For some ungoldly reason the oneworld.com booking tool doesn't like my itinerary and refuses to book it....

I need to book 2 DONE4's ex-AMM starting 9 SEP - I don't think I'm violating any rules etc. but would love a check... Itinerary is:

AMM-xDXB-HKG-MEL-AKL-BNE-SYD-xLAX-MIA-ORD-MIA-BDL-MIA-MAD-BCN-xLHR-DXB

I'm ending it in Dubai - which should be allowed under the "Middle East" termination provision - well the online tool doesn't have a problem... neither does the validator.

Anyway - main issue - who do I ticket with in Amman. I can't find a GSA for AA there - and I'm scared of doing it with RJ.... Any thoughts? TA recommendation etc.?

Thanks
CargoHoldFlyer

Deleted.

In Europe, where do you have stopovers (MAD and BCN)? You're only allowed 2 in the continent of origin, so out of DXB / MAD / BCN / LHR (and maybe DXB again if you don't return to AMM), only 2 can be stopovers. Perhaps it counts DXB (at the end) as a third stopover in addition to MAD and BCN?

AMM-xDXB-HKG-MEL-AKL-BNE-SYD-xLAX-MIA-ORD-MIA-BDL-MIA-MAD-BCN-xLHR-DXB

I think your 3 transits/stopovers to MIA are the issue. I think you can stopover only once in each city. You can have additional transits throught the same city, but not sure how many times.

You are only permitted One Stopover and 2 Transits in MIA, also do you not have to return to your City of origin?

Are you both sure about that? The "only 1 stopover plus 2 transits" rule applies to AA-issued oneworld award tickets. I don't think it applies to xONEx tickets and I have certainly done xONEx tickets in the past that involved 3 stopovers in the same city (MEL), e.g., HKG-MEL-BNE-MEL-BNE-MEL (though that specific itinerary is not now permitted as you can only fly the same city pair in the same direction once (so now we would, for example, do HKG-MEL-BNE-MEL-CNS-MEL).

I think you're wrong on both counts UncleDude

There is nothing in the One World Explorer fare rules regarding 1 stopover/2 transits at a location (perhaps you are confusing with the Circle Pacific fare, which IIRC does have that restriction)

The rule on return to city of origin is 4(c)The OP's itinerary satisfies (b) above

There are certain permitted exceptions. Rule 4(c) provides -

Travel may originate at any point for which fares are published and must terminate at the same point, except that origin-destination surface segments are permitted as follows
(a) within the country of origin
(b) within the Middle East
(c) between the United States and Canada
(d) between HKG and China
(e) between Malaysia and SIN
(f) within Africa
(g) between Maldives & Sri Lanka/India

Presumably starting in AMM and finishing in DXB would meet that exception.

FWIW I have just entered the OP's itinerary into the on-line tool
starting from AMM on Sep 9th
ensuring <24hrs in each of DXB and LHR
and approx 1 week between each of the other flights on the itinerary
and it is getting through to the pricing page (USD7210 plus taxes and charges of USD534.63)

So I suspect:
- the OP has >24 hrs at either DXB or LHR, or
- has invalid connections somewhere in his itinerary (eg < MCT)
- his total duration is below the minimum allowed (10 days) or over the maximum allowed (12 mths)

So CargoHoldFlyer - what message did the tool give you when it failed to book your itinerary?

Sorry pandaperth and all I should have been clearer.

I can't find an agent in Jordan to ticket this through. I am almost 100% certain this itinerary is valid based on the discussion above - there's no restriction on the MIA transits/stopovers since this is a ticket originating in Europe not USA. And I can end in Dubai after starting in Jordan (Middle East).

Also pandaperth - the tool allows me to go all the way through to the end, after I put in my cc details etc. that's where it bombs - giving me error 15012 (fare not available) - now I've checked 10 ways from Sunday (expertflyer etc.) to ensure there's plenty of availability on these flights (almost all of them show D5, D7 or D9) - so I can't figure out where I'm going wrong - hence my request for any info on a travel agent in Jordan...

Thanks for the assist y'all.

Oh well - resolved the issue. I went ahead and removed all the sectors from the itinerary except the bare minimum to make it a DONE4 so reduced it to:

AMM-xDXB-HKG-SYD-MIA-MAD-DXB

and tried to ticket - it worked. So I bought it - figured I'll pay the $125 or whatever change fee + taxes to reticket it after the first segment is flown (AMM-xDXB-HKG) and redo the rest.

Hope this works :-( better the $125 change fee then the fare difference that ex-USA would be...

Nick

What airline is your first flight on? If RJ, AA is the ticketing carrier (or at least was as of last November), so couldn't you call the AA RTW desk?

The wording here is interesting as it implies that the DXB-AMM would be a surface sector. Would this in turn count as a sector and push the OP's routing to 17 sectors? Just guessing on my part of course.

You could - but if they issue the ticket, they will charge the ex-U.S. price (which is much higher).

It worked. I booked a bare bones itinerary covering the 4 continents I needed using the online tool. Made sure that the first couple of segments (initial trip outside the continent - EUR) was set in stone. The rest not so much.

Then I went through the online booking process (providing my cc details etc) and a couple of hours later - voila - an e-ticket has been issued at ex-AMM prices by AA. So next I called up AA RTW and made all my changes - back to the original itinerary which I wanted to book. Got EXACTLY what I wanted - no idea why the online tool wouldn't let me do it.

Had to pay the change fee + extra taxes but still worked out.... Oh well - interesting lesson here.

And to Moomba - I've done a few RTWs now most of which I've taken advantage of ending in a different country than I start in. And NO it definitely doesn't count as a segment for the 16. I've always hit the max (20 and now 16) without that segment.

Skipaway - thanks for the suggestion but as tt7 pointed out it was about the ticketing not booking. If AA RTW (based in US) does the ticketing I'll get ex-USA prices the whole point was to not pay the $10k+ price.

Thanks everyone for your help and input - I'm sure it would have worked out better if I had done it through a TA or something but eh - all in all still got a great deal RTW DONE4 <$8k. Nothing like the ex-ICN deal of old but....