Rebooking of DONE4 after first leg flown
 

Thanks to help from those on this thread I believe I am now in a position to rebook my DONE 4 booking ex Cairo after flying the 3 first legs. My objective is to maximise BA Tier Points and Avios and minimize taxes and surcharges:
First three legs to be flown in December:
CAI-CMN-JFK-LAX (stopover)
Planned rebooking:
LAX-ANC (stopover) - DFW-GRU-JFK-HKG-DPS (stopover) HKG-CGK (stopover) - HKG-DOH (stopover)-HEL-LHR-CAI
Total flight segments 16
Based on my understanding of the rules this should work but just wanted to confirm I am not missing anything obvious before I make arrangements to nest the 13 legs into my next Tier Point collection year by booking flights back from LAX spanning the period between the first 3 flights and the proposed 13 flight rebooking. Also to confirm except for recalculating fees and surcharges there should be no further fees.
Thanks again

All looks fine to me. And correct - once you've flown the first flight the base fare is locked in.

pandaperth, as always you have a valid point. This is another example where the fare rules document is ambiguous. Padkir, do let us know what the outcome is if you test this as suggested by pandaperth.

I don't think it makes a difference whether DOH is a stopover or a transit but remember you only have two stopovers allowed in your continent of origin.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll call later and see.

In terms of the remainder of the trip, I have 1 flight segment and no additional stopovers in Europe/Middle East at the end. Its JFK-LHR-OSL, so there aren't any other issues as far as I know. I'll let you know the outcome.

Update on this for anyone interested.

No luck! Ended up chatting to 2/3 different RTW agents and one of them called the Fares/Validation desk again and they stuck to their guns. Specifically asked if changing the transit to a stopover in Doha on the way down would change things and they said it wouldn't.They say that because I am originating in Europe and then travelling to South Africa, I can't go back to Europe afterwards. I am allowed to do a stopover in DOH on the way back up and then head to Asia afterwards.

So my alternative booking that's sent for validation now is: OSL-xDOH-JNB-DOH-HKG... I'll have to sort my own flights from Doha to Dublin and back (as I have specific times I need to be back) which is frustrating, but it is what it is. I don't think I could HUCA any more - I think nearly everyone at the desk had looked at it by now!

When we booked the RTW we start in January we were told something similar, I wanted to do DOH-EBB-DOH-JNB-SYD but was told I was not allowed the two trips from DOH to Africa (even with no stopover).

Sorry, but no this is not at all similar to @Padkir's issue.
The relevant rule states:
Therefore only one visit to Africa allowed.

Yeah, this rule is quite annoying since there is no longer a OW carrier in Africa or South America. I'm sure it was written when both Comair (BA) and LA were both still in OW and hadn't taken into consideration that now we pretty much have to connect via DOH for most intra-Africa connections and connect via MIA or DFW for most intra-South America connections.

WB (Rwandair) has been rumored to join OW with QR's help for some time and would help tremendously for these tickets. Even AT is no use since Morocco is treated as Europe as well for xONEx routing. I also really hope we see another South American carrier at some point, but the big ones are all in alliances except LA which DL would never allow to re-join. G3 doesn't have much reach outside of Brazil and seems to be the only viable candidate. Currently to get from one point to another in either continent you have to do it as a surface segment on the xONEx and get your own ticket.

How to do a 12 month One World RTW
 

Fantastically useful forum and thanks esp to Pandaperth for the Wiki!

I am trying to construct a 12 month One World (4 continent) RTW starting from Sydney in March 2025. The actual route and stops/segments are less an issue than the Unavailable Dates for such a long trip. Admittedly I tend to plan and book too far ahead, but if I was to book in October, then 3 or 4 of the 9 flights would have to have dummy dates, I know that the rules imply that these date changes should be at no cost but how likely is that to be the case? And especially if I am forced (via the first flight) to have the ticket managed via Qantas?

I would very much appreciate the opinions of you experts on ....

1. Whether "Unavailable date" changes are likely to be at No cost in this scenario?
2. Whether I can choose AA as the ticket manager as I belive they are easier to deal with than Qantas?
3. Whether I should just relax and make the booking much later?

In short, I don't want to pay 3 or 4 date changes at $USD125 each but very unsure of the best way around this for a 12 month trip.

Thanks in advance for your help. And please let me know if there is critical information I have ommitted.

William

Call the AA RTW desk and book with them. Their 800 number, free when calling using Skype, is +1.800.247.3247. Date and time changes are free after flying first international flight segment per ONE rules, although QF has made up their own rules and anecdotal evidence suggests they are charging for any and all changes, and it appears they are difficult to work with. I would avoid booking with QF at all costs. AA will want to book you on AA TPAC and TATL marketed flights; whether it's their own metal or their codeshare flights on QF, BA, AY, IB, QR, CX, JL, MH, etc. I have found in the past when booking AONEn that they will make exceptions when, for example, CX has A3 and the AA codeshare of the same flight has A0, they will then book me on the CX flight number.

You did not indicate what class of service you were booking, but I assume you are looking at an economy LONE4 since the Australia and Japan prices are very close to similar, 3614 AUD and 3397 AUD respectively. If you are considering business or first class then you should really consider booking your DONE4 or AONE4 ex-Japan and take a positioning flight from Australia to HND to start your xONE4 as it is almost half the price ex-Japan. DONE4 or AONE4 ex-Australia are 14,986 AUD and 20,862 AUD respectively; whereas DONE4 or AONE4 ex-Japan are 7,913 AUD and 11,991 AUD respectively.

Making your booking much later may result in inventory not being available for some of your desired flights. I am doing planning right now for an Oct 2025 AONE4 which will end in October 2026. I have determined that I need by book by mid-February at the latest with dummy bookings for my 2026 summer and fall flights. Then once I take my first flight in October 2025, in November 2025 I'll book the remaining summer and fall 2026 flights. Keep in mind when booking with AA you can only book 330 days out; whereas with most airlines outside the US you can book at around 360 days out. I also suggest getting a subscription to EF (Expert Flyer) as it will be invaluable for doing research and checking on L, D, and/or A class availability.

Very minor detail but AA RTW desk will want to book you on AA TPAC OR AA TATL marketed flights. You don't need to do both.

How to do a 12 month One World RTW? (SOLVED!!)
 

Huge Thank you @aaupgrade - that was so easy! Got straight onto the AA RTW Desk and connected with a super nice and helpful agent who knew exactly what I needed. She was anticipating the flight numbers as soon as I told her the destinations... I still have a lot to learn and next step is to look into Expert Flyer. But really, this forum, the Wiki and your specific reply to my message, allowed me to make progress on something I was stuck dithering about. So very appreciative that you took the time to reply to a newbie and shared your knowledge!

AA doesn't "want" (prefer) this, it requires that either TATL or TPAC be on an AA marketed flight if you book through the AA RTW desk. While I recall that one FTer once claimed that s/he was able to book there without an AA marketed trans-oceanic flight, the agents have always been clear with me that it is a requirement. Note also that this does not depend on the routing actually flown. For example, CX JFK/BOS-HKG is considered TPAC even though it nearly always flies eastbound (due to the jetstream).

It seems logical to me that TC1<->TC3 would be considered TPAC. Are there any routes that are not?

nevermind. ignored.

Pretty sure they also allow South America for the inter-continental segment (perhaps not Colombia / Ecuador / Peru where they don't sell Flagship service), which is significant since if you're going North America to South America, Brazil is the only country that has codeshares on AA metal, but Argentina and Chile are AA coded only. So for AAdvantage members wanting South America on a xONE4, 5, or 6 anyway, they probably have to have AA codes there regardless, so why waste them on the TPAC and TATL?

During the ex-CAI frenzy that could have saved an AAdvantage member a lot of wasted LPs and miles since DONE4 and DONE5 were only $80 difference in price. Sure, I'll happily take a weekend trip to Chile for $80 that then allows me JL codes for TPAC and QR codes for TATL

Interesting, I didn't know this. But, then again, I've never been south of the Caribbean in the western hemisphere.

I am having exactly the same issue (my screen is almost the same as shown above. I am not allowed to attach the screenshot as I am new). I tried everything (changing different laptops, browsers) but just can't find anything like "Introduction", "show more", "unlock" etc.

Frustrating ... appreciate any help!

I checked again just now, and I can see the wiki contents now! Magic :)

Quick question, does anyone know what would be the fare class if book under LONE3?

Erm ... is this a trick question? Wouldn't it be ... you know ... 'L' (with the several exceptions noted in the Rules)?

Thank you for your earlier answer.

I successfully changed in the end to
OSL-HEL-GOT (where we live), CPH-DOH-AKL-NAN-LAX-LHR-GOT, HEL-OSL

AA rtw desk were so helpful and waived the route change fee for us both because Qatar had made a schedule change.

Now we will just have a little weekend in Oslo in November to fly the first legs before we start our actual holiday December.

HOW TO DO A 12 MONTH ONE WORLD RTW.... SOLVED!!

Big thanks to @aaupgrade and other contributors for their advice. I managed to get onto the AA RTW Desk easily and had very helpful agents. Basically able to book as I wanted and with dummy dates towards end of the trip. They knew exactly what I needed and were helpful in optimizing segments. And of course assured me that date changes were not a problem and not charged. Complete contrast to the advice and routings I received during my initial enquiries with Qantas. Payment has gone through (cheaper than expected!) and we are all set. So helpful - thanks everyone!!

And this is why so many of us use them for these tickets.

I'd really love to know what the ratio of AAdvantage elites who book with them is to other OW non-AAdvantage elites., but I'm sure it's not something they'll ever share. They (AAdvantage) make it such a huge disadvantage for their own elites to book with their own airline, a real shame.

I know this forum isn't a great representative sample but seems a lot of people booking with AA are crediting to BA, IB, or QR... or AAdvantage members who just don't care about their earnings (they definitely exist too).

Once again an update from Qantas, they are now responding much more precisely to my rebooking requests after I referred very clearly to the corresponding rules. The reference to the ex-CAI fares is also interesting.

“(...) After travel commences, changes are permitted provided the ticketed points remain the same. However if you're looking to change your route, there will be a change fee of USD125.00 per person and the tickets shall be recalculated (change to ticketed points would mean a change in route). Please refer to rule 16(a)3 as this does not mean that recalculation is not permitted for any route changes after commencing travel.

At the time that the fares were sold online (first point of departure as Cairo), they were greatly undervalued due to the currency conversion and hence you were charged lower than normal. (...)”

The question remains whether QF is right with the reference to 16(a)3 (DGLOB34) (“If the rerouting results in a change to the total ticketed miles, the ticket shall be recalculated.”)? I have previously referred to 16(a)2b.

As a reminder, it was about an exchange request for the following legs:
FRA-HEL-DFW(AY)-SJO(AA)
HKG-BKK(CX)-CMB(UL)

to
FRA-DFW-SJO (AA)
HKG-CGK(CX)-CMB (UL)

To which my response would be: "your failure to update your fares in a timely fashion to account for the exchange rate is an issue you should take up with your finance team - it is not the customer's duty. You advertised, I purchased, end of story." :)

So few posters on this forum use DGLOB34, I don't know you'll get an answer, but hopefully someone with experience before the QF ex-CAI debacle can chime in on what's supposed to happen.

But almost everyone here is using DONEx's and mileage is irrelevant on those. We know QF have been reaching on these tickets with their own interpretation of the rules. One a DONEx you probably would have stronger ground, but I can see where they are coming from on the DGLOB34. In usual times these fares don't change, so a recalculation wouldn't matter.

Did you tell them to do the calculation and find out what the result was? In theory anything under 34k total miles should be the same, but who knows with QF.

It does seem that a couple of airlines have some contempt for the CAI fare post devaluation, but in fairness it was only 30% lower than ex-CAI had been for the past 10 or so years, it's not like everyone was buying RTWs for $500. I'd be tempted to challenge them back on that "greatly" undervalued statement and show the facts that it didn't really go down "that" much from the long time historical fare.

Adding insult to injury, not a single one of us requested nor desired them to be the ticketing carrier on nearly all of them issued from the OW site. That's a flaw in the site and system overall, QF should never be the issuing carrier from CAI since they don't fly there and can't be the first carrier.

I have booked a Global Explorer (sorry I forgot to copy the abbreviation) and when I made route changes last week with AA RTW Desk the agent checked that the total mileage was within the required limit. As it was there was no need to reprice the ticket and I only paid the additional taxes. AA even waived the standard route change fee because I was making a change due to Qatar rescheduling my first flight from 8.15am to 3.15pm.

The Global Explorer product has different rules to the oneworld Explorer. This is a thread for the latter. Doesn't including discussion on the former risk confusion for readers?

I'm sorry if I've caused any confusion here, that was by no means my intention. I assumed that in this case it was generally about the overarching problem or that this thread was also correctly suited as a pinned wiki. Just to be sure: The rules I (and also QF) referred to in specific are basically identical to the Oneworld Explorer rules, except that 16(a)2d assumes (more) continents for e.g. a DONE3, 16(a)3 assumes (more) miles for e.g. a DGLOB34.

If there is a more appropriate thread for this, I will be happy to sort it there or ask further questions there, sorry again if this should cause confusion, I understand the matter.

Thank you in any case for the helpful hints and very good, clear tips. As I said before, this has helped a lot in the general procedure for understanding the fare rules for Oneworld RTWs (and also in dealing with QF).

And by the way I really liked this one 😂

I have totally missed that other thread. I thought this one was for all Oneworld RTW tickets.

Could you point me to the correct thread please? I find the search function hard to navigate successfully.

I'm not aware of a dedicated thread for the Global Explorer product.

The oneworld Explorer rules have the following:

Has anyone manage to book a xONEx ticket leaving segments open-dated? Is the AA RTW desk able to do this?

The reason I'd need to do this I'm planning an itinerary which includes a seasonal route (HEL-DXB on AY) and obviously the flights for the winter season 2025-26 are not yet in the system. Thanks.

Just book with dummy dates and change them later as your plans firm up. There's no charge if you're only changing dates/times.

That's what I've done previously but it's not doable this time. My planned travel dates are as follows:

Segments 1-3 in April 2025
Segments 4-7 in July 2025
Segments 8-12 in December 2025 (incl. HEL-DXB-HEL on AY)
Segments 13-16 in January 2026

I cannot book dummy dates for HEL-DXB-HEL in July-October because the flights are not operated in that period. As the fare rules specifically allow for flights to be left open dated, it should be doable (but something not often done and would probably need an experienced agent to do it).

I just checked the last couple of weeks in May, 2025 and the first week of June, 2025 in EF, and they don't seem to be operating then, either. You sure you have the schedule right?

Yes, it's a seasonal service operated in the Northern hemisphere winter season between end of October to end of March.

Then I would say call the AA RTW desk and ask them if they can book open segments. If they say that they can't, cite the rule.

I had exact;ly the same issue and did it successfully via AA RTW Desk - see previous posts.