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DONE4 rebooking fee

Hi,

I need to do a rebooking of routes on a current DONE4 ticket. Is it correct that the issuing carrier who's doing the rebooking (AY) shall charge for the new taxes (for new flights) and also that the tax/surcharges for the old routes/flights segements already paid for when purchasing ticket, is non-refundable?

(Cannot recall that I have had to pay around 350 Euro to change a couple of routes on a CRWSTAR ticket, but I might be wrong of course).

Thanks,
Andy

Quote:

Originally Posted by SEAndy (Post 13508493)

My experience is as follows: If you are reissuing the ticket, i.e. changing the routing, then you will have to pay the change fee (US$ 125 IIRC), the ticket will be reissued and you will be asked to pay any difference in taxes & fees that may arise from the reissuing process. Taxes & fees for the unused segments should be refunded, while the ones for the new flights will be charged. If the new taxes are lower than the old ones, then they should refund the difference to you (reducing the change fee accordingly).

If you're only changing dates or times w/o touching the routing, then nothing should change pricewise and no change fee has to be paid (although some carriers will require a service fee).

Current rules for changing itineraries:

Quote:

(a) Rebooking/Rerouting
(1) Prior to departure
(a) Changes to date/time/oneworld carrier/inventory changes are permitted provided ticketed points remain the same. If the first flight coupon is being changed, and the fare level has increased since ticket issuance, the difference between the old and new fare will be charged. If the fare level has decreased since ticket issuance, no refund will apply.
Exception: For fares originating in TC1, changes to the first international flight and preceeding flights are not permitted less than seven days prior to the date of the first ticketed flight.
(b) Changes other than to Date/time/oneworld carrier/inventory permitted at a charge of USD125.00 per transaction. If the fare level has increased since ticket issuance, the difference between the old and new fare will also be charged. If the fare level has decreased since ticket issuance, no refund will apply.

(2) After Departure
(a) Date/time/oneworld carrier/inventory changes are permitted provided ticketed points remain the same.
(b) Changes other than to Date/time/oneworld carrier/inventory permitted at a charge of USD125.00 per transaction.
(c) No Show requires rebooking at a charge of USD125
(d) If the rerouting results in an increase to the number of continents or extra flight segments previously charged, the ticket shall be recalculated. Tickets may be reissued to a higher fare, eg. from A –ONE3 type to A -ONE4 type fare and the increase in fare will be collected. When flight segments are added above the free allowance, those charges will be collected. When the rerouting results in a reduction to the number of continents or extra flight segments previously charged, no refund will apply.

Same experience here.
Change fee, difference in taxes (not sure if you get a refund if taxes are less after the change) plus (only on some carriers) a service fee the carrier charges for rebookings. Same when you book thru a TA, some TAs charge a fee for rebooking, some don't.

When I went to make some routing changes on a DONE5 with the AA RTW desk, the initial change quote was exceedingly high (something like +$600 per ticket). I then called back with a changed routing request, and the change quote was now $42, which included the $125 change fee (i.e. the new itinerary resulted in lower fees/taxes than the original booking, and these were apparently refunded to me in the net calculation).

N.B. Routing changes that include new stopovers in the U.K are very, very expensive....

Yes - my experience with AA RTW desk is that they are good at refunding the differences in taxes. Last time I did one (a year ago, regrettably) I also made changes with them that cost less than the change fee.

Thanks for your replies.

Is there a Oneworld document that stipulates handling of taxes specifically, in terms of rebooking xONEx (I could not find anything specific on the Oneworld Explorer PDF on the website) or is this actually up to the issuing carrier/TA to determine?

I've only done *A RTW's before (first DONE4) and I can't recall taxes for unused flight segments not beeing offset with new flight segment taxes. So I was interested in hearing if this is a OW xONEx thing, but from the responses so far, it seems not.

I would not have a problem with service fees etc as this is mentioned in the rules (and of course if the taxes were actually higher for the new flight segments). But when I asked about the charge AY tells me taxes for previously charged flights are non-refundable/void and will not be taken into account when calculating taxes for the new flight segments.

Cheers,
Andy

Quote:

Originally Posted by SEAndy (Post 13513395)

But when I asked about the charge AY tells me taxes for previously charged flights are non-refundable/void and will not be taken into account when calculating taxes for the new flight segments.

It certainly makes sense that airport fees/taxes and fuel surcharges on previously flown flights are non-refundable, but irt flights not yet flown.....? That's certainly not part of any rules that I've ever read.

If you previously were routed to Brazil but are now ticketeting to fly to Argentina instead, it's absolutely crazy that AY would assert that your prepaid Brazilian embarkation tax is non-refundable, and that they are somehow entitled to pocket that prepaid government tax, while now charging you fully (extra) for the Argentina customs and immigration tax. I suggest calling back in hopes of speaking to someone in the fares department who can clarify exactly how the actual calculations are being performed, as opposed to someone who may have been referring to flights already flown, or speaking theoretically (and incorrectly) about the process. Another alternative, if your itinerary includes any AA flights at all, is to initiate contact with the AA RTW desk.

SEAndy, one question.

Have you commenced any travel on this booking?

Quote:

Originally Posted by serfty (Post 13515612)

SEAndy, one question.

Have you commenced any travel on this booking?

Serfty,

Yes, I've currently done 10 (of 16) segments. Rebooked to fly through North America instead of South America out of SYD (to Europe). Changes are to the final 6 segments of the RTW.

I've requested the AY customer service agent confirm with someone else that their claim taxes for flights not flown, really are non-refundable with a breakdown.

Thanks,
Andy

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbalmuth (Post 13514380)

If you previously were routed to Brazil but are now ticketeting to fly to Argentina instead, it's absolutely crazy that AY would assert that your prepaid Brazilian embarkation tax is non-refundable, and that they are somehow entitled to pocket that prepaid government tax, while now charging you fully (extra) for the Argentina customs and immigration tax.

I have similar issues with AA once in a while. A stopover in London became a transit by adding a second ticket and AA refuses to refund the APD even so there was no APD due.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DownUnderFlyer (Post 13519746)

I have similar issues with AA once in a while. A stopover in London became a transit by adding a second ticket and AA refuses to refund the APD even so there was no APD due.

Unfortunately I don't think that there's any way to in fact link two separate tickets together to avoid the APD. If the two flights are on separate PNRs I don't think that there's any way to accomplish this. On two recent occasions I have approached BA regarding this issue, and on neither occasion were they the slightest bit helpful in regard to avoiding the APD. One AA RTW desk customer service agent did some investigation for me regarding this, and after a very long offline discussion with his Fares desk, he asserted that if both tickets were issued by AA, and the departure one had not yet been issued, that he could figure out a way to accomplish not charging the APD on the yet-to-be issued departure ticket. [I never took DeWayne up on his offer...in part because I was pretty certain that his assertion was only theoretical, and that I would probably end up spending a fruitless hour on the phone with him and his Fares desk....].

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbalmuth (Post 13520224)

Actually there should be a way. Rule 4.4 deals with separate tickets which are read in conjunction and then qualify as a transit and don't attract APD.

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsP...505#P272_15506

Quote:

4.4 Tickets
In addition to the time related criteria, the agreement for carriage must be evidenced by a ticket which must show the:

■airport from which the passenger intends to depart
■date and time of his intended departure, and
■airport at which he intends to arrive.
The connected flights must be detailed on the same ticket or conjunction tickets to qualify for the exemption. Tickets can only be regarded as conjunction tickets if:

a. they are in one booklet, or

b. where they are in separate booklets:

■each refers to the other and states that they are to be read in conjunction, or
■there is a summary of the flights constituting the passengers journey including the flights in question.
c. where the tickets are purchased online, they are purchased at the same time through the same portal.

Although the flights may meet all the other criteria for determining whether two flights are connected, they will only qualify for the exemption if the connection is evidenced on the ticket or a flight summary.

'Scheduled time' means the time indicated in the operator’s timetable for the flight at the time of issue.

'Scheduled day of arrival/departure' means the day of arrival/departure indicated in the operator’s timetable when the ticket was issued.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DownUnderFlyer (Post 13521038)

I'd love to hear about others' success, but it was precisely this "conjunction" issue that BA was unable/unwilling to assist with (despite both flights being BA into/out of LHR T5). While I agree with you that there must be a way to achieve "conjunction" of two separately purchased tickets, BA led me to understand that there was, in fact, simply no mechanism by which two tickets booked separately could be presented to be in conjunction with one another. [The two circumstances: 1. a purchased BA ticket connecting to a BA redemption ticket, 2. a purchased BA ticket connecting to a DONE5 issued by AA.] Hopefully someone else will report a better outcome (and will provide details and contact phone numbers for those of us who have thus far failed at this.]

I think the problem is not the rule but the airlines. The amount of work they need to do in order to verify all of this is substantial. And as a reward for doing it they get nothing at all because all the tax would be passed back to us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbalmuth (Post 13510640)

I have an MCO from AA for a routing change where the change in taxes was more than $125. I think this shouldn't have happened according to the rules, but I didn't complain :)