Hold on. Describe what happened in your situation -- what routing were you trying to achieve but was rejected by AA? Are you sure you weren't breaking a rule?

Was trying to do... JFK-LAX-ANC-xORD-JFK... Ended up doing ...JFK-LAX-ANC-ORD...

To our eyes this is valid, one cross continent flight, one flight into Alaska, one out of Alaska, and 4 intra continent segments within the 6 limit. ORD to JFK isn't a transcontinental, and we don't repeat the same flight twice.

They claim you can't stopover multiple times in JFK anymore as the reason for not letting us ticket with the preferred route, one potential explanation is they're trying to clamp down on it. Maybe this is recent, maybe it's not enforced across all agents, maybe it was a few people having a bad day or making mistakes. But since AA was an extra 1.4k USD per person for saving 2 cheap flights, and couldn't find an agent willing to do that (tried Rebecca, Stacey, Deborah) we just went with QR plating who said their system refused to price it and they wouldn't manually override (even though it autoprices in other systems apparently with the preferred routing I believe will let dutch_122 add details)

What was before JFK at the beginning and after JFK at the end?

AKL to JFK, and then JFK to NBO via LHR or DOH transit

Without fully resolving your actual problem, there is a very big difference between these two statements:

Learned that sadly even AA are now rejecting the multiple stopovers inside North America, so couldn't stopover in JFK multiple times despite several HUCA attempts etc

They claim you can't stopover multiple times in JFK anymore, they're trying to clamp down on it.

Might sound like nitpicking but let's try to avoid inaccurate info until actually proven or substantiated. As another data point, I recently spoke with one of the agents you listed to ticket a change.. and I later learned that she never actually completed the request, so I had to call in again.

Ok that's fair - edited to add some nuance. It appears there is inconsistency at the very least across plating carriers and/or within them, for the same rules, and lack of clarity over what is being allowed for the multi-stopovers within the post-1st continents. Yes, I'm one data point, but worth posting about for others planning their bookings that it might happen to them / need more HUCAs etc.

Fully acknowledge that the official PDF rules are super clear (unlimited stopovers, except for max 2 in continent of origin, subject to the other rules like can't repeat the same O/D pair etc.).

Again, YMMV!

Would anyone know the answer to the following two questions:

- I have a JL-issued DONE3 booked. Outbound JL HND-LAX, then some bouncing around US, then return to Japan via LHR (JFK-LHR-HND). JL is blocking LHR-HND as a JL flight - only BA or CX is available. Anyone know why, and whether there is a way to bypass it? There is D space available on both JL flights from LHR, and even LHR-FRA-NRT on the other JL flight is not working. Like, literally, JL will not let you fly its own metal on a ticket issued by JL. The situation persists before or after departure. Currently, JL42/JL44 (LHR-HND) are waitlisted despite space being available, but I suspect they will not clear. TA says it is a ticketing restriction imposed by JL.

- On the online itinerary design tool, is it me or are a bunch of cities missing? I can't depart in YUL, I can't put NCE as a stopover, PHX is missing etc - none of them show up. Am I being dumb or is that how it is, and if so, then how do you even design an itinerary?

Thanks!

That’s somewhat harsh. The OP booked before the ME situation started.

Do you mean that the JL flights are available as BA or CX codeshares, or are you talking about only BA and CX metal flights are available?


Your travel agent is correct. One of the LHR-HND flights is a 351, equipped with the new JL premium cabins. JL is currently guarding those flights jealously because the hard product is so far superior. I expect that it's holding those seats for people who want to pay full, or nearly full, price. Can't speak to the other one, which, IIRC, is a 788.


A quick perusal of these threads will tell you that there are numerous problems with the online tool. That's why many OneWorld Explorer flyers, including me, don't use it.

Mwenenzi wasn't talking about the ME situation. He was talking about the post immediately preceding his, as in "As post above". So he was referring to izzik's post about why the poster booked using the online tool instead of the AA RTW Desk, viz:

I've found certain browsers cause this problem. Avoid Firefox. Safari is hit or miss. Chrome seems to work the best.

Not all available space in D bucket can be allocated to these xONEx fare products.
There is no transparency in these decisions.
You cannot force the airline to put you on these flights.

Of course you are allowed unlimited stopovers in North America on an ex-OSL RTW.

I had a few QR-issued RTWs some years back. I gave up calling their main numbers, instead emailing their HKG office. I think they may have shut that office or at least stopped having them handle RTWs.

This is a fairly recent (and very unwelcome) development: there are now additional inventory restrictions that we run into with RTW fares. Just as airlines can have different inventory for flights booked standalone versus as a connection (married-segment logic), airlines can have different inventory based on an itineraries point of origin/commencement. (There may also be a restriction based on type of fare, but this is unclear). I've run into it with JL and QF flights. If the segments are available to waitlist, I suspect they might clear closer to departure if there is still 'D' (or 'A' or 'L') inventory available standalone.

In my most recent RTW, I had to waitlist the daytime departure JFK-HND but I was able to book the midnight departure. Both are A351s. There's also a long-haul QF flight that I can't book or even waitlist.