Ticket Reissue and Issue. AA please listen
 

One world explorer is an excellent product and I have enjoyed my last four trips immensely accumulating miles, Q points, receiving excellent service etc. One sore point is the weakness in ticket issue and reissue. The xecellent work done by the angels at AA RTW desk is always cancelled out by the ticketing agents in the AA offices/airports.
I recently went through the painful process of getting three OWE explorer tickets reissued due to route changes. One at London and two at Miami. In London it took three hours despite a very patient and understanding agent. I went to Miami two days ago and found that there were no Platinum service center or First class ticketing office at the airport. I stood in aQ for 30 minutes at 'Future ticketing' which had one agent only. He literally collapsed on seeing my ticket and to give him credit he managed to reissue it in a total time of 28 hours (I had to come next day to collect the ticket) The main hurdle is the Fares who are usually wrong first time and later correct themselves when you are firm Cant the RTW desk take over everything including fares etc for OWE tickets?
AA please listen and help

AA staff are not trained to understand such issues, unfortunately.

with CX, the specialists usually would take care of everything (you communicate via fax/phone with them first), and leave a note in the airport. it still takes close to an hour, but that is still great improvement over your 3 hour benchmark.

did you try to sort everything out with RTW desk, ask them to put this as a note to the agent who does the re-issuance? the first thing the ground staff does is call the fare center, she would then see the note immediately. i hope this would speed up the process a bit, but not sure?

dbala, i think the best way to tell AA is to also fill their feedback form on the web.

Dr,
First of all I must say I amused about someone being from both Slidell and London. You don't see many of those kind of folks.
My mother was born in England - England AR that is. I know right where Slidell is.

On your tkt problems.. I assume you are PLAT - if I recall reading one of your other questions you are.
Can't the Plat desk help? Certainly there is a manager or a super at the airport that can speed things up.
I've never been so I don't know, just a guess. I would like to find out though since I am working on putting a RTW- trip together in 2002.
Thanks.

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TANSTAAFL - but if you work it right, FF miles comes pretty close.

I never ever go to a ticketing desk without setting up a clear itinerary with the RTW desk. Still the whole catch 22 occurs at every point. If you are in LHR the bottleneck is Dublin and if you are in USA the bottle neck is the 'FARES'

We are originally from India, have lived in London for 29 years and moved to Slidell 8 yeara ago for work My wife loves Slidell and I commute between these two cities six monthe here and six months there http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

dont think i ahve better benchmark than 40 minutes with CX.
perhaps just try to do it if possible at HKG, they wd probably assist u do so while u r lounging n the Wing!

but we are out of luck if in N.A.,
i do think believe the FL staff should handle this for u, by sending your ticket to the office, while u wait at the FL. make a suggestion to AA? i will second

i suppose in LHR, the ticketing/reservation counter inside the lounge can do this for u?

drbala san,
yes I can certainly identify with your frustration. After all, time is money and we pay for the flexibility of these tickets! Recently I dropped into one of the few remaining AA CTOs in Manhattan to do a minor route change on my OWE4 ticket. Of course, like you, I had talked to a very capable agent at AA RTW desk and had the whole thing set up. As soon as I showed my ticket and explained what I wanted to do, the agent literally froze; almost ready to give it up while punching in my PNR. Both of us were like in prayers that nothing unexpected would happen. Voila, it was a miracle that a two route changes were done and processed in 40 minutes at 75USD.

After the recent major cutbacks on CTOs, if you know of anyone capable with RTW issues
in Manhattan CTOs, I would appreciate your recommendation.



[This message has been edited by Kaoru Kanetaka (edited 12-09-2001).]

If you're sure you're going to do the reissue within 24 hours, then ask the RTW desk (or DUB) to prepare a "Price Quote" or "Phase 4" record for ticket issuance. It is valid 24 hours. This will cut down the time as although the ticketing agent will most likely still call the fares desk as he/she doesn't see many RTWs, the desk will just tell him/her that everything is OK and to just issue the tickets as stored in the system. Without the stored PQ or Phase IV record, the desk would have to recalculate the ticket on the spot, which takes loads of time, while you're there waiting.

CFM, the Plt or Exec Plt desks can not touch a RTW itinerary. It has to go through the RTW desk.

I'd like to join the chorus. Ticket reissue is hell. Actually the fastest time I've gotten was with a first class check in agent at EWR who managed to reissue three RTW's in about 45 minutes. She was SOS'd for her efforts which were impressive considering the difficulty of the matter. I had cleared the reissue with RTW desk but the process of entering each segment etc. is every bit as bad for the poor agent stuck with the task as it is for those of us who stand and wait.

The trick is to ask the RTW desk to prepare the magic "Phase 4" record, which contains all the information to print the ticket: individual segments, fare, etc. etc. As long as you ask for it no longer than 24 hours prior, the agent has only a few keystrokes to enter to print the ticket.

I've had pretty good luck at the SEA airport. The RTW desk set everything up and the AA agent (I think his name was Gary) hand wrote the ticket for me. He wrote my original ticket and then also when I had to re-issue. Mine was only 20 segments or so. He told me that he just finished a 37 segment ticket for 2 people but loves writing those tickets!

I am again planning to purchase in Jan a 26 segment OWE 4 continent RTW ticlet for two originating from JNB in USA. What is the best way to do it?

I would suggest calling the AA RTW desk and have everything booked and confirmed through them. If they can issue then great (I think they is a maximum number of segments they can issue. Anything over that number you will have to go to a ticketing office/airport).

If they cannot issue, then try and find an experienced agent at a CTO or airport to help you.