I am trying to ticket an AONE5 ex-CAI before the price and terms change. I have made the booking through BA US RTW desk but they priced it in US$ and said I had to go through Cairo for the rate if I wanted it priced in Egyptian Pounds. OK, fine, so I FAX'd and called BA CAI and am receiving a lot of help from that office. However, there were a few problems that came up that BA CAI is still trying to work out with the London rate desk. Unfortunately, I am running out of time as I leave for CAI on 8 April and need to pick up the tickets on 10 April.

The problems involve BA saying I can't do LHR-IST-LHR on this ticket and that I can't reenter Asia from AKL, even though it is a transit between SWP and Europe (all the segments after dfw are ticketed open although I have specified the transits as shown). Also, the taxes seem way out of line - more than double what they should be. The tax issue I can almost live with but the other two I cannot as I know the rules allow what I am trying to do.

My question is can I get someone else (e.g. AA) to reissue a correct ticket after I get back to the U.S., if I have to lose my protest with BA on the above points due to running out of time? I'd be willing to pay the $100 reissue fee but want to keep the EGP fare, etc. Maybe I'd get lucky and they would even recompute the taxes and save me money!

The itinerary I am trying to ticket is cai-(x)lhr-(x)lax-scl-uio-scl-eze-mia//dfw-anc-dfw-fll-dfw-yvr-jfk-hkg-dps-sin-hkg-nrt-syd-per-drw-bne-akl-(x)hkg-lhr-ist-(x)lhr-cai

Can't see any probelm with AKL-(x)HKG-LHR.
I have booked SWP-Europe-South America-North America-Asia->SWP. SWP-Europe goes through Asia, but not with a change of flight. However don't think thats makes a difference (or least with QF)

What are you doing DPS-SIN on? I can't find a CX flight that does that (at leaast in July)


[This message has been edited by Mwenenzi (edited 04-03-2003).]

There is no problem with the flights, just BA's interpretation of the rules -- which is WRONG!!!

QF flies between SIN and DPS twice a week.

You may need to give up on the lhr-ist-lhr segments because the rules are vague on this issue. We all know that geography as defined by the fare rules are different from those defined by cartographiers. The list of countries that are restricted are all European plus the term Middle East. My guess is that Turkey falls under the Middle East region. Does make sense since all but a tiny portion is in the 'near east Asian' continent. Does not explain why many have travelled to DXB and IST on the same itinerary. Perhaps BA is more stringent on its interpretation of rules compared to AA or CX.

Seems the problem BA London has is that I did not book specific flights and dates so they could not determine that I was in transit AKL-HKG-LHR and that I was only making one stopover in LHR, the other two passes through were in transit. Thus, I only had a total of two stopovers in the continent of origin.

I told BA CAI that I would book actual flights if I had to but that I had indicated the transits with the "x/o" indicator on each segment. No word back from BA London yet so I am on hold until Monday.

The rules are very clear about istanbul. If they aren't clear, it's because they are too lazy to read them.

If it's that much of a friggin issue, have them date those segments

It was the tax issue which killed my RTW out of CAI for last week - turned out to be US$1000/UK�700 which was obscene in my view. I was also using BA to rate this is CAI, so would suspect that there might be a rating error with the way they calculate taxes.

You think? Jeez, I don't think I have paid a grand in taxes combined. Someone screwed up somewhere unless you were taking all stopovers, which is entirely possible. Each time you stop in London, it's going to cost you $60 or so. Taxes for a "normal" itinerary should run between $300 and $400. Sounds to me like either you are takng a ton of stopovers in London or they screwed up their X's and O's.

Agree. Most of my RTWs are between 250 and 400 $, depending on the number and location of stops (not on the place starting).

Why dont you buy from an experienced travel agency? I just bought a 6 cont in first starting in CAI from an agent in europe.

[This message has been edited by Unterwegs (edited 04-06-2003).]

ExMo,

one other thing: I have seen NRT-SYD. As far as i remember QF has no F on this flight. Not sure where they still have F other than SIN, BKK and HKG.

My taxes are also high, about US$850. There is no point in fighting this out with the BA CAI office. Once I am ticketed, I wlll see what the itemized taxes are and fight the battle then with BA London.

QF only offers business between NRT and SYD -- unfortunately.

Unterwegs, do you mind e-mailing me with your agent's information? I'm looking to start a RTW in 14 days. Thanks. e-mail address is [email protected]

For purposes of RTS fares (as well as other tier points, etc.) BA does not treat IST as being "Middle East", however, a couple years ago, BA expanded their restrictions with regard to RTW fares to permit only one R/T to a variety of places, including the Middle East, but also "deep" Europe. You can fly LHR-IST-LHR, but since you are doing a CAI-LHR, you will have to pay for 2 more segments.

As to the backtracking rule, since you are flying JFK-HKG and then going on to SWP, the only way to get back to Europe is via a same-numbered flight (e.g. SYD-BKK-LHR, SYD-SIN-LHR).

Hope this helps.**

Actually, pdb, the tickets have been issued as I originally requested them. LHR-IST-LHR is OK along with CAI-LHR...LHR-CAI. There is no need to buy extra segments. The "deep Europe" restrictions do not include Turkey.


There is no requirement to have a through flight from SWP to Europe. A transit via Asia is specifically allowed in the OWE rules. Thus, my AKL-HKG-LHR segments have been issued, open, with the appropriate x/o notation.