I do the same thing all the time. What I do is book a mileage or inexpensive cash ticket from a convenient RTW stopping point to my home airport and back. So, the RTW may stop at JFK while I have my own JFK-LAX-JFK ticket.

I think I read that AA will no longer book codeshare flights on RTW anymore, only prime flights. But it seems that the consensus is that American Airlines is one of the best to book through because of their telephone support.

Hi everyone.

I had planned the following trip, but have run into a major availability issue on the first two segments.

OSL-xLHR-MLE-KUL-MNL-HKG-SFO-JFK-GRU-DFW-SFO-DOH-SEZ-DOH-OSL. I will insert an SFO-ANC-SFO when those seasonal segments are available for booking. Itinerary was to start Jan 7, 2027. I'm meeting friends in MNL in mid January.

Today is the first day I can book, so as to fit all planned segments, and placeholder segments, into the 330 day window. However, BA LHR-MLE is already completely zero'd out all of December, January, and most of February except Jan 12.

Is this an impossible BA route to book from December 1 through February?
Is this an effect of the war, as transits via DOH look to be widely available?
How do you book the first couple segments of a RTW if D class is gone in one day after released, if that is the case here?
Does it make sense to book via DOH expecting that I would be rerouted if the war is still underway?

Transit via DOH looks to be wide open, but seems risky to me at this point.

I will start looking for other routes to MLE and burn my "Alaska" segments.

Thanks.

MLE in the northern hemisphere winter a popular destination.
I would book via DOH so you get to MLE. If the conflict is still happening at date of your travel up to the airlines to resolve, if they can. They may not be able to given the limited OW airlines serving MLE. Once booked can change. Between now and 7 Jan 2026 will be other schedule ~ route changes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velana...tional_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seyche...tional_Airport
MLE is in Asia and SEZ is in Africa for OW

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=c%3Ablu...=bm&PW=3&DU=mi

Try LHR-CMB-MLE. LHR-CMB is one of UL's prime routes with multiple CMB-MLE daily.
It seems that would keep you within the 4 SE Asia segments and the 16 total.
There are always alternatives with creative wandering
Fred

Do they have experience and a good knowledge base with xONEx fared tickets?


Not true unless it's changed in the past few days. Three days ago I called the AA RTW desk and booked NRT-BOS on JL metal and BOS-DOH-BKK on QR metal, all three flights with the AA codeshare flight numbers.

Thanks, anabolism, for explaining how the fares are priced. I am on a learning curve ...
The online TA said his agency uses another company to issue the tickets, and he is charged about $30 to $50 per ticket. I requested him about quoting the fares plus his fees (for transparency), but he did not and just gave me one total to pay. Only after the tickets were issued - he did not say which airline would do the plating - I cross checked all the airlines in the itin and noted that it was CX with the base fare (same as expertflyer) plus all the taxes and fees. So I deducted that the TA fees were around $900 per ticket.
Yes, I do have an amex plat charge card ... but not sure if their agents are versed in pricing RTW tickets.
I have used another TA for RTW tickets and she always quoted the actual fares (including airline fees) and her fee per person. I would have preferred to know all these but I know some TAs just provided an all in numbers ...

So he's not a real, IATA approved and plated travel agency. It's a guy who makes reservations and has the tickets issued by a real (read IATA approved) travel agency. That means that he probably doesn't have the financial protections for consumers that IATA requires of approved agencies.


I wouldn't do business with him on this factor alone. No transparency on what you're paying until after you pay? Would you buy a car under those circumstances? I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Consumer Protection Division of your state Attorney General's office had an opinion on pricing which is not transparent, and businesses which decline to explain the pricing when asked.


Red flag numbers 2 and 3.


I think that that is outrageous, predatory pricing. No wonder he concealed it from you.


Don't buy one of these from an agent who doesn't really know what s/he is doing with these fares. They're complicated with lots of rules. If you have doubts about the agent's competence, time to move on. Trust your gut.

Thank you, Dr. HFH, for your comments. Indeed I have learned something helpful. It is very unlikely that I will use the same TA. We have more trips in the pipeline, so fingers crossed to find a knowledgeable and fair price agent. Normally I would do all the bookings directly with the airlines for point to point travel - both cash and points. Only used TA for RTW routes. Will pay fee for TA's time and effort, but want transparency.

Thanks for letting me know. I was certain I had read this on FT but I searched to try to find the thread and the only thread I could find was me telling people about this previously. I'm going to try to get them to change my CX flights to QR anyway so I can earn miles, as L doesn't credit any miles to AA from CX.

I have a question re advance seat selection on codeshare flights. In the original booking, there were 2 flights: one with CX and another with JL (same booking reference for both CX and JL). Then I decided to change the dates for both flights to later dates (TA said no fee involved in changing dates). TA found 2 seats on CX with a new date, but could only find 1 seat available on JL for another new date. However he could find 2 seats on the same JL flight under AS codeshare. I agreed to book under AS codeshare flight, and did not realise that the seat selection for codeshare flights was a real nightmare. AS codeshare booking has a link to JL (and JL booking reference) for seat selection. However that link did not work. I have posted a question on this in the JL forum and got one reply confirmed that "Seat selection on AS codeshare has been a mess for a while by now. Basically, you can request window or aisle. That's about it in advance." Somewhat disappointed. Contacted AS who said they are not operating carrier, so could not help. Contacted JL who said booking ticked with AS, contact AS !!
Another problem was that when I tried to 'manage booking' in JL website, it said reservation cancelled / could not be found TA said he did not know why that should be ..
If I could not find the booking in JL, then how would I be able to do online checkin for the flight?
Lesson learnt: Will stay away from codeshare flights in the future.

Try the AA RTW desk. These fares are all that the agents there do, and they're pretty knowledgeable about the rules. Not perfect, but much more knowledge and experience with these tickets than a travel agent. And getting your ticket from the AA RTW desk is free, no add-on fee. 800-247-3247.

The problem isn't the fact that they're codeshares, it's your "travel agent". I have no problem getting seats assigned when booking the ticket through the AA RTW desk.

Totally agree with this - never had an issue getting seats assigned at booking, or then changing them - and usually with either the operating airline or the codeshare partner.

A couple of years ago, I was told by one of the long-time AA RTW agents that they had a policy that they could only book prime flights or AA codeshares. This was confirmed by other agents and my experience of applying an AA SWU upgrade to a JL-issued RTW: AA upgraded the AA segment and reissued the ticket but quietly (did not tell me) changed all codeshares to prime flights. That cost me a lot of LPs and miles when credited to AA. There have been some posts this year that AA did book codeshares for the posters, so it appears that AA has rescinded the no-codeshares policy.

In my experience many of their agents are not well-trained, so I'd expect it to be hit-or-miss or may require asking for a different agent. However, if you know what you are doing, I'd expect it to be possible by telling the agent what the rules are and how to do it.




I would stay away from that person.