If you go back and read the posts in this thread from June 3 you'll find the prices ex-SA have increased by about 50%. If you want the former SA fares, they're still available from ex-WDH or even better prices ex-MPM. Read the last few pages of posts as there is a lot of good info.

And I have posted about my successfully ticketed ex-MPM DONE5 just a few hours ago in this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...periences.html

Alas the price ex JNB (/SA) was hiked substantially a few weeks back. You can still ticket ex Mozambique (MPM) for similar old prices and that's what those few here looking to ticket recently have done. Best of all, the AA RTW desk is taking these bookings direct without arguing over what card you are using.

They operate 7am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 6pm Saturday and Sunday. All times local to Dallas, TX.

Directly line (works on Skype overseas) is 1-800-247-3247.

So not ideal when being overseas...but honestly has worked well for me. The 3 times I had issues was on late night departures out of SIN, KUL and JNB. It was the middle of the day in Dallas and they stepped in and fixed everything. Love the AA RTW Team...

Moderator note

I have copied threads dated 20 July 2016 and later from this thread - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...cpt-query.html - to this one, and have closed the prior thread. The flow of posts on the old thread was becoming increasingly irrelevant to the thread's title, and the discussion was spreading over several different threads, creating problems with continuity.

Posts are entered here according to their posting time/date, so there may be some gaps in sequencing caused by the integration of the older posts into this thread's "timeline," but hopefully members will figure things out.

No luck for me at AA. I tried to book a AONE4, MPM-DOH-CDG-LHR-DXB-LHR-MIA-LAX-HKG-LHR-xACC and was told no flight segments between Europe/Middle East if starting in Africa. Did consult with the better agents per recommendation of our former favorite AA agent Sarah. AA said that the text in 4(h) that refers to 4(e) 3.1.3 or 3.2.3 is still valid. Of course there is no 4(e) 3.1.3 or 3.2.3 any more. The agents did say to try BA or QR. The oneworld website stated that the itinerary was valid, but hangs up when trying to price it. Thoughts???

I truly wish that somebody at Oneworld would write a set of rules that made sense, saving us from having to parse them like we're students of the Talmud. But for the time being it's not to be, and arguing with the AA RTW desk over phantom rules or zombie routing restrictions seems beyond frustrating. But more importantly, it seems risky given this comment from pandaperth above -
I think this is wise, and I would mentally commit to spending US$125 to argue the route in a re-issue after I locked in a fare that might go away soon. Remember Mauritius.

The on-line tool still has not been updated to handle the new backtracking rules. See my post #335 in this thread - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...ule-sheet.html

Also, the on-line tool has never been able to price up an itinerary that begins with a QR flight.

And to answer my own question - the answer is "Yes":)

And I found the AA RTW Desk to be very efficient

• I phoned at 3pm Dallas time
• The agent and I took 20mins to set up my ex-MPM itinerary
• I requested it be priced up at the ex-Mozambique price, converted to AUD
• I checked on-line 5hrs later and the itinerary had been priced, in AUD (approx. AUD6000 for a DONE6)

The aa web site now provides a bit of a breakdown of the all-in price:

• base fare
• taxes
• carrier-imposed fees

The last time I used the AA RTW desk, we got into this argument about the then existing Canadian exception, and then the price when they priced a DONE3 as an AONE3 (and still had everything booked as a DONE3).

I just called to book an exMPM DONE5 with AA RTW desk and I was told that the following was not allowed: MPM-DOH-US-S. America-xUS-HKG-LHR-CPT. The agent said I could not transit Europe as it would be considered backtracking continents. She only allowed HKG-DOH-CPT.

I know I will be calling to change routing and dates after I fly the first legs, so I may just let it stand for now.

The agent did say she has booked about 10 exMPM tickets in the past week. She wanted to know who on FT found the cheap fares, but she didn't believe me when I said I did. :D

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24709603-post2.html

she set up a pnr for me in 45 minutes. she also handled 5 other tickets my sister booked.. (my pnr expired as i ticket elsewhere.)

I have just paid for this ticket by phoning the AA Australian number. The agent wanted to charge me a $60 booking fee, but I moaned and he waived it:)
Waiting now for it to be ticketed

I decided to pull the trigger now because it is July 29 today and fares are usually changed on the first of the month

Anyone flown ex-MPM yet? How is everyone dealing with visa issues? Anyone fly in on QR then back to DOH immediately on the return? Is it doable? Were you able to stay airside at MPM? How about JNB-MPM-DOH?

I would be interested in any insights from those flying ex-MPM too as my trip is not until the end of the year. I plan on flying JNB-MPM in the morning arriving at 10:40 AM with a MPM-DOH 15:35 departure.

I did call the Mozambique embassy in DC and they said a Visa is required when transiting MPM.

I have no actual experience with MPM yet and have been unable to find much useful information online, so any real life experiences would be appreciated.

As others have suggested, instead of going through a TA it's perfectly possible nowadays to utilise the AA RTW desk for one of these bookings. And I have every intention of doing that when I return from my current travels.

In the meantime, I wanted to provide a couple bits of information further to my (earlier) attempts to price an itinerary through other means.

First, after the Mozambique agent came back with the above comment from QR, I pointed out the rules to them (via the agent). Qatar then came back with:
Obviously, also wrong. So I went back to the agent with the appropriate rule where different start and end points are permitted. In a further sign of its incompetence the agent has come back with the following from QR:
I have told the agent that if QR can't play by the rules then there's obviously no point in continuing.

Second, in an attempt to get a price through the oneworld tool, I had an issue with the tool displaying the direct flights between LIM and EZE. It would only display connections via SCL. I emailed LATAM and, to my surprise, they got back to me within 24 hours. Naturally, they didn't answer the question, but they did offer to price an itinerary for me. I thought I had nothing to lose so I sent them the above itinerary. A couple of days later they reverted with an outrageous base fare of USD10500 and a total fare of USD11508.61.

So I guess the takeaway is QR and LATAM are airlines to be avoided if you're in the market for an xONEx.

This priced out at $3,459. That's cheaper than exKRT!

I really hope they don't make changes until 01 September :)

So is anyone booking an ex- MPM ticket able to transit Europe?
Skunker- are you saying you are going to add it in when you change your routing?

Yes. Me:)

My itinerary is MPM-xDOH-BKK ... ATL-LHR-MAD-DKR

This has been priced and paid for with AA (it has not been ticketed yet, but since the first flight is not until June 2017, I guess it is low on AA's list of priorities)

This itinerary does not run foul of AA's interpretation of the backtracking rule (it has no flight segments between Europe and Middle East), so I had no problems getting AA to price it up.

skunker's proposed itinerary is essentially the same as mine. The only difference is that it heads West from DOH (to the US) at the beginning and comes into Europe at the end from the East (HKG-LHR).
So I really don't understand how the AAgent that dealt with this had the belief that the itinerary was invalid.
(Either DOH or LHR must be a transfer without stopover, but I'm sure skunker would know that and anyway that is not the problem the AAgent had with the itinerary.)

FYI, all, -- AFAICT, the Global Explorer fare does not have any mention about the Middle East-Europe problem which is causing so much grief with the AA RTW desk. (OTOH, of course, Global Explorer in premium cabins is limited to 34,000 BIS miles, far from the most efficient use of this ticket.)

the circle fare is interesting too. but it is not ideal in term of mileage running.

basically, my done are mostly for mileage running as i have been to pretty much anywhere one world major cities..

Fantastic pandaperth! So if I am understanding correctly, it is working for you because you are not transiting through DOH on your return? Unlike my proposed itinerary of MPM-xDOH-SIN-(Surface Sector SIN-DPS)-DPS-HKG-MNL-HKG-LAX-MAD-VIE-HEL-CDG-xDOH-SEZ. If that's the case, I can do a LHR to NBO to avoid DOH. Did your LHR stop bump up your cost drastically?

And, if you are starting in June, I am assuming you are planning on changing some dates when they open up?

Thanks again for your input!

Yes, that was my plan: add it when I change the routing.
Yes, I wanted a transit in LHR and was told no can do as it was "backtracking continents." When I pointed out that DOH was the same continent she just said "it's different in this case."

Since you've been able to purchase your itinerary I might try to change mine to include the Europe transit at the end.

A transit at LHR shouldn't change the price much as the APD is only for originating in the UK. The fuel surcharge on BA is another story.

I think what you have calls for HUACA - a different AAgent should not have the same issue with your proposed itinerary.

How do you plan on handling the 75K RDM limit per ticket, or are you doing the mileage run for another OW/partner FF program?

FWIW, while I used to really work to maximize my mileage earning, not so much anymore. I do my trips for travel purposes, including a couple short DFW-EGE-LAX flights, not to mention SYD-MEL. Even doing that I still way over the 75K RDM/ticket threshold so am splitting earning between BAEC and AAdvantage. I'll earn a lot more with BAEC on AA coded RTW flights than with AA and need the BA flights to qualify for BAEC Gold.

my ticket is issued by CX, and only one aa segment

I believe that you have to book it initially using your AAdvantage number if you want to benefit from eVIPs or sticker upgrades. I'm going to be doing the same thing as you. Will book it initially with AAdvantage then change at least the QR flights to QRPC at the gates before I board.

at this point, it is all speculation, i incline to think that the cap is only applied on aa marketed flight. only aa coded flight is attached with a 4 digit eticket number. i deliberately ticket my rtw via cx with only one aa segment. (jfk lax) i have not decided if that would be posted to aa or jl (or perhaps aim at ba gold as my parents and my 2 year old nephew are all ba gold.)

Sorry if this has been mentioned here before.

AA PLT desk confirmed that the system is not tracking bookings, only ticket numbers. Neither there is no special handling for RTW tickets.

They also confirmed, that if one make change that gets the ticket reissued, the counter would start counting again from zero because having different e-ticket number. So, it's at least really possible to dodge the 75K RDM limit by getting ticket re-issued by making changes on the way, before the cap would apply.

Great news, thanks!

While that certainly makes -sense-, and sounds logical logistically, would be nice to have/find some really authoritative guidance beyond a AA res agent-- at least a senior agent, etc. As we all know, there's no AA PLT desk, per se, so no way to determine the experience/knowledge/authoritativeness of that agent's opinion.

Again, sounds very possible, but wouldn't want anyone to make plans based on same.

Back to MPM issues for a minute. (I'm starting to get confused as to which thread for which issues!!)

Just got off the phone with a very nice gentleman at AA RTW desk, let's call him Mr. T. First, I note that he couldn't have been nicer.

He said that "American is not issuing" any tickets which touch Africa and have segments between Europe and Middle East in the itinerary. We reviewed the rules together; and he saw my point. Put me on hold and checked with the "tariff" desk. He agrees that it is ambiguous, but said that this is the position that AA is taking. Very apologetic. He said that there have been discussions about changing the wording in this section of the rules; and he hopes that it occurs this week since they are receiving a lot of calls on this.

Gave me the number for BA RTW desk; but they are a Monday-Friday operation.

So back to the drawing board on the itinerary, I guess.

Interesting, and thanks for letting us know

One thing though - typically an xONEx has more than one e-ticket number. Believe it or not, the 'modern' electronic ticket system still reflects the old paper tickets: a ticket has four coupons, each representing a segment. If your itinerary has 16 segments (and all of ours do right?) then you will have four e-tickets in your itinerary.
My just issued by QF DONE5 has four e-tickets, numbered sequentially.

So if is truly at the e-ticket level, then we should have no problem with the 75,000 mile limit

Are they willing to issue tickets that do NOT backtrack to Europe/Middle East yet have segments between Europe and Middle east? These should not be a problem.

Why did they give you the BA RTW number? Was it so that you go and try your luck with them? Or was it because they are considered the "definitive source" when it comes to interpreting the rules (the pdf version on the Oneworld web site is authored by BA). I had a battle with BA last year (which I won) regarding their interpretation of the old backtracking rule - see post #91 in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...cpt-done5.html

They seem to be telling people to try another airline if you don't agree with how AA is interpreting the rules(as in maybe you will have better luck with somebody else but we aren't going to read it that way). They did the same with me and a couple of other people have reported something similar.

What he said after speaking to the tariff desk while I was on hold was that AA "is taking the position" that it is not issuing tickets for itins which include segments between Europe and Middle East if they touch Africa. He acknowledged that that may change once the clarification is issued.

Update:

I just got off the phone with AA RTW office. After I told the lady where I would be departing from she laughed and said that she had been booking a lot of these tickets this week.

I had all of my flights, departing date and the continuing (fake) dates ready and the entire process took about 15 minutes.

She gave me a confirmation number and said she is sending it to the rate desk for the taxes and carrier charges. The base rate I was quoted was $2,389. The next step is that I call back tomorrow to find out the total and they will hold the reservation for me until Friday 8/5.

Here is my DONE4:
MPM- xDOH-SIN-(SIN- DPS surface sector)DPS-HKG-MNL-SAN-YYC-SAN (SAN-LAX surface sector)- LAX-LHR-BUD-LHR-JNB

When I confirmed with her that I could change the dates, she made the comment that it would be tricky because this is a discounted fare and therefor there would be less availability. Has anyone had experience with date changes? I am assuming that you book it as soon as the calendar opens up...or at least as soon as you can.

This was really easy. So, either they are going to come back with reasons why it can't be done OR all of the help an input I got from you all made it work.

I'll keep you posted! Thanks all! And a big thanks to pandaperth!