I was just browsing through the fare rules, and it looks like they've quietly slipped a couple of changes through on the 20th of August, and one in particular (the change of booking class) I think will spell the death-knell for OWE mileage runs for those in some programs. The two changes I can see right off are:

Class

ECONOMY: M* (QF/BA/AA/AO/AY/CX/IB/EI/LA/LP)
* FOR BOOKINGS MADE ON/BEFORE 31AUG03)
ECONOMY: L* (QF/BA/AA/AO/AY/CX/IB/EI/LA/LP)
* FOR BOOKINGS MADE ON/AFTER 01SEP03)

and

Payment/ticket

* TICKETING TIME LIMITS:
1.WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE 61 OR MORE DAYS BEFORE DEPARTURE TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 14 DAYS AFTER RESERVATIONS ARE MADE.

2.WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE 60-22 DAYS BEFORE DEPARTURE TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 7 DAYS AFTER RESERVATIONS ARE MADE.

3.WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE 21-6 DAYS BEFORE DEPARTURE TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 3 DAYS AFTER RESERVATIONS ARE MADE.

4.WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE 5 DAYS OR LESS BEFORE DEPARTURE TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED ON THE SAME DAY.

Take a look on www.travel.com.au for full fare rules - no doubt there's other sources around the net to find them as well.

Just to clarify. According to CXAGENTS.COM the ticketing deadline rules only apply to economy class tickets.

It's a strange change though. If you are issuing the ticket Open (as is still permitted as far as I can see, except for up to the first international segment) then only that first flight or two counts, and I don't see how they can police this - I would normally make that reservation ahead of time, but it's a simple reservation in M (now L). I could issue any of a number of types of ticket nearer the time for that fare class. Are they really going to say "Sorry Mr Christep - you made you reservation more than X days ago and therefore we can't issue a OW ticket for it"?

By the way CXAGENTS is also showing a change to the Circle Trip Explorer tickets, bringing them into line with the OWExplorer and allowing no more than two stopovers in the continent of origin, and max four segments in each of Africa, Asia, SWP and Europe/ME, with the same restriction on only two "long Europe" segments.

It's worse than that:

4. FLIGHT APPLICATION/ROUTINGS

The total journey must:
(a) not exceed a MPM of:

FARE BASIS:
ACIR22/DCIR22/LCIR22 22000
ACIR26/DCIR26/LCIR26 26000
ACIR29SA /DCIR29SA /LCIR29SA 29000

Note: SURCHARGE TABLES ARE NOT PERMITTED

(b) not exceed a total of 20 FLIGHT SEGMENTS.


[This message has been edited by MilesDependent (edited 08-23-2003).]

Booking/payment times aside, this doesn't look as if it will make any difference to QFF members: M was always counted as discount Y, just as L is. However, the new reduced mileage earns for BA and AA [which kick in on 1/1/04] will have an impact, but this would've been the case for M anyway.

QFF members will need to avoid EI if mileage earns are the reason for travel.

My interpretation of the new T&C's for QFF was that M class on AA will get 50% of miles, whereas L class gets a big fat zero. So makes North America tough if that's the case (at least there's plenty of QF codeshares up there!).

i guess it will now be called a "L"oneX not a "M"oneX

So aadvantage members will earn the following on a LONE:

CX flights - 0%
EI flights - 0%
QF flights - 70% / 0% (pre/post 1/1/04)
BA flights - 25%
IB flights - 30%
AY flights - 100%
LA flights - 100%
AA flights - 100%

Hrmm.

At least if/when LX join OW, you'll be able to earn 100% miles in both M & L - unless AA changes this too.

Although one would now earn 0 points for flying AA in QF's program.

goodo

[This message has been edited by goodo (edited 08-24-2003).]

Odd that you'll be able to earn miles on QF from an AAVacations discounted S-fare, but not on a L-fare.

Ouch. Suddenly, the *A RTW looks a lot more appealing.

These new rules as well as current prices from OZ are steering me towards Star too. I wanted to do a plat run on OW, but I guess I'll be Premier Exec (*Gold) for the first part of my trip, then drop down to regular member.

goodo

There have been soooooo many times I've seen L available on QF flights (and AA codeshares) when M was not available. So this could have one silver lining. Maybe.

I wouldn't count on it... that's before sweaty backpackers start booking under the new fare basis...

Just to clarify, I already have a OWE reservation in "M" class with CX for a departure on September 24. I haven't purchased the ticket yet and was planning to do it afer September 1. My question is:
Is my M class designation already protected through my reservation or will it automatically change to "L" class if I purchase after September 1? I'm on Asiamiles, so I am not sure whether or not it makes any difference in my case. Any comments????

Thanks,

Tim

IMO, you should be alright. It says for bookings made on/before 31 Aug. your booking has been made already, right?

goodo