Multiple confirmatons on paper ticket: still possible?
 

On a paper ticket I could always hold reservations for multiple dates on the same sector. Given the high strike possibility at BA I had AA reissue my DONE5 as a paper ticket. After that was done I asked them to put me on multiple flights around the same date. They told me that was impossible, also with a paper ticket...

My last paper ticket was a 20 sector one. Still hoping this is not the reason but that AA made a mistake. Anybody holding a paper AA ticket now with some experience?

Thanks!

Not currently, but if the ticket coupon is paper open-dated then I believe you can just make reservations with BA either directly or through AA or through a TA as you wish. I have done this many times in the past and I see nothing in the system that has changed to prevent this.

Thanks. I guess it will be trial and error. Feel more comfortable with a paper ticket anyways. Changing dates or flights has been quite cumbersome with an e-ticket...

Tried only yesterday to get BA Executive Club (where I currently have Silver/Sapphire status) to reserve a flight where I have an OPEN paper AONE5 ticket (issued by AA). The agent said that it would not be possible at all with them and that I should talk to AA. A very pleasant AA agent on the RTW desk (with a Brit husband) subsequently set up a complete PNR covering all my remaining 16 segments, as well as the reservations I was looking for.

Full marks ^ to AA, less so :td: to BA.

For other people's reference, christep, what information should a reservation agent be given so that they can reserve a flight when you hold an OPEN paper ticket?

The ticket type, booking class and ticket number should suffice I think. A good tame TA (or specialist RTW desk) might be better at this than a random airline reservations agent.

The problem I see with what AA has done for you now is that you would appear to have multiple reservations on some of the flights (unless the whole ticket was previously open with no confirmed segments). That is something you need to avoid since it can result in auto-cancels by the airline.

Certainly if you did this on QF they would be inclined to auto-cancel all your reservations - afterall you only have a single ticket coupon

Otherwise business passengers particularly would hold multiple reservations in case that meeting goes longer, or you get asked to stay another day.

They'll auto cancel if you have multiple reservations on the same flight, but they won't (in general) if you have multiple reservations on different flights (particularly if they are on different days. It is perfectly valid to have, for example, SYD-MEL-SYD-MEL-SYD-MEL-SYD on one ticket number so QF couldn't reasonably auto-cancel if that is all booked on different (non-overlapping) flights.

This is what business passengers do and have always done. Hence over-booking and no-shows.

The moment the paper ticket was issued AA CPT was able to get me multiple reservations for the same route on different dates. You need to cancel the dates you don't use unless you have flown the route than all subsequent reservations for that segment only will be cancelled automatically. If you are a no show on your first reserved date you will need to reissue.

In any case, even though AA NL and AA USA (not RTW) told me it could not be done, it has now been done. :)