of the ticket, so one hopes that they don't consider that an excuse to consider it a re-issue fee!

I don't know the situation for future 'hand-written' tickets that some Oneworld airlines currently issue on.

But I'd like your comments on this...

Thanks