Hi,

I´m currently near the end my RTW and have experienced endless problems with my oneworld ticket and its member airlines. According to the website, any complaints need to be made to the airlines themselves but despite the fact that much of my problems have stemmed from my ticketing agent BA, i also feel that there are some fundamental flaws in the OW system, especially when a problem arises.

How are they able to improve their service if they never recieve any feedback? i have no faith whatsoever that the BA customer service do anything other than reply with a generic email let alone pass on my complaint to OW.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Oneworld is a trade marketing association. They don't deal with customers directly. Even if you can somehow contact Oneworld directly, they will forward the complaint to one of the members, probably BA in your case, to be addressed.

They do deal with costumers directly. In relation to their website.

Would you be willing to share some of the specific? The combined knowledge and experience of FT travelers might be able to help you.

I don’t want to go into all the details but the main problems were:

Japan Airlines cancelled a route from Tokyo to Mexico City and instead re-routed us Tokyo to Vancouver. We never received any communication regarding this change from either BA (our ticketing agent) or JA. We only noticed the re-routing when we tried to check-in for a flight the following day. Our first response was to ring BA but they had no idea what was going on and apparently no way of finding out. Instead, we had to ring JA but as our BA ticket number and booking reference didn’t seem to be compatible with their system, it took forever for them to even find our booking. Lots of arguing later and it was eventually agreed that they would book us onto a flight from Vancouver to Mexico city with Mexicana.

What we hadn’t realised at the time though was that rather than adding the new flight onto our itinerary, JA had instead re-issued us with a new ticket but had failed to tell us. This caused problems for us the next day when trying to take a flight from Cape Town- Jo’burg-Hong Kong-Bangkok. Due to the fact that airlines within the alliance do not feel the need for a 24hr call centre, despite trying for over 2 hours, the people at CT were unable to contact either BA or JA due to time differences. The result was that we could only check in as far as Jo’burg, from where we had to collect our luggage and literally run through the airport to check-in for our flight to Hong Kong, which left 50 minutes later. As we’d been unable to check-in online, we’d also been unable to reserve any seats so had rang up the previous day to have seats allocated. On arrival at check-in, the seats had already been taken.

Our next major problem occurred when BA cancelled our return flights to Easter Island, again without notifying us in any way. We only noticed when trying to confirm flight times for an accommodation reservation. The excuse given by BA was at first that we had been no-shows for a previous LAN flight. We had taken the flight but it seems that members of the alliance are unable to communicate with each other. The next excuse was that they were waiting for our JA ticket numbers. Not only did they not notify us that they needed the numbers but they also did not take the initiative to contact JA either. After 3 days of phone calls from Bolivia (not an easy task) our flights were eventually re-instated but our ticket was once again messed up in the process.

We purchased the tickets thinking that opting to go with the alliance would make things less complicated for us. We naively assumed that within the alliance there would be greater communication meaning that any problems we faced could be resolved easily and promptly. In fact from our experience so far it has been the complete opposite. Having a One World Alliance ticket has only made things more complicated. Even as our ticketing agent British Airways were unaware and seemingly unable to find out what was happening with regard to our flights operated by other airlines. To find anything out we had to ring the various airlines ourselves. However, as booking/ticket numbers are not universal, it was a challenge for other airlines to even locate our booking. This also means that we have been unable to check the status of our booking on other airlines websites as well as unable to check-in for fights that are not operated by BA. Thanks to BA and JA, we no longer have a valid ticket number and our whole ticket is one big mess. Flights that we have flown appear as no-shows and many have disappeared completely. Not being able to check-in not only means extra stress at the airport but it also means we have no say over where we sit.

BA’s customer service has been appalling from the start and we have been misinformed on numerous occasions. They also seem to be unable to send any more than a generic complaint response and so I doubt any improvements are going to be made.

Taking a RTW trip for us is not an opportunity that we’re likely to have again and it has been spoilt by endless problems which have taken any enjoyment out of flying. If the opportunity ever came around again I certainly wouldn’t buy anther OW ticket and wouldn’t recommend that anyone else did either.

Ah the old problem of OW airlines ticketing systems not talking to each other and much passing of the buck. Unfortunately this is a known issue and OW (and the OW airlines) doesn't seem to be interested in getting it fixed.

Your ticket has to be reissued if you add/drop any flights.@:-) It is unfortunate that JL failed to inform you.

The issue of GDS not communicating properly between airlines is a general issue for all airlines in any alliances. There are many similar complaints for Star Alliance and Skyteam as well.@:-) It is a known issue and probably won't be fixed for awhile. The way to fix it is to upgrade all airlines systems for interline bookings which will have enormous costs.

It's of little use to the OP, but I wish to very strongly recommend the use of the AA RTW desk if at all possible for ticketing/maintaining OW RTW itineraries. The point of the recommendation is not that Sabre is a superior GDS (it isn't), or that everyone who answers the phone at their office is expert (they aren't), but rather because they seem to have agents on staff who can fix the issues that inevitably arise... and that with the use of Skype (or the equivalent), one can reach them many hours of the day. Ticketing on AA saves a lot of fuel fines, and reaching the right RTW agent at the end of the day somehow also saves on change fees (don't ask). My most recent DONE5 issued on 001- ticket stock originally had just a single AA segment, and that was a code-share on QF metal, but ime no-one at the AA RTW desk seems to care very much at all about that. (YMMV). My experience is not that everything proceeds smoothly, just that I find it extremely reassurring to have someplace/someone to call to help sort things out and clean things up between flights. Like any organization they have some duds answering the phone, but once you find the competent miracle workers...(you can hopefully plan to call back when they're on duty).

The only time I've ever had any real issues with a OW ticket was an LONE4 in 2008. Needed to change routing due to issues in BKK. QF dropped the BKK stop (changed FCOxLHRxSIN-BKK-KIX-NRT to FCOxLHR-SIN-KIX-NRT).
The ticket had been issued on paper due to the 16 sector limit being breached thanks to NRT-MEL getting axed (after ticketing, before departure) and being routed NRT-SYD-MEL.
With BKK dropped and flights already taken, it was able to be reissued as an e-ticket. QF told me that I could no longer use the remaining paper coupons and needed to return them when I got back to CBR. When I checked in at FCO, after the ticket had been reissued, BA demanded I give them the paper coupons for the old ticket, then changed me from QF32 to BA7372 (same flight, but caused some issues with QFF). Also had a number of cloned bookings show up on my QFF account.
It was all sorted out at the BA transfer counter in LHR.

I agree completely. I've probably done a dozen or so RTW tickets through the AA RTW Desk over the past four years. What problems which have arisen have been solved promptly and with a minimum of fuss by calling them. I know from reading FT that it's not the same elsewhere. And, of course, don't forget the savings on fuel fines/surcharges, accurately noted by Jbalmuth. It can easily add up to hundreds of dollars on a single itinerary. 800-247-3247 (US number).

AA are far from infallible. It took them over 100 days to arrange a refund for me.

The trick is not to click "Contact" on the OW website. Instead, go to FAQ and there's a link to the enquiry form directly underneath the search boxes.

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/news-and-information/faq

Alternatively, email Michael Blunt (VP, Corp. Comm.) at mblunt -at- oneworld.com

Of course. Any US based airline will try to hold on to the money for as lonf as they can. This is happening by design, not incompetence.

Over 100 days is not design. Indeed their website publishes their "maximum" refund times.

It mirrors my experience with many US airlines which in each case took more than 3 months to refund money. Still waiting for money from AA for an April ticket.