RTW: change to intial intercontinental flight
 

I am flying on Tuesday, 6 Jan, BOS-LHR on BA on a RTW ticket in F. Consistent with the rules, I made this reservation and purchased the ticket seven days in advance. Is there any way to switch from the BA flight to an AA BOS-LHR flight? If so, is there a fee for doing so?

Assuming your RTW ticket is a AONEx (OneWorld Explorer) then the relevant rules are clear:

105N TRAVEL ORIGINATING AREA 1:
106N .
107N .
108N .
109N .
110N . BEFORE TICKETING DEADLINE:
111N .
112N . * PERMITTED WITHOUT PENALTY.
113N . * CHANGES TO THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT OR TO
114N . PRECEDING FLIGHTS REQUIRE TICKET REISSUE.
115N .
116N . AFTER TICKETING DEADLINE:
117N .
118N . * CHANGES TO THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT AND
119N . TO PRECEDING FLIGHTS ARE NOT PERMITTED.
120N . * DATE/TIME CHANGES TO OTHER FLIGHTS ARE
121N . PERMITTED AT NO CHARGE.
122N . * DATE/TIME AND ONEWORLD CARRIER CHANGES ARE
123N . PERMITTED WITHOUT REISSUE PROVIDED ORIGIN,
124N . DESTINATION, CONNECT POINTS AND INVENTORY REMAIN
125N . THE SAME.
126N . * CHANGES OTHER THAN DATE/TIME ARE PERMITTED AT A
127N . CHARGE OF USD 75.00. IF THE CURRENCY OF TICKET
128N . ORIGIN IS NOT USD, CONVERT THE USD AMOUNT AT THE
129N . BSR. THE TICKET MUST BE REISSUED.

So if you are within 7 days of your flight then the answer is that it it is not permitted to make any changes. The only legal possibility would be a complete cancel and start again, but there is a penalty of 10% of the ticket price for that.

If you are still before the ticketing deadline then you can make the change and the ticket will have to be reissued. If BA issued it for you then they will charge you GBP25 for this (not in the OneWorld rules, but they grab money any way they can these days).

Having said all of that if you really have to do it, the following would probably work if you can make it happen:

- get a separate reservation in A on the relevant AA flight (don't link it to a ticket number or anything - just get AA or a TA to make a reservation - and don't cancel the BA reservation)

- get the reservations for all the flights after the BA BOS-LHR split into a separate PNR - you will probably need a tame TA to make new reservations for you

- just check in at BOS at the AA F desk as normal, saying that you have moved your reservation to the AA flight - the check-in agent will see a ticket that says "Valid on AA/BA/CX etc." and a reservation on the AA flight; should be no problem

However, the big problem is if BA can find the rest of your itinerary after the BOS-LHR flight then they will cancel it and try to cancel the ticket. So there is a significant risk here. If you then get caught I suspect the best you would get is a refund of the fare difference between the ticket you bought and a full-fare F ticket BOS-LHR.

For the benefit of regular readers, I'm sorry to keep on about this, but this is yet another example where keeping the reservations (after the first intercon flight) completely separate from the ticketing (and an open-dated ticket after the BOS-LHR segment) would have made your live much easier.

Thanks, Christep, for allowing me to be lazy and not look up the rule myself. It's not a big deal, so I'll stick with the BA flight (and I'll end up with better food and service, but less use for the miles).

If you want to do BA on your second RTW ticket, leave from YYZ instead on BOS and you'll get the AA miles. Given you've used all six segments in NA, you'll have to do BOS-YYZ outside the RTW ticket.

Thanks. I considered that, but I usually take one of the daytime flights, which rules out the BA YYZ-LHR run.

ExMo, just to be absolutely sure, surface sectors on xONEx are not counted in the 20 sectors? Ie: 20 flight sectors and an additonal surface sector are OK?

Correct. The limit is 20 "flight segments".

Good news - thanks. Any word on whether any other countries are subject to a price change (increase) in the xONEx ticket? CAI is too expensive for me to get to (ex SYD), but there are other options that are still attractive.

Currently, my only reservations are for BOS-LHR, connecting to LHR-SIN, both on BA. Suppose I walked up to the AA ticket counter at Logan and asked if they could switch me to the AA BOS-LHR flight. (As of today, it's wide open in F.) The AA flight would make my BA connection illegal, so I also would ask them to switch me to BA's flight to SIN that leaves 40 minutes later (interesting that BA has two LHR-SIN flights within 40 minutes of each other). If I got the AA agent to issue boarding passes for both flights, would I be in the clear? Again, not a big deal, but just curious.

I think not. The point about splitting the PNRs is key. If you no-show the BA flight they (BA) will (try to) cancel the rest of your reservation (the whole thing, not just the BA bits) and cancel the ticket. Just having a boarding pass doesn't stop them from cancelling your reservation.

Whatever you try to do you are breaking the rules by not getting the BA flight so there is a risk attached.

I definitely wouldn't no show the BA flight -- not worth the risk. I guess my question is whether there is any chance, notwithstanding the no-change-to-the-first-international-flight rule, I could show up at the AA counter on the day of my flight and get an AA agent to change my BOS-LHR flight to the AA flight (i.e., actually change it in my PNR so I wouldn't be a no show)?

[This message has been edited by Blumie (edited Jan 03, 2004).]

I do two RTW each year. My personal experience is that if you change IN ANY way the first intercontinental flight, you are "playing with fire" Enjoy the BA experience and have a great flight with wonderful food, entertaninment and of course the great sleeping suits.