RJBP

My wife has been trying to book a RTW ticket on Star Alliance website and is unable to do so due to some technical glitch. They are no longer contactable by phone. AC seems unwilling/unable to book it even though half the flights are on AC. Any suggestions? Thanks.

ChrisA330

My first suggestion is to give us more details on specifically what you're trying to book, and any details on why AC is saying it's not bookable.

The old RTW awards don't exist anymore - you'd be booking multiple tickets that happen to go around the world.

canadiancow

Does doesn't sound like an Aeroplan RTW if they're looking at the *A website (which I believe usually tickets through LH).

Adam Smith

I don't think the OP is asking about rewards, but about *A's RTW fares.

I'm sure we have a thread on this somewhere... This one is 20 years old and not at all useful. If anyone remembers it, let me know.

@RJBP, I tried to do this in early 2020, and to call it a frigging nightmare would be an understatement of epic proportions. A couple of TAs I talked to had little to no experience. The people at AC seemed to have no idea what they were doing. And trying to figure out availability was absolutely ridiculous. I gave up and booked myself an AC TATL round trip and an SQ ticket from Europe to Asia, with free SIN stopover. I also used Aeroplan and cash to book a few intra-Europe things. Didn't get as many cool destinations, but it was so much easier and cheaper.

ChrisA330

I forgot that even existed...I just jumped to rewards. Agreed there are likely easier ways to do this - like you did.

OP: If you're set on a RTW fare, I'd recommend doing this through a TA.

RJBP

Thank you. Indeed it has been a nightmare of epic proportions. Will try a TA failing which will give up on concept of Star Alliance RTW. Thanks for the responses.

zrh2yvr

For RTW - rule is that ticket is plated by the first carrier which crosses between the zones (i.e. 1-2-3). LH agreed to run the service and ticket it for any itinerary booked through the Star alliance website. My last ticket was issued by 999 (CA). For AC to issue - the would need to be the first carrier over the ocean one way or the other. I think they find them high maintenace (as they are) so you will have to get the itinerary to work and then call to have it issued.

Adam Smith

If you could share some details of the problems you've encountered, we might be able to provide better insight.

No, it's not. From the *A RTW people from 2020: "The Star Alliance RTW fares are eligible for ticketing on any of the 26 airlines� ticket stock as the same fares are filed under their code. "

Again, that's not correct. AC was going to ticket an itinerary for me that had NZ as the first operator crossing from one zone to another.

Also from the *A fare people, sent to one of the TAs about how to ticket this on AC stock:

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.

Adam Smith

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.

bwptravel

I agree! I'm a travel agent, and I've worked for an airline. In both roles, it is just not something we run into frequently enough. For a travel agency, there are rules provided for booking procedures; then, we send it to the airline for pricing. The process was similar when I worked for a major airline; we built the itinerary and waited approximately 48 hours for the ticket team to store the fare to be issued. My recommendation is to use an airline consolidator. They do these daily and know all of the ins and outs of RTW fares.

zrh2yvr

I guess what I would mean is that it is true that any carrier can plate but going through BSP and TA then the GDS will plate automatically using first carrier to cross the zone . . maybe that is not true and the agency can pick any . . as the price is the same for all carriers and it is published by all of them. I would then want to plate on 014 all the time to get my SQD to get full credit.

RTW itineraries for valid routings within the fare rules should autoprice in GDS without special checks- - I have done 3 of these and 2 through TA. I did my homework - listed off the segments and the price was done and ticket issued without going to the carrier to confirm.

Quail

Yes, can select usually. People confuse default ticketing carrier and selected ticketing carrier all the time.

Yes, if you have all your flights and dates a GDS should easily autoprice.. I haven't had one that wouldn't. Advice otherwise is usually (decades) out of date.
Carriers do have rates desks that a TA can queue to in the GDS to price these though, since there are RTW situations like open segments that make autopricing fail.
RTWs are usually as easy as anything else to ticket, but I don't like them because I don't trust myself to know the rules well enough to help someone take full advantage of them.

Be vigilant with consolidators mentioned upthread. Many of them tack on fees for everything.

YYC3722

Here is a quick link to the *A tool
roundtheworld.staralliance.com

ywgckp

Resurrecting an old thread:

I have some travel plans next year that might fit well with a Star Alliance RTW (cash booking) - but I'd want to know I would get SQD as it'll make up a good chunk of my spend to requalify for SE next year. I've come up with an itinerary using the star alliance booking tool that looks good to me - first and last flights are AC operated but none of the trans-oceanic flights are.

Does anyone have experience as to whether this will be ticketed on 014 ticket stock if I just buy it online? And if my best option to make that happen is to use a Canadian travel agent, any recommendations for a Canadian travel agent that has experience with this?