I have an ex-Australia QF-issued oneworld 5 continent with the following routing SYD-MEL-SYD-LAX-MIA-La Paz/Bogota-EZE-SCL-UIO- SCL-MIA-BOS-JFK-DFW-BOS-LHR-Accra-LHR-DXB-LHR-CPT-JNB-NBO-JNB-SYD

I called AA RTW to change the dates on some of my remaining segments. My next flight is to LHR. Although I did not wish to change any of the dates on my Accra flights, the agent said that I could not go to Accra in the way I had done and that he was cancelling those flights. I asked him if since I had the ticket if QF/BA had to honor the flights. He said only on the original date on the ticket (which I had already changed). He said that I could take issue with it with BA / QF when I reached LHR because at that point, it was out of AA's hands. My ticket currently shows the above itinerary. When planned, QF insisted that this was their interpretation of the Ghana / Nigeria rule / exemption, but later realised that they were wrong, but would honour it anyway. Any suggestions on how I should sort this mess out again?!

If you have something in writing from QF that they will honour it then no problem to take this one back to them. Otherwise you are in trouble I fear.

For the future

ISSUE TICKETS OPEN-DATED!!!!

Every week there is a problem in this board due to the fact that people insist on having dates on their tickets. I have never ever seen a problem caused by having open dates on tickets.

Absolutely agree with the open dated tickets.
Also have your travel againt book you again on the flights in question. He can use a separate reservation record, so AA does not see the onward reservations.
It seems to be a problem specifically with AA - they are very strict in changing dates when you call them. I found it much easier to have my travel agent change the dates. Even the PlatEx people dont want to touch dates on RTW tickets and you can spend hours on the phone with AA for just a simple date change (and space available on the new date).

I've had the exact same problem as you... I had my European/African segments as LHR-DXB-LHR-ACC-LHR-JNB... AA RTW desk actually caught the mistake after it was ticketed, and they called me... basically they told me that if I had to re-issue the ticket, the ACC routing would be invalid... luckily I didn't have to change the dates, but from that experience, I learned to ticket RTW tickets with open segments instead of dated....

So I take it that the reservations on the ACC segments have been cancelled already? You might want to try to call up BA and tell them to book you back onto the flight.. just tell them that you have an open ticket.. don't think it matters if your ticket already has the proper date on it....

Thanks for all the responses and I'll keep you posted on the outcome!

Christep, I have a question about open-dated tickets.
How does a ticket agent handle TAX and airport service charge with open-dated tickets ?

For example,
...HKG-NRT(X)-DFW...
In this itinerary, can I get a open-dated ticket without aiport charge of NRT(JPY2040) ?
Usually, transit passengers are not charged.

If a ticket office charge the aiport service charge for open-dated ticket, how can I refund it ?
At the airport ? At the ticket office ?

If I change my mind to stopover at NRT, ticket re-issue is needed or not ?

Does anyone have such an experience ?

Thanks in advance.

In principle although a ticket can be open dated you do have to decide the routing, and routing includes whether you will transit or stopover between each segment.

In practice I tend just to go for stopover everywhere except in the continent of origin where I have to specify the two stopvers. I know this might be costing me a little nmore than necessary, but frankly I am not that price sensitive.

My expectation is that a change from X to O (i.e. transit to stopover) would be a ticket reissue (because the tax has to be recalculated) and hence a $75 fee.

Presumably all coupons can be open dated except the last segment, thus complying with the OW rules requiring all travel to be completed within a certain period (a year for ONE, I believe)?

You need to look at the tickets more closely... all ticket coupons have "Not valid before" and "Not valid after" fields. The "Not valid after field" on all ONE tickets is set to one year from the first segment. This is independent of the actual date on the coupon if any.

So to answer your question, all coupons except the first can be open-dated.

Thanks for the useful advice christep will help a lot with my ticketing

Doesn't issuing the tickets open-dated has some disavantages? How does this work? You just show up at the airport when you want to fly? And doesn't this increase the possibility that you won't get the flight on the date you want?

You still need to make a booking for the flight you want. In addition to the possibility of not getting on the flight you want if you wait to long to book it, you also run the risk of the airline dropping the route. Without a confirmed flight/date/time you are unlikely to get the airline to reroute you for free.

Of course, you could ticket open and then make a bunch of bookings for what you think you will be flying. Bookings are easily changed.

I trust ExMo and Christep and will definitely plan on open tickets. But I am still confused here -
- date/time and oneworld carrier changes are permitted and if I do not have any controversial routing why open ticket??
- If I do have a open ticket can I book the the tickets in a non sequential order???
- Within a continent can I change the order of flights on open tickets???

Thanks in advance...

Open tickets tend to be a bit easier to change date/time/flights on than those that are ticketed. It shouldn't make any difference but sometimes it does.

I bounced around between LA and BA when I was in UIO this past spring trying to change a ticket that had been issued for specific flights. It was Saturday and nothing was open locally. LA SCL wouldn't change it because BA issued it. BA MIA wouldn't change it because they hadn't made the rez and it wasn't their flight (they wanted my to call BA CAI - right!!!). Lots of long distance calls for naught. Fortunately, the LA ATO handled the change the next day without any problem. If I had an open ticket all I would have needed to do was call LA and make the rez on the flights I wanted, giving them the ticket number I would use.

As for using the coupons out of order -- technically no but practically probably yes, especially if they are in separate coupon booklets or on different carriers.

If you have a QF ticket phone QF from anywhere in the world.

QF are not likely to check the rules again, unlike AA who seem to check the rules and tax calculation

QF have a US call centre. When I changed my MONE5 I phoned QF USA on a 1800 number and the change was made without problems (or cost)

[This message has been edited by Mwenenzi (edited Dec 24, 2003).]