Have just booked my next ONE4 and this time left most of the sectors open dated.

Now what I have noticed is that the open dated sectors don't come up under My Bookings on QF web site, nor do they appear on www.checkmytrip.com.

So basically the only record I have of them will be my ticket coupons? (and the itin printed by mt TA?) This seems inconvenient to me as I like to have electronic record of my routing/sectors.

Any way to see open dated sectors online?

Further question: when i decide to book a date for an open dated sector, I need to call a OW airline and .....? quote the ticket number (as clearly the open dated sectors are not associated to the PNR/reference)?

You can't see the open dated segments as they do not have a PNR. Once you call the RTW desks to book actual dates they will assign a PNR but only for those segments that you confirm. You can give them the ticket number then.

I am presently at LHR on a OWE4 in FIRST. THe hastle of an open ticket was obvious when I was checking in at LAX and the BA agent said that since the RTW ticket was issued on QF ticket stock, I would have to have QF put a sticker validation on my ticket before they would accept my ticket. THE EXACT same problem happened at terminal 4 this afternoon when I checked in for my flight from LHR-JNB. I travel on many RTW per year. This is the first time I have had OPEN segments, despite calling BA and making sure my exact ticket number was in the reervation. It was finally done but it was a bit of a hastle.....

Curiously, in perhaps 10 RTW tickets issued open-dated (so perhaps 150 segments) I have only once ever had any question at all at check-in, and I very rarely have the ticket number entered in the reservation. (The once was at AY at HEL where they basically had never seen this tyoe of ticket before and they were fairly clueless about OneWorld in general.)

Any sectors for which you have a reservation should be visible online. Talk to your travel agent - mine uses Abacus and hence http://www.virtuallythere.com The reservations are independent of the ticket so there is no need to have ticket numbers in the reservations unless the airline insists on it to hold the reservation (and in this case a good TA can normally just invent a ticket number to keep them happy). Sometimes I don't know until quite close to the time of travel which ticket I will use for a sector, so it is not always possible to associate the number anyway.

[This message has been edited by christep (edited 10-21-2003).]

Thanks for all your posts. You have been a fountain of knowledge and I've picked up numerous useful tips that I plan to put to use as I start doing my RTW trips starting in 2004. I'll be back to AA EXP in two weeks after abandoing DL.

Out of personal curiosity have you ever had an open single segment flight replaced by two segments because of schedule changes and if so how was this handled? Also have you run into situations were in peak travel periods inventory was not availabe for the RTW ticket?

Thanks for the kind words. I hope nothing I've said causes you any problems as you work your way round!

I have never had a schedule change on me after I had planned it, largely because I tend to have fairly fluid plans until close to the event. The only tricky thing I've done like that was more or less the reverse when I had a OWE ex-HKG (yes, before I discovered better places) which I was breaking in the middle by coming back LHR-BKK then using a separate ticket to get me BKK-HKG. When I came to the check-in at LHR I managed to persuade them to uplift both coupons and let me get on the direct LHR-HKG flight which was leaving at about the same time as the LHR-BKK.

I have had occasional inventory problems but there's normally been a way round it (fly to LAX instead of SFO or something) and top tier FF cards definitely help. The only time it ever caused me a problem was when I couldn't get on the Friday night CX flight SYD-HKD in D at about 36 hours notice and I had to stay to the next day.

But I quite often have reservations well in advance of the ticketing, and having a TA girlfriend and online access to Abacus from home means I can very easily play around with my itineraries.

[This message has been edited by christep (edited 10-21-2003).]

I have a Star Alliance RTW booked through my TA for next month. She uses Amadeus. When I log in to Checkmytrip.com, I have my main PNR, plus separate airline PNRs for my booked segments. It also shows me my open segments, the difference being I don't have a separate airline PNR for them.

goodo

So NOW we know why Christep recommends keeping the ticketing and reservations separate There must be better ways of keeping your girlfriend entertained

ROW2Aisle,

As a rule, I would not bank on it but I have had good luck with CX, AA and BA in "bending" the rules whenever there was a schedule change or unusual inventory problems. They are least reluctant to help if the schedule change is on open sectors (unless it limits you - I had QF SIN-BOM once and QF stopped flying; so they acommodated SIN-BKK-BOM on CX).

I have had CX in SFO issue me multi-segments in place of single segment and waive the change fee (or potential constraint of segment limits in continent of origin). THis was to accommodate seat availability on the direct flt (not even a schedule change). It was a First OWE and I was a OW Emerald. The CX F agent and the web agent in SFO seemed to know his systems very well and had authority/tech skills to do what he wanted. I found that experienced agents of AA and BA in hub-cities had a lot of pull (they would pick up the phone and request special auth from someone) for deviating from the OWE rules and accommodated premier passengers.

These experiences are more than 6 months old. OWE seems to be getting less and less respect within some OW airlines (AA) so I am not sure what your mileage will be.