Has the 7-Day Adv. Purchase Changed?
 

Oh wise travelers. I have been flying five (5) RTW trips a year - AONE4. Today I got the following note from my travel agent.

So, I issued the ticket yesterday and then noticed a very unusual comment from BA in the remarks, stating the ticket had to be issued 25 days before departure, and I was at the 23 day mark. I called BA and was told the AONE4 is a 7 day advance purchase, so I let it go for the time being.

Today I called BA 3 times and got no satisfactory answer to my question ….. What is the advance purchase requirements for the AONE4 RTW fare? In fact, 3 different departments could give me no answer whatsoever. So, I called American Airlines RTW desk who is the most reliable of the One World RTW resources. Oddly, they said the advance ticketing requirements changed several months ago, and tickets must be issued with 3 days of making the reservation, regardless of how far in advance reservations are made. I greatly questioned that statement, but they were emphatic.

Finally, I got someone at BA who did also state the 7 day advance purchase rule. I discussed the remark in the PNR with the 25 day advance purchase restriction and he researched it further. He came back and said if a reservation is created 29 days or more before departure, it must be issued 25 days before departure.

Anyone have any idea what is going on?

From the rule sheet at http://www.oneworld.com/documents/10...9-d346ec820edf

Reservations Made 29 or more days before departure : Complete Ticketing 25 days before departure
Reservations Made 28 - 8 days before departure : Complete Ticketing 3 days after reservations or 7 days before to departure, whichever comes first
Reservations Made 7 days or less before departure : Complete Ticketing 24 Hours after booking, but no later than one hour before departure.

AA itself may have a policy requiring tickets to be issued within 3 days where it issues them, but this isn't a ticket rule

Has the 7-Day Adv. Purchase Changed?
 

That is not an advance purchase rule though. That's a ticketing deadline rule. It dictates how long you can hold a reservation without paying for a ticket. I.e. how long you can hold a reservation. I could see how that would lead to confusion of an agent commented any it though.

That is an advance purchase rule.

Having to ticket at least 25 days before departure when reservation made > 25 days in advance is a rule requiring an advance purchase

A ticketing timelimit is a different thing and relates to how long an airline will allow a seat to be held without requiring that it be ticketed. This can be regardless of a AP rule in the fare

I had a DONE3 on hold for almost 5 weeks last year. CX had to keep reholding the BA and QR sectors until it was able to be ticketed.
QR was demanding APIS data be entered before issue rather then before departure for the DOH transit, which couldn't be done with a name change and passport renewal happening at the same time as ticket booking.

I would not call this an "advance purchase rule" because it is not a rule requiring any advance purchase for the fare to be valid. At any time that fare could be used to establish a valid price quote for a given itinerary with or without confirmed reservations on the sectors.

It simply says that if reservations are made and quoted under the fare, in advance, then a ticketing time limit will apply. Surely?

I did try to have a look for an official definition of "advance purchase", but the IATA Ticketing Handbook is silent on the defintion.

According to earlier versions of the OWE rules (which I have saved but not updated), the above rules only applied to economy class fares. Are the premium classes now subject to these rules as well?

A ticketing time limit is simply how long an airline will allow a seat to be held before it will drop the reservation. this is regardless of what other AP rules are in place

e.g. booking an award on MH from AA, MH allowed a ticketing time limit of 3 days even though AA would allow the hold for 5 days. If at 3 days it was not ticketed, then MH could drop the reservation

An advance purchase condition determines that the ticket must be purchased at a certain time in advance of the flight

A requirement that it be ticketed at least 25 days in advance or at least 3 days from making the reservation is an advance purchase requirement.

If making the reservation 100 days in advance, if one or more of carriers returns a TTL to the reserving carrier , that will apply regardless of the AP rule of 25 days

It is a requirement to purchase the ticket at least 25 days in advance of departure where the reservation is made 29 days or more in advance of departure

Even the closest in requirement has a requirement that it be purchased at least 1 hour before departure


Looking at the fare rules on EF, yes it applies to business and 1st class fares too