Saw Markie’s post about successfully getting a OWE ex-CAI in EG pounds upon arrival in Cairo. I am not willing to go to Cairo at the moment, though I would start OWE a few months later. I found a TA in Cairo who seems reputable and willing to write the ticket and FedEx to me in the USA before the mid-April deadline if my statements to him about OWE is correct. But the TA advises that both the IB & BA offices in Cairo have told him that they cannot issue a OWE ex-CAI. It seems that misinformation with BA is rampant.
My original plan was to use the AA ATW desk do the booking, and have a SABRE enabled TA in Cairo do the ticketing then send the ticket to me. AA has told me that if BA is the 1st segment, then a SABRE reservation is not going to work and it would be better to use BA directly. So, do I make the decision to skip AA and just call BA in the USA to make the booking? The AA desk is top notch, while BA is not regarded as well as AA/CX. Once that is done, contact BA in Cairo and fax credit card details. Any knowledge whether the Cairo office will send or hold the ticket to me?
Last gasp at a OWE if I can pull this together.

There's no (technical) reason why you shouldn't be able to go with your initial plan. I had a reservation ex-UK which was priced for me by the AA RTW desk (via tariff in Dublin), and ticketed by the AA CTO in London. The first segment was on BA and the first intercontinental segment was on QF.

I have AA priced by ex-Ireland, go through Dublin Rate Desk. and priced according to Dublin and pick up in UK. (priced in Dublin Fare which is higher than UK)

The first and first international segment is BAxxxx (AerLengus metal)and my first inter-con segment is with BA as well.

Note: BA's desk in US told me if I book through them, even I pick it up in UK, they will still charge me ex-US fare. I need to IDD to UK's BA desk if I want UK/Ireland fare!!

Any reservations done with AA, as long as ticketing is NOT done in North America, will be queued to AA's rate desk in Dublin. The rate desk sometimes do have a hard time understanding what is it that you want to do, and after a few excruiciating moments, I managed to get my message across. I still managed to issue a ticket through AA's office in Cairo when the originating airline is not AA.

Also I found out only North American and other on-line (that is where AA actually flies to) cities' ticket offices cannot issue more than 16 segments. The Cairo office managed to issue a 27 segment ticket. Their ticket stock is the red-carbon paper kind.

Kudo's to Mr A and Ms D for all their help!

[This message has been edited by Guy Betsy (edited 04-12-2003).]

What they tell you and what will actually happen are two different things. The US BA office is wrong (did you speak to their rate desk or their reservations?). If the UK fare is higher, and you are originating from the UK... irrespective of if you are paying for the fare in the US, you will be charged the UK fare as it is the higher of the two. If the US says that, and you show up in the UK... trust me, you will be charged the difference!

Well, it is all moot by now. A fellow FT'er (ExMo) has collected the ticket for me.
Luckily, the BA Cairo office was agreeable to our requests. Though I am troubled by the lack of the itemized tax codes. How can one obtain such a list to avoid problems in the future? Are the tax codes listed in the PNR? Need advice from the travel industry experts.

Yes, you would need BA to print out their fare calculation so that in the future should you be re-issuing your ticket with another airline other than BA, they would know what to do!

Thanks for the warning about the tax issue - I am in the process of leaving the office today to go to CAI and collect my ticket (and one for another Flyertalker), from BA in CAI. I have to say that they have been really helpful so far, so I will request that they print out all the taxes for me as I am sure I will need this one re-issued - 8 sectors on CX - need I say any more!

Our wonderful friend in the BA CAI office told me that Amadeus would not calculate the taxes and that she had to do it manually. She had the details in her files but I was pressed for time and did not pursue the issue further.

If I have to reissue, I'll let the airline doing the reissue redo the tax calculations. I stll think they were high although headinclouds thinks his came out about right.

Okay, can someone confirm that the old CAI prices are still in place, ie. EGP 29150 for AONE4?

I cannot confirm that prices are still there as the increase was supposed to happen by now (10th April).

My ticket (AONE6) was EGP 36,930 with taxes of EGP 3115 (8.4%), which I was happy with as my Star Alliance ticket last year was nearly 25% taxes!

Markie, did you get an itemized tax list? My taxes were 4715 EGP (14%) on an AONE5. I had only 1 transit in 25 segments, so I wonder if that had an effect on the total.

No, I did not in the end but I will be faxing today as I was charged taxes in Santiago, Chile today (and Lima yesterday $28US!!!).

Peruvian tax is never included.

Actually IMHO Peru is a complete scam. If you check your tickets some bizzare tax is included for Peru. However than they make you pay the tax at that little booth again as you leave. Even sillier is the tax collected is equal to the tax on your ticket.

rich