Can I buy lower-grade extra segments?
 

I'm soon off on my first OW rtw and have a lot to learn about the rules. We're ticketing in First on a 3-continent fare, and we have 6 segments in Europe, so CX wants the equivalent of USD350 for each of the two extras.

One of the guru's here said the rules permit buying extra segments in coach - a great idea as far as I'm concerned - but CX has told my TA that isn't allowed. I sent her back to do battle, but it appears that she got the same answer again.

Does anyone know for sure if I can in fact insist that CX put me in coach for the two extra European segments?

Thanks for the shared wisdom...

John

I've flown on a RTW F ticket and even when the segments were booked in D I still had to pay the F supplement.

The rules ex-Asia, ex-South West Pacific and ex-North America specifically state that you can buy extra segments in a lower class than the RTW ticket. I can't imagine that the rules would be different ex-Europe. I had a partially used 1st class ticket ex-Africa reissued by AA in Australia 2 weeks ago and added 4 extra segments in South America in economy class and AA just went straight ahead and charged the Y class $US100 per segment - there seemed to be no uncertainty on their part.

My last oneworld 3 continent RTW ticket was bought in Amsterdam and the rules specificly state that you are allowed to buy unlimited additional flight segments and the fare class of the purchased flight segments may be lower than that of the oneworld explorer ticket.

I seemed to remember that you're leaving from Vancouver, why is your TA dealing with CX ? When I had a TA (Amex Travel Canada), they dealt with the AA RTW desk directly. And yes, my first segment is on CX from Toronto, and I have NO AA segments in my RTW.

I told John to screw CX and go with AA's RTW desk.

Thanks, guys and girls,

I appreciate the feedback very much. The TA I picked to ticket this unfortunately seems a bit uncomfortable doing battle with the airline, but with all your reinforcement I sent her back to face the dragon one more time. If she gets scorched again I'll call cX (or AA, as suggested) myself. Having booked everything with CX, can I simply give AA the CX pnr and tell them to price and ticket? Doesn't seem like that would happen.

john