You mean if QR (or QF) is the plating carrier, they add additional YQ on top of that charged by the carriers of the non-QR (non-QF) segments?

If there's 1 QR (or QF, I think) segment, and the plating carrier does collect YQ on behalf of QR, the plating carrier (doesn't have to be QR) will add YQ based on the entire itinerary, not just on the QR segment. In another word, either you don't have any QR segment, or you have as many as you can.

To back this up: I've experienced this and it's important as this one time bump is something like 200 USD IIRC, a fair amount if flying 1 x QR flight but modest if spread across 4+ QR segments. So the "QR has expensive YQ" line I understood before which led me to avoiding QR turned out to be inaccurate when maxing QR on a DONEx. That suits me well as I credit to AA.

This seems correct to me. I did not remember the @ amount for QR but $200 seems about right. Had a DONE4 , xTYO , AA RTW desk issued , ASIA-NA-EUR-SWP. Total YQ of @ $650 with 6 QR segments. Had it reissued 3 times and changed cities. Looked at carrier YQ (non QR) and it did appear QR YQ was about $200 of total. My segments were 1 (AA) 2 (JL) 3 (AS) 4 (MH) 6 (QR)

Out of interest, are you able to share your full itinerary for this booking?

QR would only add a small amount of per-segment YR but YQ should remain the same for the entire itinerary as long as there's at least 1 QR-coded flight.

Another trip down memory lane
 

My first AONE (~$4,000) was in 2002 and had 22 or 24 segments. My 2nd AONE had 24 segments (still have the paper coupons). There was an article in one of the main travel magazines such as Conde Nash, Travel & Leisure that mentioned a traveler who maxed out the flight segments in each continent. It was a LONE5 or LONE6. The famous AA agent, Sarah, was mentioned as well.

I have a DONE4 itin and a rough idea on the base fare (ex Japan). How much should I expect to pay a TA commission / fee to ticket it? Would the (all inclusive) fare be the same as calling AA desk to ticket. Does AA desk charge a fee? Thanks in advance.

How long is a piece of string? That's such a hard question to answer based on where you are, where the TA is, their own billing structure. I'd mark it up by around 500-800USD

The AA RTW Desk does not charge a separate booking fee or service charge, however, the normal airline fees charged by each airline for each flight still apply, as do taxes, of course.

Qantas RTW Amendment Nightmare
 

Having a complete nightmare making changes to a Oneworld Explorer RTW issued by Qantas. Having spent over 8 hours on the phone to them about it, they are refusing to ticket it in accordance with the Oneworld Explorer Fare rules which are shown on their own website here: https://www.qantas.com/content/dam/q...30june2025.pdf.

They are claiming that I cannot book flights more than 12 months after the issue date of the ticket which was the 28th of October 2025. This is despite my having pointed the agent towards section 7 of the fare rules which reads as follows.

7. MAXIMUM STAY
Return travel from the last stopover point must commence no later than 12 months after departure

When questioning them over this, the seemed to be getting stuck on what they referred to as the 'validity date of the original e-ticket'. The final flight on the ticket was originally the 25th of September 2026 and I assume that the eticket said it was no longer valid after that date because that was the date of the last flight on the originally eticket.

Although there is no connection between that date and the date they claim is the expiry of the validity of the ticket, they are point blank refusing to book flights on the ticket after the 29th of October 2026. That is despite me pointing them to the fare rules and asking them to clarify the meaning of departure date in relation to the ticket. They were unable to do so and even stated at one point that they were not willing to reissue the ticket in accordance with the fare rules.

This is the second agent I have encountered who is stating this restriction. The first agent I encountered told me that if I didn't like it, I should make a complaint, which I did. The Qantas customer care team responded by stating that they only manage post‑travel enquiries and referring me back to the reservations team.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to resolve this recurring groundhog day nightmare.Is there some way to escalate within qantas or to IATA. Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

Thank you, Cynicor, for your reply. I think the TA fee is around A$900 per pax - that is the difference between the all in fare pp (shown by the plating carrier) and what the TA charged. TA did not show the DONEx fare pp plus their booking fee.

Thank you, Dr HFH, for your reply. I may post some codes on the ticket from the plating airlines - some I understood, and others I could not.

I've read in the past in various FT fora that Qantas sometimes makes up its own rules. I don't think that there's anything that IATA can, will, or would do. I don't see this as an IATA issue. Your situation sounds a lot like dealing with Immigration when entering Thailand after landing at BKK. The rules are whatever the Immigration officer you're standing in front of says they are.


AUD 900 sounds pretty steep to me.


I find this curious/interesting. Would you mind reproducing the fare ladder for us?

Something just occurred to me, -- there might be consumer protection laws which would help you. Depends on where you live and where you bought the ticket.