lax.sea.jnu

Now that Alaska Airlines has officially joined OneWorld, has anyone successfully booked a Round the World or Circle Pacific fare through Alaska Airlines Reservations? Depending on one's route and flexibility needs, these tickets can be very useful. I've booked a RTW Y fare through Qantas that I flew, and also booked a CX RTW F ticket that I had to cancel last year. There are many intricacies to the rules for these tickets and, like awards, you sometimes have to be your own advocate and come prepared with the routing, flight, and fare rules if you want to book successfully. Most of the Qantas agents were pretty good at booking the ticket and making changes (though they often try to charge a change fee when one is not required), but I was unable to book directly through CX and ultimately went through a travel agent.

I'd be curious if Alaska put anything out about these fares, or if anyone has booked (or attempted) to book successfully.

eponymous_coward

They don’t have the OW award charts up and running yet, so I wouldn’t exactly be optimistic that they’re handling “intricacies” for OW RTW/Circle Pacific tickets, but feel free to knock yourself out?

lax.sea.jnu

Are OneWorld awards something that would typically come before RTW tickets as part of OneWorld integration? RTW ticket information (including mention of AS) is front-and-center on the OneWorld website, but I don't see any information about OneWorld awards.

https://www.oneworld.com/world-travel

Mwenenzi

Folks seem to be confusing OW revenue *ONE* type tickets and awards
Awards are nothing to do with the Oneworld alliance. Each ffp has its own awards. Some ffp's have an award product they call "Oneworld". This can cause confusion.

To me no reason why AS could not sell (for money) OW alliance products now. However with reduced routes/schedules, due to CV19, getting a good multi segment OW circle/RTW route that could actually ticket would be a challenge. And then the entry/movement restrictions some countries have being able to fly that route harder. Expect it will a year before a OW circle/RTW will be practicable.

FT sub forum--->https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld-411/
FT thread-->The Oneworld Explorer User Guide

eponymous_coward

I'm not confusing anything. AS hasn't put together the ability to book OW partner awards on their website or over the phone yet, even for partners they've had for a fairly substantial length of time (QR has been a partner since last year, and it's still "later in 2021").

OP is asking about something that is even more of an edge case than "hey, I want to use the AS website/phone agents to book an international award on a partner"- something OP admits you need serious expertise to book because existing OW airlines don't really even understand these kinds of things. This is very much the FT "I'm doing something six people in the world fully understand because OMG, the ways you can work this..." kind of stuff that has a very narrow audience (even narrower than booking partner awards). It's probably not a huge priority to train agents on how to do this in advance of partner award bookings.

(That and "hey, issue a ticket on 027 stock with a bunch of OW partners like QR, UL, etc." is kind of required for BOTH awards and RTWs/Circle tickets. It's not unreasonable to assume that AS can't do either yet.)

I am suggesting that if AS can't do something like implement partner bookings in a timely fashion on entry to the alliance, that "hey, can you book OW RTWs/Circle Awards just like QF, who's been doing this for ages" might not exactly be a reasonable expectation... but sure, go ahead and try and report back.

Mwenenzi

I read post 1 as wanting to books a cash paid OW travel product.
"Now that Alaska Airlines has officially joined OneWorld, has anyone successfully booked a Round the World or Circle Pacific fare through Alaska Airlines Reservations"

lax.sea.jnu

Correct, I was inquiring about paid RTW travel on -027. eponymous_coward is making the point that we should not expect this before AS has established award travel on new OneWorld partners, but I don't necessarily think this is the case as paid RTW fares seem to be a staple of the OneWorld alliance (from looking at their website), that would come along with or shortly after membership, vs. award travel which appears to be negotiated separately with individual airlines. I don't have a reason to try to book at the moment because I have my travel planned through the end of the year, but was curious for 2022 travel, and wondered if anyone had attempted.

eponymous_coward

Right. A RTW or Circle Pacific ticket that AS is going to be issuing will be an 027 ticket issued by AS that has multiple partners like QF, BA, QR, UL, etc and has various routing rules, etc. Just like... an award ticket with multiple OW partners. Literally the only differences are AS will just going to charge the whole ticket price in cash as opposed to a mix of cash and AS miles, and the RTW/etc routing rules that are part of how the ticket's constructed are set by the alliance, vs. AS's internal rules on how you can do an award. But the principle's the same, AS will pay various airlines money based on segments, there will be rules to follow to have a valid routing, they need to be able to talk to other airlines to set up everything, etc.

If AS isn't issuing QR, UL, etc. tickets on awards, or allowing AA+BA+CX+JL, etc. combinations on awards... I'm not optimistic that they're doing these more "intricate" types of products. But hey, worth a phone call I suppose?

Mwenenzi

Agree. The commercial side of OW Circle/RTW will be fixed. But will need AS IT capability across the different booking systems the OW airlines use
The *ONE* RTW can be good value and have flexibility. QF are used to them, as can be a good option for QF passengers for long trips. Example a simple SYD-LHR-JFK-SYD sold as *ONE4

Edit
From what I have read on the FT OW forum, for OW *ONE* tickets the airlines flying the long haul international routes get most of the money. AS will not get much income for *ONE* given their routes. The cost per mile flown can be low, compared to other tickets. Hence why popular with some on FT.

williwaw

The rules for OWE did change last month to incorporate AS travel for destinations in Alaska (not just ANC): https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33143542-post686.html

Carolina2Cali

Regardless of the controversy shown above, is there a benefit to using these round the world type trips? I put in a 3-4 city random sample set and it priced over $5000... in economy. Seems I could fly to each roundtrip for less than that...

jerry a. laska

While the prices for an AS issued Oneworld Explorer, Global Explorer, and Circle Pacific fare are available in the GDS and are available for sale, I don't see any advantage to trying to book through an AS agent instead of just using the AA RTW desk considering the intricacies of these products.

The rules for these products are quite detailed. Best to look at the Oneworld website:
https://www.oneworld.com/world-travel
and at the stickys in the Oneworld forum including:
The Oneworld Explorer User Guide

Mwenenzi

These OW products can have up to 15 segments at the same base price a 3 segment trip, plus real taxes as determined by the route (e.g *ONE*). These have more flexibility than a cheap / restrictive ticket with stops and ability to change dates. Not always the best value for OW economy (L class) but for business (D class) can be very good value. OW first products (A class) now limited due to reducing first class routes/aircraft.
As post above look in the OW sub forum for more info.

lax.sea.jnu

Yes, there is a benefit. It is often much cheaper to start a RTW ticket outside the US, many other points of sale are quite a bit cheaper. I started one ticket from New Zealand, and the other from Canada. Also, you fly to many far-flung outstations (such as Patagonia or Alaska) that have typically expensive paid fares. Third, is that once you have the cities ticketed, the dates are completely flexible so that you can decide to stay in one city a bit longer at the last minute for no difference in fare.

Mwenenzi

Indeed. I went to Easter Island(IPC) and Alaska on *ONE*. Base cost was the same: no more than as if I went to the common-less expensive destinations
A map from Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper