AA's RTW desk still has some terrific agents who are helpful and knowledgable. Unfortunately, there are also some who aren't in the same league. Especially if you get a helpful agent, be sure to complete the two-question survey at the end of the call. In addition to rating the agent highly, take the option to leave a brief voice message. It can be a big help to the agent. You don't need to say much, just (for example) that the agent was friendly, professional, skilled, and helpful.

I don't think that's generally the case for BA fares.

You're saying that BA regular (not RTW) fares are not auto-priced?

I am saying the surcharges are not listed in the fare rules.

You're right. I thought I'd seen them in my BA fare, but I must have been looking at an AA fare. So from where does auto-price get it?

Thanks for the info.

Here's a new data point about my experience trying to ticket a DONE4 through AS. After Gardyloo's promising suggestion in post #1048 I called AS with my ex-TYO itinerary ready to book. The first agent said she was familiar with OWE tickets but they could only be purchased through the Oneworld website. HUCA. The second agent didn't know if it could be booked through AS and put me on hold, returning briefly afterwards to tell me that AS doesn't ticket RTW tix and I would need to use the OW website. The following day I chatted online with an AS rep and asked if there was a dedicated desk (a la AA RTW desk) that handles complex international itineraries - he said the "partners international desk" was proper group to talk with and gave me a phone #, It did not connect directly but rather to general reservations where I asked to be routed to the international desk. Spoke with a very nice woman who confirmed she was at Alaska's Oneworld desk and seemed to know there was such a thing as a RTW ticket but wasn't certain if it could be ticketed through AS. She put me on hold to ask around and about 5 min later she explained that the answer she got from several people at the international desk was that these tickets could only be booked through the OW website or an independent TA. I explained that AS has a published DONEx fare and gently asked her if she was willing to experiment creating my itinerary to see if it would work but she was not willing to try. Note: all the reps were equally friendly, polite...and apologetic. <sigh> I called AA RTW, spoke with Kelly (really knew her stuff and very pleasant to work with) and a short while later it was finished. Unsurprisingly each flight had to be booked as prime but no pushback about AA only playing a very small (4/15 segs and no transoceanic flts) role in the entire itinerary. She even went above and beyond by putting me on her tickler calendar to keep the itinerary on a rolling hold in order to get the Dec flights I wanted once the 330 day limit had been reached. A very positive experience with AA RTW desk and made me wonder: if I had been successful at booking it with the one rare AS agent who knew how to do it, what support would there be mid-itinerary if something needed to be changed? Perhaps this is simply part of growing pains after joining OW so we will see if others have a more productive experience as time goes on.

Quick question: after AA RTW booked and rated my ex-TYO itinerary, out of curiosity I went back to the OW website (where it had failed multiple times with unknown errors) and inputted the same itinerary as was booked by AA. Once again it wouldn't let me book but did price it $500 lower than the AA-rated ticket. In the fare breakdown all fees/taxes were identical, the only difference being carrier-imposed surcharges. I've read the various posts upthread (thank you JAXBA and others) about the black box of carrier surcharges but need to ask the following: keeping the itinerary unchanged, does the AA RTW ratings desk have any flexibility in coming closer to the lower-priced OW website fare? For ease of response, you can copy and paste this if appropriate: "Helga, you already answered your own question: one is an AA-plated fare and the other would not be"

Yes, Kelly is the best. She worked on several of my DONEx through the last several years. There was Leo who was very knowledgeable about RTW products. I had not conversed with him for last four or five years. Not sue if he had moved on or what.

I'm looking at a DONE3 departing from Budapest.

Something like (BUD-DOH-LAX)-MIA-MEX-DFW-ICN-HND-KUL-(DPS-HEL-BUD).

The online tool won't let me book BUD-DOH-LAX to begin with (aware is a problem with QR being the first carrier), but if I call the AA RTW desk would it price correctly?

And if I'm in DOH for less than 23hr would I be able to do add more segments in Europe at the end? Something like DPS-HEL-MAD-BUD to close with?

The AA RTW desk should be able to book. The only issue with your segments in EUR will be stopovers, as you are only allowed two in your continent of origin.

AA manually prices RTWs, and there's always a chance of human error. Given the opaqueness of determining carrier surcharges, it would be hard to know if they priced it incorrectly, and if so, if the error was in your favor or not. If you have a friendly travel agent, you could ask them to auto-price it, which should give you a good idea of what the price should be.

Transit vs stopover doesn't affect your segment count, each separate flight number still counts against your 16-segment limit. Doing a connection instead of a stop does help with the maximum of two stopovers in your country of origin, so in that sense may affect the validity of the itinerary.

I will be the friendly one this round. As carrier and X/O (transit or stopover) are not specified, I used my best judgement.