Originally Posted by hsmall (Post 37701314)

Well, that was fun. I've spent the best part of two hours on the phone to a Qantas agent who I think, from their accent, was probably in South Africa. I was making a really simple change to a round-the-world ticket, the first segment of which has already been flown. I needed to change one flight by two days, between the same points. That should be free. I was charged a small amount for ticket re-issuing because the price had changed; that should not happen. Despite my trying very hard to make her understand what this, from the ticketing rules, meant:

They thought that "ticketed points" was something to do with using points to buy the ticket.
They insisted that I additionally owed a change fee of USD 125 despite the fact that there were no changes to the ticketed points.
And they thought that changes if the ticketed points remained the same required a re-pricing of the ticket.

All of the above is nonsense of course. I wouldn't have minded her not knowing, but I was given long, long waits while somebody else, I do not know who, was giving advice. If they didn't know they should have asked me to call back during the Australian day.

To cap it all, at the end, when I said that I would pay the money under protest because I needed the change made, I was then left on hold for half an hour because they could not find out how to charge me in yen (the first flight was from Tokyo) for the alleged repricing and in dollars for the alleged change fee. And then they said that there was an error and could I find another card? I found two other cards. All three of them were declined, they said, but it turned out that notwithstanding all that the first card had been charged anyway.

I accept that the mistake was mine in using the OneWorld website which then sent the booking to Qantas to ticket. But even so if it is the last thing I do on Earth, I will get this money back as a matter of principle.

Be careful, people!

Originally Posted by Mwenenzi (Post 37702025)

The QF agents in South Africa (Mindpearl) are better than some other QF agents around the world.

Originally Posted by spherehopper (Post 37682601)

As mentioned in another post, nufnuf was able to codeshare all my AA flights - LAX-JFK to AY, JFK-DFW to QR, DFW-LAX to AY and the BA flight LAX-LHR codeshared to AY so they'll all earn 50% of miles instead of the microscopic share of fare paid on the DONE4.

Originally Posted by ernestnywang (Post 37704178)

I know flights can be booked that way (LAX-JFK to AY, JFK-DFW to QR, DFW-LAX to AY), but really just out of curiosity, you don't think the airlines will fine you for violating the "INTL ONLINE CONEX/STPVR TFC ONLY" restriction on some of these flights?

Originally Posted by ernestnywang (Post 37704178)

nufnuf77 , I know flights can be booked that way (LAX-JFK to AY, JFK-DFW to QR, DFW-LAX to AY), but really just out of curiosity, you don't think the airlines will fine you for violating the "INTL ONLINE CONEX/STPVR TFC ONLY" restriction on some of these flights?

Originally Posted by donotblink (Post 37704609)

all of these flights are still part of a broader international trip… it’s just that there may be some rather significant stop overs. Is your point that if for example, the American Airlines code share was with Qatar, that the rule would be violated if the international component before or afterwards was not also on Qatar?

Originally Posted by LilZeppelin (Post 37704433)

his is a conflation of cabotage with fare construction rules.

Cabotage concerns a foreign carrier operating domestic service. That is not the case here — the US segments are operated by American Airlines, regardless of whether they carry a Qatar Airways or Finnair flight number.

Regulatory enforcement focuses on the operating carrier, not the marketing code.

At most, this touches on fare rule language (e.g., “TFC ONLY”), not cabotage. A properly priced and ticketed itinerary with AA-operated domestic segments remains compliant and nobody gets denied boarding.

Originally Posted by donotblink (Post 37704609)

all of these flights are still part of a broader international trip… it’s just that there may be some rather significant stop overs. Is your point that if for example, the American Airlines code share was with Qatar, that the rule would be violated if the international component before or afterwards was not also on Qatar?

Originally Posted by LilZeppelin (Post 37704433)

his is a conflation of cabotage with fare construction rules.

Cabotage concerns a foreign carrier operating domestic service. That is not the case here — the US segments are operated by American Airlines, regardless of whether they carry a Qatar Airways or Finnair flight number.

Regulatory enforcement focuses on the operating carrier, not the marketing code.

At most, this touches on fare rule language (e.g., “TFC ONLY”), not cabotage. A properly priced and ticketed itinerary with AA-operated domestic segments remains compliant and nobody gets denied boarding.

Originally Posted by donotblink (Post 37704609)

all of these flights are still part of a broader international trip… it’s just that there may be some rather significant stop overs. Is your point that if for example, the American Airlines code share was with Qatar, that the rule would be violated if the international component before or afterwards was not also on Qatar?

Originally Posted by link2 (Post 37704753)

Yes, that's what the 'online' in the traffic restriction code means. The preceding or following flight must be a QR-marketed flight

Originally Posted by link2 (Post 37705619)

Since this is the booking thread, I'll just add that the AA RTW desk does not seem to care too much about the "online" aspect of those traffic restrictions... In fact I've once even had the rates desk change a valid codeshare into a different codeshare that violated the "online" restriction 🤷🏼‍♂️ (never figured out why they did it)

Originally Posted by ernestnywang (Post 37705566)

This is definitely not an issue with fare construction rules. xONEx allows any flight marketed and operated by oneworld carriers. To me the problem is potentially violating the rules on how flights should be booked (airlines' booking policies for travel agencies).
<snip>.

Originally Posted by link2 (Post 37705619)

<snip>
The one policy about codeshares that they do appear to enforce very strictly is that AA-operated services must be booked on the prime code. But that's an AA specific thing and not a traffic restriction.

Originally Posted by ernestnywang (Post 37705627)

These code-share flights can definitely be booked singly. I know how to do it and did it a decade ago. However, airlines are becoming a lot stricter on travel agents these days, so I don't think I would risk it. Airlines themselves, however, can violate rules and not be fined (I suppose) by another airline.