The term One World is the most misleading term in the world. We had Fist class RTW tickets tarveling from New-Orleans-DFW-JFK by AA connecting to Cathay for Bombay via Hongkong. I had called the EXP and RTW desk and fina;ised my bookings which involved a date change only. When we reached New Orleans Airport, the booking agent refused to book our four heavy suit cases directly to Bomabay as my tickets are in two different carriers and the dates on the tickets are different from my bookings. She said she had to reissue all the remaining 16 segments and spent 2 hours with the International desk who failed to do anything, Our flight was about to leave and we had no option except to book our luggage to JFK, pick them up, Lug them through the inter terminal bus and take it to Cathay's booking office. This totally spoilt an otherwise excellent trip.
Time has now come for AA and other one world airlines to stand up to their promise of seamless integration
I am just warning my fellow FTs Be triply careful if you are traveling on a OWE RTW ticket as the hassles of reissue, rerouting and date cahnges added on to this new threat are making trvel for RTW veterans a major hassle

The agent obviously didn't know what she was doing - she should also have contacted the OneWorld RTW desk instead of International Desk Tariffs. A date change is acceptable and should have been just corrected by a pen.

I think post 9-11, airlines are just cautious of changes that do not reflect what it says on the tickets.

Word of wise - next time, travel on open tickets, and get a print out of your latest travel itinerary to show to check-in agent.

That's absurd. Out of all my segments last year, I would be surprised if more than 10 had matching ticket dates and actual flight dates. The ticket agent was wrong and wasted your time. I agree with you re: the lack of integration between the different carriers.

I think "None World" is a bit harsh. I grant that it's not seamless - I ran into a similar problem with an AA-issued ticket on BA at CDG last year, but most of the time it works pretty well. I think your problems had more to do with an incompetent agent than with an inherent OW problem. Incompetence, while lamentable, is not restricted to AA.

You might mull over what reasonable compensation would be and write a letter to AA asking for it. If nothing else, you should get some sympathy miles.

I also had hart time checking in last year, before 9-11. I think it was SFO and with AA. The agent thought that the date change had to be revalidated and started calling all the places she could imagine. Took about 30 minutes to check me in finally.

It was then I decided that I should insist on open-dated segments at least for AA. I never had a problem of this kind with BA/CX/QF.

I recently had occasion to change dates on most of the segments of a RTW ticket. I was enroute and the changes were made by a QF CTO in New Zealand. The agent "stickered" all of the BA, QF and CX fight coupons and called AA about altering the 2 AA segments. AA said they would not permit "stickered" or manual alteration for any changes including time and date on their flight coupons and that ANY change required a ticket reissue. QF was astonished at the reply and requested AA send in writing this new rule for AA tickets which they did. Ultimately QF had to reissue a 24 segment ticket solely to alter dates on 2 AA flights.

I am currently holding another RTW ticket and AA has confirmed I must have it reissued before departure because of a date change to one segment. I was told I would be denied boarding at the airport until the existing ticket was reissued to show the correct date of travel. None of these changes involved a change of routing or itinerary and there was no charge for the reissue.

Apparently the AA ticket agent was correct.

I did an American Eagle flight connecting with CX in LAX and HKG to SIN. The ticket was open, and there were stickers on each coupon. I had no problem checking in and getting boarding passes for all my connecting flights too.

Seems to be this reissue thing is to prevent people with nonref, nonchangeable tickets to just show up at the counter demanding to be let on. But it slows down the real people with legitimate open tickets for travel.

Are there any tickets issued in A (or D) that would be non-ref or non-change?

So, AA does have its own (documented) rule re: carrier changes?

drbala san,

I can absolutely sympathize with your experience, however, think of it this way, if AA had been able to check all of your luggages via JFK to BOMBAY on CX, there would have been a reasonable chance of your luggages not making it with you. I realize its such a hassle to transfer with all your luggages at major intercontinental hub airports. I have experiences with both *A and OW in First Class tugged luggages that just don't make it at major airports like LHR, CDG, LAX. I would dare say JFK would also rank very high on the list of 'missed luggages' airports. Alliances nor interline
arrangements just don't seem to matter, in particular, most check-in agents at domestic airports seem to get horrified by the RTW tickets. Its always good to carry RTW desk number with you so that you could advise the agents when checking in with AA or even at CTOs.

Just ten days ago, BA could not even transfer my two pieces of luggages at LHR despite a 70 minute transit at the same terminal, T4!! and it was tugged with First Class plus "SHORT TRANSIT AT LHR" tug!

I have made it a point that in my future RTW travels, I will do my best to do carry-ons only. I mean I have to learn to pack and wear very smart as I may be going from one Hemisphere to another and back in just a few days. Also this protects me from many cases of flight delays, cancellations and rerouting, etc. The agents can better help me if I am traveling with carry-ons only, it seems. And you would be the one to know among many OW exploreres here that such chances are very high indeed.

never bet on BA lugguage at LHR.
to tell you some of my laughable experiences
(well, in fact, sad experiences)

1. connected hkg-lhr-dub, had 80 min. didnot see my lugguage, wheil a fellow passenger on CX (hkg-lhr) arrived 15 min after my BA flight at LHR got his!!!
2. 2 hr transfer at LHR, still lost lugguage
3. the agent out a wrong date for my lugguage tag, as a result i did not get my lugguage untila week later

[This message has been edited by pegasus8228 (edited 01-11-2002).]

I never check luggage if I have to go anywhere near LHR.

I'm 3 for 3 on checked luggage (loosing it that is)

1.) A simple AA to BA with 3 hour layover.
2.) An AA flight terminating in LHR from BOS - where could it have gone?
3.) A AA to LH with 2 hours to do it. Granted this one is more likely to go astray but still.....

Mine is a bit more of 'oneworld' experiences of late ...

I just did SFO-LHR on AA (a single flight number but equipment changes at ORD). The carrier on the ticket was designated as BA, open-dated. It's oneworld Explorer booked under D.

The reservation was made by AA and the SFO agent accepted it without any question whatsoever. I did not say anything at all, either. I upgraded with a VIPOW and the ORD agent asked if I have the cert. (SFO-ORD is a two-class service.) But I told her it was surrendered in SFO and she didn't give a **** about the ticket showing BA as the carrier, either.

I made a reservation for a BA flight and used my CX FFP number. BA seems to have picked up my meal preference (vegetarian) from my CX preference record .... I was surprised.

BA LHR lounges were very accommodating when I showed my AA emerald card. ... no hassle... but T4 First Class lounge was very crowded and Terrace was much more pleasant.

A 'none world' experience ... AA's system did not update my upgraded CX status (to saphire from ruby)! But no big deal.

I personally like this oneworld alliance much better than Star ... I really wish BA would not pull out.