xONEx flight change issues
 

I am currently in the middle of a DONE3 and have a flight I am trying to change. It is a free change as per the fare rules.

The ticket was issued by CX. The marketing carrier of the flight in question (LAX-IAH) is AA, operated by US Express.

The flight I am trying to change had a flight number change prior to ticketing which wasn't auto updated in the booking, and was then ticketed with the old flight number. I asked AA about that at JFK (after the first 2 sectors had been flown) and after looking at the booking, saw that the flight number was wrong, but couldn't fix it. Said to go to CX.
I contacted CX US, they said "We don't operate LAX-IAH" and refused to deal with it. Contacted CX UK, they fixed the flight number with a note "Our system is unable to revalidate your ticket but the flight is confirmed and US Airways will need to revalidate your ticket on departure."

This flight is the next sector on the DONE3. I'd like to change it to the later flight. I went to AA as the marketing carrier. They said to contact US as the operating carrier. When I spoke to US, the agent at first couldn't find a valid e-ticket attached to the PNR (I have flown 3 AA sectors on that ticket since CX UK fiddled with it) and contacted the rates desk who claimed it was an award and not a revenue ticket. When I told them that is wasn't an award, they contacted rates again and looked at it closer and have now said the rules in their system say to go talk to CX.

This is the first time in 8 years of xONEx tickets where I've gotten sent to the issuing carrier by the operating carrier to make changes after the trip has started. (I had a CX issued DONE3 last year which had AA, QF, BA, MH, JL and AY all make changes at different points). The oneworld website even says "If you need to make changes to your itinerary during your journey, please contact the member airline you are flying with on your next segment." so I have no idea why US can't make the change.

Who are you speaking to at AA, the RTW desk or a regular agent? If the latter, call the RTW desk. I would think they should be able to help without issue.

It finally got sorted out yesterday.
I emailed CX UK after I posted, only to get a reply listing the remaining flights and no changes.
After I saw that, I hit all 3 airlines on twitter saying that sending me to some other airline wasn't helping and someone had to fix this. AA replied and while I was convincing them to look at it, CX UK made the change.

The main issue here is that there seems to be a growing tread to push people off to another airline and it is somewhat alarming if the US rates desk thinks an xONEx is an award ticket.

Sorry to hear about your problem (and hassles trying to solve it), but glad that it is behind you now.
How soon after the twits before AA stepped up to help?

They replied in about 10 minutes (US and CXUS never did). Took another hour or so of back of forth before they agreed to look at the booking in detail.

I'll see what happens when I check in for this flight in the morning. (LAS-LAX-IAH-ORD-DTW with LAX-ORD on the DONE3 and the LAS-LAX/ORD-DTW on another ticket - all AA codes)

Thanks.
Hope all works out for you.
Safe travel !

AA Agent in LAS got confused with the two different tickets. When she tried to link both cheap sectors to the DONE3 sectors, system didn't like it (all the while going "wow" when she looked at the DONE3 - I get a lot of agents who react like that when they see those tickets). Could get me to LAX or ORD, but not to DTW with boarding passes and bag.
Had to recheck at LAX where I had more time.

LAX check in got it to work, but had to keep running across to the other system (US Express vs AA).

Wow because it is a RTW or because it can have a lot of flights in it?

Both. They react to the amount of flights, then see where the flights go and react again.

An unspoken take-away from the above is that the AA ATW desk no longer can be counted on to live up to the reputation it's still carrying from the good old days. If you can ask for one of the experienced agents by name, you'll be well taken care of - until the rate desk gets involved. The error noted above, not being able to tell an xONEx from an award, doesn't surprise me in the least. And whatever tools those agents have for pricing ATW must be primitive - it can take days for something that often should be a few keystrokes, and the result can be ridiculously incorrect.

Unfortunately, I don't know who's better. Afaik CX doesn't have dedicated ATW people so the agent may struggle with the rule set, but my unsubstantiated guess is that their pricing is prompt and correct.