OK so I'm being a bit of an anorak but sometimes it's kind of satisfying being able to confront the smugness of BA reservation agents safe in the knowledge that what they're telling you is bo**ocks.

If there's any point to this post at all, it's to suggest to newer RTW flyers to be questioning of what they're told when booking, as it ain't necessarily so...

I've booked a DONE4 including a couple of domestic legs in Chile and Peru (using LA and LP). When checking through the booking I saw that these legs had been booked in M class, because no J cabin is available on these routes.

I tried telling the res agent that where this happens, Y is the booking class to use. He wasn't having any of it and even went so far as to fax me pages from the very same OWE fare rules I was reading from [which - surprise, surprise - state that Y should be used where no F or J cabins are available, for A and D tickets respectively].

BA seemed really reluctant to refer it back to the fares department [matters to me as it affects status credit earn]. But what was particularly amusing was the insistence that I hadn't booked a OWE but a 'BA round-the-world' ticket.

There again, maybe they're only used to booking LHR-EDI tickets

Well, maybe. The rules are a bit ambiguous on this point although in your specific case of domestic LA and LP flights they appear to be on your side.

From the BA RTW rules;
That says (to me) that if you have a DONE4 ticket and fly LA or LP domestic then you fly Y -- even if there is a business or first cabin available.

However, also from the rules:
Now that reads like you will fly "economy" and that is designated as "M" for OWE tickets in the preceding chart

Anyway, I do agree on the agent's lack of intimate knowledge of the rules and hope you won your argument.

Could you post the relevant part of the fare rules which details your claim, please?

My BA RTW rules for tickets issued in Sterling state that

"when the class of service for the fare is not offered book in the next lower class of service using the booking codes

A/D/M on all OneWorld airlines, except use
Y/Y/M on AY, EI LA & LP Domestic, and
A/C/Q on GF, and
J/D/V on PH

How do you interpret this to mean that your ticket should show Y class on a route where only Economy is offered?

I do 6 or 7 RTWs each year in A Class and have ALWAYS been put in D Class when there is no First Class offered (eg MIA-GCM, DFW-YYZ) and in M Class when only Economy is offered (eg SAN-LAX). Annoying as this is, particularly when M Class now accrues so little mileage/tier pts, it's been like this for years.

Please tell us where your ticket was issued and your starting point. Maybe there are different rules for different countries.

Because both of the flights I previously referred to are LA and LP domestic routes. As your extract from the rules states: "use
Y/Y/M on AY, EI, LA & LP Domestic".

For all other OW carriers where no J cabin is available, M would be the correct booking class to use.

As ExMo said in his post, it's not that easy to intepret. My earlier point is that OW airlines should be the very people who understand these rules thoroughly.

Result... BA begrudgingly changed the booking class to Y.

Don't forget that for new bookings in Economy RTW it is even worse... they are now booked in L class, not M.