If they are on sabre, this is just how it happens, and there is no way (that I know of) to force it to a xONEx. So you need to manually ticket, and if they are worried about an ADM they need to call the airline for approval. Also they almost certainly need to ticket on Finnair stock otherwise there will be issues with the GDS and trying to sort out any changes.
Best workaround is find an agent who uses amadeus.

Would this problem "disappear" if I were to add flights and change to longer flights such that I went over 34K miles?

Maybe, but sabre seems full of problems for these bookings. I found QR seems to muck it up too. Good chance of it not auto-pricing anything if you change enough. It's great...

Proposal 1: British Airways (BA) Qatar Airways (QR) Cathay Pacific (CX) American Airlines (AA) Finnair (AY)
Just priced it in Amadeus as DONE3. Plating carier QR €5140.50.

Must be autoprice issue SABRE?

Confirm that QR definitely enforces married segments so what you see in EF will match booking. I've not found that I need to really stopover for over 24 hours however, but often need to get the next flight resulting in a ~9 hours long transit rather than ~2 hours to get multiple D class seats. They won't short check your bags either so be aware of that if you need something, keep it in your hand luggage.

Well, finally ticketed, it took a bit of chasing, but this sorts out a few holidays, via AA RTW desk, taxes & fees were an extra 1260USD, mainly from two large carrier surcharges, presumably for the legs over the ocean:
NRT-KUL-BKI // HKG-PEN // PEN-HKG-LAX // LAX-JFK-MIA // MIA-SKB (St Kitts and Nevis for Christmas), SKB-MIA-DOH // DOH-OSL //(I'll start another RTW ticket here) OSL-HEL // HEL-LHR-HND
As this is a DONE3 happy to get up to 13 segments, and the "land segment" between BKI and HKG was essentially a way to get a 3rd stopover in Asia, though I will need to buy my own tickets to get between them, likely on Royal Brunei airlines for a change

I see what you mean about the third stopover between BKI // HKG, but am wondering about your starting another RTW from OSL. Are you going to nest in OSL-OSL before proceeding HEL-LHR-HND?

Yes, see this thread for one of the reasons: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/37203440-post984.html

So broadly the ticketed DONE (from HND) has a six month "stopover" in OSL between Christmas and July. During that time I intend to book something along the lines of:
OSL-DOH-HKG // HKG-CMB // CMB-HKG // HKG-AKL // AKL-NAN // NAN-MEL/SYD-HKG // HKG-SIN // SIN-HKG // HKG-ORD // ORD-ANC // ANC-SEA-IAD // IAD-DOH-OSL

The benefits are: 1) DONE4 from Norway is about 20% less than Japan at the moment, 2) I don't have Europe as my "home" continent, so I get more stopovers in Asia (where I actually live). 3) This will then fill Chinese New Year, Easter, and Summer holidays - along with a few long weekends away, 4) It will use all 16 segments, even if some are US domestics..

The reason I didn't ticket yet is I want to wait until the AA/AS flights are available to book immediately, rather than have to do another change, so I will wait about another month till its about 330 days out. The Alaska flights particularly don't seem to have a great deal of D availability, so that part of the master-plan may need tweaking and I'd rather do it without paying a USD125 change fee if I can avoid, and I am fairly flexible about my routing to get to/from Alaska, and would prefer to get a Transcontinental in there if I can.. but would then need JFK vs IAD (my real destination is PHL, but QR doesn't fly there).

I'll report back how the actual booking goes at the end of August!

DONE3 with AA
(Marketing)/(Operating)
AA/JL HND-DFW
AA/AA DFW-RNO
AA/AA RNO-PHX-ORD
AA/AA ORD-PHX-RNO
AA/AA RNO-DFW
QR/QR DFW-DOH-VIE
AY/AY VIE-HEL-DUB
QR/QR NCE-DOH-MNL
JL/JL MNL-NRT

$5294 base + $555 taxes/fees + $444 carrier imposed fees = $6293

wow, 2nd one?
 

Thanks for posting the details of your 2nd?? Done 3. Just WoW, looks great! Your example makes clear the AA marketing of the Trans Pac for booking with AA. Examples are the best teacher IMHO.

These aren't my tickets.. I book/manage RTW tickets for other people (not as a travel agent.. more like a travel enabler :p).

Lap infant
 

Hi all,

Appreciate it's pretty niche but was wondering if anyone had any experience with lap infants. You can't book them online but it seems with many airlines you can add lap infants to bookings over the phone, does anyone know if this is possible with the oneworld explorer? I'd much rather make an online booking for the rest of us if possible to avoid a very long phone call finding each leg one after the other!


Thanks

no, only at time of booking.

Did have a fair share of trouble with it though, ticket could not be found at some point and took an hour to resolve while at the check in desk. Also Qantas found it useful to issue a separate ticket for domestic flights (as infants can be added free or charge in Australia (leaving me.with an issue when I tried to leave Fiji.

So make sure they actually issue the boarding pass on the correct e-ticket to avoid issues further down the line.

I would strongly suggest booking the lap infant at the same time so you are all on the same PNR. As a simple example (and it is hidden somewhere in these threads), I needed to add a lap infant part way thru a DONE, it was a nightmare (luckily only a one-off): QR point blank refused to do it (had to remove wife from the booking and buy separate tickets with miles after a denied boarding, that I knew was 90% likely to happen); The cost of adding a lap infant for some one-way BA/AA/CX across ocean flights exceeded the cost of the DONE. The intra-America flights are free though on AA.

Basically, these are complicated tickets, trying to add a lap infant is not necessarily going to happen. Rather than use the tool, and as someone who prefers self-service normally, I would recommend that the AA RTW desk is just excellent and can take care of this all. If you have your route already planned out you can make a booking via phone in less than 20 minutes by just reading out segment by segment.

Even with this, it isn't always smooth sailing: A recent AONE I had the lap infant added at birth, but for a couple of the airlines at check-in I needed to read out the ticket number (CX,JL,AA), as it didn't seem to 100% associate with the overall booking, though you could see the details on the PNR.

Thanks for the reply. In the end yesterday I rang the British Airways phone line to ask a few questions and an absolutely lovely staff member sent me her work email address and between a couple of calls and emails we now have it all sorted including getting us onto some very convenient flights that the online planner flat out refused to accept either existed or had capacity.

So as you have advised I would strongly advise others! I've heard a lot of people bash ba customer service but it turns out if you do it in UK working hours the UK based team are very good unless I just got lucky!

Any ideas/guesses about my change fees??
 

So I called to make the changes to the above booking. Changed DFW PBI DFW to DFW SJO DFW (stayed all on AA); ICN xHKG MNL to ICN KUL MNL ( carrier change from CS to MH); and ATH MAD OSL to ATH OSL (carrier change IB to QR).

The fees went up $315.44 then add the change fee of $125. I think change to SJO i.e. Costa Rica added about $93 in fees. But I can't figure out the rest of the fee changes. I already had QR for the MNL xDOH ATH and thought adding another QR would not be too costly - was that wrong?

Any guesses welcome.

The AA RTW desk could not see any breakdown of the fees. I asked how long I had to decide what to do and she said maybe until tomorrow. Then I asked what happened if I hadn't called back. She said the changes would be cancelled. I asked if the ticket would go back as before and she said no, the changed flights would just be cancelled and the rest would stay the same. Is that correct? I do plan to call back in a few hours.

Oh bother. I wish I were more clever....

Thanks.

So I did a HUCA and got what seemed to be a new person to the AA rtw line. She put me on hold for about 15 minutes and came back to explain the change in fees. She kept mentioning the fee on flights that I did not change i.e. Canada and MNL ATH.

Do they reprice all fees or just fees on the flights that are being changed?

Also could I fall back to the existing ticket (I have already flown the first two segments) with no charge?

Thanks in advance.

Flying via kul can add a little chunk of fees.

Humm, I had hoped that changing Cathy Pacific transit via Hong Kong to MH stopover in KUL would be about the same in fees. Unless I can dream up something else to try, I think when I call today I will just ask them to go back to CX.

If the fees stay high, then I will just pay them; it's still a good value.

We will see.

Just connecting the dots here -- if you need the ability to compare taxes/fees/surcharges across multiple itineraries, a travel agent may be the better route for you.
Unless you are working with a very experienced AA RTW agent, you are unlikely to access that level of detail with AA.

I have paid the 315.88 in extra fees per ticket. They could not break out all fees but they did say YR went from 256 to 403.

Yes, Lesson learned about using a TA; I had seen that advice but always thought the fee changes would be so minor as not to compensate for any TA costs.

I found this thread very interesting too. Seems that AA desk may be fairly easy to use but it may cost your in YQ. Thanks.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onew...l#post37236581

I asked a question in the NewBie Lounge about Propellor Travel and just wanted to follow up.

On the Matt's Planet video, he stated that they were more of a booking agent than a travel agent, I think by virtue of the fact that agents commission has gone the way of the dodo.

I know they operate via a fee and it may be either partially or fully non-refundable - fine. In the trip I have in mind, for example, I have 2 legs on CX and 2 on QR. I don't see a codeshare for the CX legs but I do for the QR legs, the CX legs are relatively short so if it has to be CX that's OK but the QR legs are lengthy and to not get them as a BA codeshare would be a problem.

I want to get a sense of how much Propellor Travel will 'push' to help achieve my goals.

I do have the feeling that if/when this trip is booked and travelled, I will be a Propellor evangelist, just need some reassurance at the outset?

As long as the codeshare is allowed (not all are unless tied to another segment), there's no reason for an agent to push you to one or the other. Should be your preference based on earning opportunity, etc. This is the benefit of an agent vs. an airline as the agent has no skin in the game per-se, they should be quite neutral vs. the airline which makes more money for themselves by using their own codes.

Some airlines have (or used to have) bonus programs based on the dollar value of tickets plated (issued) on that airline's number. Don't know if that still exists.

If you're too young to know what "plating" is, back when tickets issued by travel agents were paper with red carbon, the agencies had metal plates which they would imprint on the tickets to indicate which was the issuing carrier. Here's an example:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0b0143bc13.jpg

OMG, the good old days.

Just curious: Was it really necessary to quote the entire post, including the image, that was immediately before your post?

Learned a lot from the oneworld explorer guide as well as this forum. Getting my feet wet in the world of RTW tickets and made this itinerary on rtw.oneworld.com which came back as valid and priced at around $6500 per ticket as Global explorer fare. Would love to hear opinion/ suggestions from the seasoned travelers/experts here and thank you in advance.

Mods, please move this to the right forum if I am mistaken and apologize in advance.

OSL- HEL stopover on Finnair
HEL-YUL stopover on Finnair
YUL-DFW stopover on AA
DFW-GRU stopover on AA
GRU-DFW stopover on AA
DFW-TYO stopover on JAL
TYO-HKG stopover on Cathay
HKG-KUL stopover on MH
KUL-OSL on QR

Will be split into three trips, first will be Oslo, Helsinki, Toronto in April 2026. Second will be to South America in July or August- planning to visit Buenos Aires and possibly Asuncion and third will be to Japan, HKG, KL in October or November.

Any suggestions on itinerary, changes- tried to keep it Non stop as much as possible.

I am assuming if my initial travel date is set, I can do booking with dummy dates and change dates later as ticketing opens up without any penalty?

With above itinerary, can I book with AA?

Where best to allocate miles? Home airport is IAH and do fly QR in business once or twice a year. Do have AA FF account as well

Two thoughts:
1. if you are really just visiting YYZ, and not YUL for an extended period, you could change the YUL-DFW to YYZ-DFW with no need to return to YUL.
2. If/when you call AA, they may request use of an AA codeshare for long flights like DFW-TYO, but with your use of AA for DFW-GRU return I suspect AA will be willing to use your itinerary as posted. You can always call AA again if you want to tweak the itinerary after getting a price on the first draft,

Seeking kind advice if this is a legal DONE4:
OSL-DOH-DFW-GRU
GRU-DFW-ANC-LAX
LAX-JFK-HND-SIN
SIN-NRT
NRT-BLR
BLR-NRT-DOH-CMN
CMN-DOH-OSL

Also wanted to ask, about half of the segments I intend to fly only more than a year out from now i.e. if I booked now I would need them to be open dated first and then booked later, do the members here who help book DONEx help with booking the open dated segments later, or would I need to go to Propellor Travel or some high service TA?

Thanks in advance!

Thank you jrobin , much appreciated. Will look into changing the YUL-DFW segment. I guess fares are fluctuating since this is a Global explorer fare and not a xDONEx fare- now pricing at $7100.

Hi Selpol
Welcome to the wonderful world of RTW planning, one of my favourite pastimes :D
I assume you are thinking of a business class ticket (based on the ticket you priced up being ~$6500)

Some comments:

HEL-YUL stopover on Finnair
...first will be Oslo, Helsinki, Toronto...
If you want to go to Toronto (YYZ) why are you flying to Montreal (YUL)?
Finnair does not fly to either airport currently, so you are changing planes somewhere (It commences HEL-YYZ non-stop flights on May 4th)
(I plugged your itinerary into the tool, and it offered flights via London)

DFW-GRU stopover on AA
GRU-DFW
...planning to visit Buenos Aires and possibly Asuncion...
Again, if you want to go to Buenos Aires, why are you flying to Sao Paolo?
AA used to fly direct DFW-EZE, but you can easily fly DFW-MIA-EZE (and of course stopover in Maimi if you want to), also DFW-JFK-EZE
As an aside, if you travelling between Buenos Aires and Asuncion, you really must visit the Iguassu Falls
As a further aside, I have no idea how the winter weather is down there in August

KUL-OSL on QR will of course by via DOH
So your current itinerary is: OSL-HEL-xLHR-YUL-DFW-GRU-DFW-TYO-HKG-KUL-xDOH-OSL
You could stopover in either London or Doha but not both (maximum of two stopovers in your continent of origin, and you're already stopping over in Helsinki)

Your itinerary is only using 11 of the allowed 16 segments
Can't leave 5 segments on the table, right?
One way to use them-
- assuming you are based in the Dallas area
- lots of AA non-stop flights from DFW
- to Anchorage, Vancouver, Calgary, even Quebec City
- to Mexico and Central America
- to the Caribbean
- and to all over the lower 48 states
So
- a return trip over the Memorial Day weekend (ie after Europe and before Sth America)
- another return trip over the Labor Day weekend (ie after Sth America and before Asia)
- and finally, a stopover in Honolulu on your way to Japan,
Something like: OSL-HEL-LHR-YYZ-DFW-ANC-DFW-GRU-DFW-AUA-DFW-HNL-TYO-HKG-KUL-DOH-OSL

The above itinerary exceeds the 34,000 miles allowed on a business class Global Explorer, but it is a valid 4-continent Oneworld Explorer, and starting from Norway they are the same price.

Happy planning Selpol

Thank you pandaperth for your detailed explanation and advice, will review your suggested itinerary and agree about maximizing segments and stopovers. Agree on Iguazu falls, amazing experience, visited while in Peru and Brazil in 2023. IAH is my closest airport, about 75 min but DFW is only 3 hours away and AUS is 2 hours away.

Thanks again

Selpol, I agree with Panda use up those extra segments in North America. Our home airport is DFW and we are on our second RTW. One of the tricks is to be sure that you go some where that the lodging and transport is plentiful and affordable.

We really enjoyed SAN i.e San Diego we stayed on Coronado Island - lodging is a bit pricey. But we really enjoyed the walk to the beach, the bus rides, affordable taxi to airport the view from the bridge over to the island are great, and the ferry ride. We did it Thanksgiving week all and all a good trip at a reasonable price.

We just changed a trip for this Christmas from PBI to SJO because the lodging prices look really good and will not need to rent a car (just makes for a bit more relaxing holiday trip).

Just a couple of examples. I am sure you can find something even more interesting to you, go for it!

Date changes where easy with AA RTW desk
 

I had an easy time with date changes on AA RTW desk with no extra cost. I changed 2/3 of the dates: I waited until after the flying the first segment to be sure the date change would be no charge. Late I changed the actural routing and go hit with a bit of YR/YQ cost but that seems to be normal for adding QR vs some of the other carriers.

Curious about your routing through LAX and JFK, is that for mileage? else you could maybe change and get a trip to Mexico, Belize, or Costa Rica. Enjoy!

Thank you flyhurl , Great advice and suggestions. Closest airport for us is IAH and I see Alaska flying non stop to Seattle, we may add that. Thanks again!

The issue is, I want to accrue to AA, hence I don't want it to be AA plated, maybe QR or JL plated and fully QR and JL coded. Yes this ticket will be for mileage with little regard to actual vacation value.

That's the same exact issue I face. I think the best solution is to use a travel agent and plate on QR stock. My last one was QF plated (ex-CAI sale) via the OW tool, but will never do that again. I also reckon I could have saved a bit by plating on QR stock. It was nearly all JL and QR coded and the availability of JL codes to Brazil vs. AA only to other SA countries definitely dictated my routing choices.

Just as an FYI while you build this, there are QR codes now on a lot more AA flights to central America than there used to be, so it's possible to use those for some North America segments without adding a continent.

Yes.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but don't AA coded flights earn more AA points than QR code-shares on AA flights?

Lots of good info from pandaperth here, as usual. But this ...

... this is the key. :)

Not if you're crediting to AA. On a RTW ticket AA codes will usually credit on a revenue basis which is miniscule. QR codes will credit at 250% + status bonus. It's the opposite when crediting to QR PC. AA codes earn more than QR codes there.

Sometimes AA codes will credit as distance rather than revenue, but it's still less than a QR code. AA codes 'when' they credit on a distance basis are 175% + status bonus. But there is no hard and fast rule about what causes them to credit on a distance base vs. revenue base. I've had both happen, and there's an entire thread in the AA forum with similar experiences.