What doest this mean? i.e. is it a problem to make multiple bookings on the same name for a flight (even if on separate tickets). If you don't issue a ticket with one of multiple bookings, and it expires, is it still a problem?

Sorry for a bit of these side questions, but I thought they're a bit related to the main theme of this post. Please let me know if I shouldn't post like this.

I have a record locator with AA in India, and I was working with them for my own itinerary, but they seem to be a bit confused about rules and all. e.g. they sent it for pricing, then a few days later said that the got a message "transcontinental surface travel not allowed", even though this is for NRT//MOSCOW which according to this forum and other places is an intercontintental surface sector that is legal. They seemed a bit confused overall abt RTW fares.

So i thought its better to start afresh, with the ATW desk and with the help of EF and MM(yay!) and issue the ticket from the local office/TA. For this should I pass on the record locator to the ATW desk, or just start from scratch with a whole new itinerary. In that case, do i need to cancel the current reservation? What if I want to keep a hold on to two separate L-class reservations for two alternate routes for some sectors i'm considering? Is that problematic/illegal/un-ethical?

Incidentally, the base LONE5 fare sold in India actually *fell* by 10,000 Rupees just 10 days back so i dont have that strong a need to issue it out of LHR now. So I'm pondering over that.

All the waiting on hold is a bit bugging, so I thought might as well try with a travel agent. The reason I did not do that earlier was that TAs I found here (DEL) were clueless about RTW rules/fares. On the other hand my regular TA is otherwise reasonably responsive, and I have it very easy when I'm changing travel routings/dates for regular non-RTW in the middle of travel - I just email him, and no need to call airlines.

I think this TA uses Galileo CRS, rather than AA's SABRE I think - will that a problem? Suppose I make a PNR from the AA ATW desk, tell this TA to issue from AA India, will that be beneficial in any way at all (other than the longer hold on reservations as QF009 mentioned) Specifically, will the TA be able to change the date/time/carriers while I'm travelling or will I always need to call the airline for that? If this guy can do the date/time changes or the $125 re-issue when I'm en-route then its great for me, so in that case will book through the TA only. The ticket price should be exactly the same right (plus service charge for TA), right? Or are there commissions on RTW tickets for TAs?

Need to find the right strategy for all this booking :-)

Thanks

Udai