If you are originating in the U.S., as it appears from your itinerary, then you can ask the AA RTW desk to write the ticket and send it to you. I, too, would be reluctant to have a RTW ticket hand written by someone with little or no experience in doing so.

I'm afraid that can't be done now. I was told several times that the woman who used to hand write the tickets has been let go due to budget cut-backs. The RTW desk said that for me to get the ticket, I would need to go to "any AA gate agent at any airport" and they could do it. I went to the local airport (AMA) and asked the agents at the check-in counter if they could hand-write the ticket and I was told "no" and that they didn't even know how to hand-write one.

My AONE4 was issued by BA (twice) and was printed on ATB stock with no problems. It had 22 segments on it.

It's a shame what these airline budget cuts have done to the customer service they once provided. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

BA may be reluctant to do your ticketing, as it doesn't appear that you have any long distance BA segments unless you are planning to use them over CX on the HKG-LHR segment. If they decline then I would go back to the AA counter at AMA and insist that they find a way to get you the ticket. The excuse of not knowing how to hand write a ticket is bull. A supervisor or the station manager surely knows how to do it or can find a way internally at AA to get it done. That is there job. Don't let them off the hook.

Just a thought...

Maybe if my ticket has to be handwritten, I would "write" the ticket myself! (I have read the ARC ticketing manuals on issuing manual tickets [IATA tickets would be similar except the boxes might be in slightly different places])

I would ask my travel agent for a print-out of my PNR which includes the fare calculation and taxes and "write" my ticket onto a "template" (photocopied from blank ticket stock) so that the travel agent can "review/check" my "ticket template" before I actually write onto "real" ticket stock (then they would validate it on with their carrier plates [a carrier like CX that pays commission of course!] on their "roller device" once they are satisfied that the ticket is written correctly).

(If I can find a travel agent who would let me do this and maybe charge me $75 in service fees instead of $300)

Oh, for God's sake.

Welecome to Planet Lam! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

No travel agent in his right mind would ever let you near their CRS much less write your own ticket! The "little roller device" is called a Ticket Validator. There is already a 'mistake' in your attempt mentioned above to write the ticket. If you can't figure out what it is, then you are not meant to issue your own ticket!


[This message has been edited by Guy Betsy (edited 03-08-2003).]

CX must be the carrier who priced the itinerary in order for the ticket to be validated using its plate?

Ticket stock must be validated before
written on?

Well, one of the travel agents i've been to let me book my flights for a relative using their CRS and they can't get the booking classes right and find the fare we had in mind.

CAI does seem like a useful starting point... Any comments of issues with the following ONE4 itinerary (or any equivalent routing which will maximise QF status credits/mileage):

CAI-SIN [via LHR]-HKG-NRT-HKG-MNL-PER-DRW-BNE-SYD-AKL-SCL-PUQ-SCL-GRU-LHR

Also - I seem to remember that there might be a problem with booking this in D when it comes to LA flights in South America (some rule which means travelling in Y on the QF/LA codeshare AKL-SCL, as well as in Y on internal Chilean flights, irrespective of a J cabin being available).

Any comments much appreciated.

I do not think there are direct flights between MNL and PER. You either have to go via HKG, SYD or BNE. This would add an extra segment in Asia or SWP, neither of which have any segments left. However, it should be easy to rearrange your Oz stops, e.g. MNL-SYD-PER-DRW-BNE-AKL.

I know LA tends to be stingy in letting lose of their A seats but I haven't heard of problems with D.

Of course, you must ticket the last segment in Europe LHR-CAI. Whether or not you fly it is up to you.

[This message has been edited by ExMo (edited 03-09-2003).]

A few days ago, I purchased 26 segments Oneworld Explorer Circle Trip at CX city ticket office of TYO.
It consits of hand-written flight coupons and computer printed coupons as follows.

segment 1-8 -> hand-written
segment 9 -> printed, indicating flight coupon 2 of 15
...
segment 21 -> printed, indicating flight coupon 14 of 15
segment 22-26 -> hand-written

These coupon numbering says whole story.

Furthermore, some taxs and airport service charges are printed on separate papers, and attached on reverse sides of flight coupons.

Anyway, it took looong time.

Let me guess what they did...

They issued it as a 15 segment ticket in a "condensed" format.

Coupon 1 of 15 says "From: segment 1 to To: segment 8"

and Coupon 15 of 15 says "From: segment 22 to To: segment 26"

And when they issued the handwritten ticket for segments 1 to 8, they issued it "in exchange for (ticket number of coupon 1 of 15)"

and for segments 22-26, "issued in exchange for(ticket number of coupon 15 of 15)".

But this makes me wonder... Couldn't they have issued seperate printed tickets (on seperate ticket records) for the tickets they have handwritten? (in exchange for the coupons you mentioned?)

Anyways, it is just a guess of what CX in TYO did.

my experience with only 2 OWE tkts:

1: hand written by a DTW airport AA agent. once it is less the n16 segments it can be changed from hand written to computer printed if you need reissue in the middle of the travel.

2: computer printed as two ticket that cross referenced together by CTO in Auckland. The fare is divided into half among 2 tkt numbers but it can be printed.

I am gonna do my third one ex UK/Europe in this summer with opendate... donno how it gonna be this time..(I think I will use AA since they seems nice to an EXP)

I've seen some 'manual' tickets issued by incompetent travel agents taht are so questionable that when I presented the photo-copied of the ticket to some of the airlines concerned, they shrieked in horror.

1. Cathay Pacific gasped and said that they'd never accept such a ticket.
2. BA said that they'd never approve of such a ticket to be accepted.
3. AA laughed.
4. QF laughed even harder .. as they had no segments on the ticket.

The agent issued a ticket comprising of over 6 books. The fare was guaranteed by AA but yet the ticket was plated on BA. Throughout the entire ticket, there was no fare in the fare box. This amount was only put on the LAST book of tickets, in USD with total taxes. The ticket originated in Sweden. There was no breakdown of each cities tax. There was no fare calculation. No breakdown as to which was the connecting city and which was the stopover. (Hence the taxes cannot be totalled).

I had to get AA in Singapore to reissue the ticket for me as a favor as no one else would touch it. The ticket was eventually a printed ticket on AA.