It depends on the agent but some charge much less than others. With the agent I use, I save costs doing most of the hack work, researching availability for the travel I want, then advising them of those flights etc.. They then provide further input and once agreed, book it.

In arranging my most recent one, their fee was ~£125. During the process I was advised that by using JL*JL on the last segment, rather than the codeshare xx*JL I had requested, fuel fines for the entire itinerary would decrease by £250-£300.

Quick question on ticket validity - I did read the excellent blog. If I understand right, ticket validity is 12 months from the first date of travel. So a ticket issued in December 2025, with the first flight in March 2026, would be valid until March 2027?

Yes, all travel on the ticket must be completed within 12 months of the first flight.
However, seeing as the ticket would have been issued in Dec 2025, you would not be able to choose flights past a certain date (prob Nov 2026).. so you would have to change dates after starting travel to last into March 2027.

That's really helpful, thank you.

Correct, and it's not clear if any date in March, or just March. My last trip was March 10 2024 first flight, and March 10, 2025 last flight. So actually a day over a 365 day year.

Were time zones - date line coming into play? How did the last departure time/date compare to the local time where the first flight happened. (all in GMT zulu time)

I would assume this would been after a rebooking once travel had commenced.

With an xONEx, booking, ticketing and commencing travel on it the same day is conceivable but unlikely, and not possible when departing from TC1..
Even with that, transits can be had up to days after (e.g. LAX-xSYD-BNE with LAX departure on the "last day").

As far as I can tell, if an agent or airline makes changes to a booking via a GDS, there is little up front constraining them from making changes not compliant with the fare rules.

[Quote; "Even with that, transits can be had up to days after (e.g. LAX-xSYD-BNE with LAX departure on the "last day").
As far as I can tell, if an agent or airline makes changes to a booking via a GDS, there is little up front constraining them from making changes not compliant with the fare rules".
Quote: "Were time zones - date line coming into play? How did the last departure time/date compare to the local time where the first flight happened. (all in GMT zulu time)"]
*****The flight departed SYD to HND, which was the first and last city in my itinerary. There is a two hour time difference between SYD, UTC+11 and Tokyo, UTC+9. I don't know for sure if the schedule is the same today as it was in March, but likely JL 52 departing 0855, arriving 1745.
(Apologies; I couldn't get the multi quote button to work, hence the weird format.)

If you have a TA-issued ticket I'm assuming all changes prior to travel need to be arranged with the TA. Once travel has commenced can you just go to any OW airline or does it have to be the one the whole ticket is plated to?

... And... Let's say certain segments are using the code share, rather than the OP carrier, is there any way to make sure that sticks? I've read that BA, QF and AA are sticklers for making you use their prime flight number where that's relevant. I'd be looking at date, rather than routing changes.

Why wouldn't you use the TA for the life of the ticket? Are you trying to avoid fees (I suppose it depends on your arrangement with the TA).
I would view this as if you booked with an OTA like Expedia. My experience is that the airline won't (can't?) take control of the ticket unless you are flying that day.. but even then it depends on the airport staff. This is all very hypothetical so perhaps you can share what exactly you are trying to achieve.

Re: codeshare
What do you mean by "sticks"? Sometimes the airline will discontinue codesharing on that route even though the flight is still operating.

Mainly thinking of trying to give my TA a quiet life and also to avoid additional fees.On the second point I appreciate that a CS can discontinue. Was thinking more of the re-issuer pushing it to the prime flight number, even when alternatives exist.

I personally don't see the value in trying to alternate between TA and airline ticketing desk, but YMMV.
You have to realize that voluntary ticket changes require effort, regardless of whether a TA or airline does it.
Voluntary changes can be avoided completely.. it's just a matter of planning.

Not if part of your ticket is for further ahead than can be ticketed at time of issue.

OK. One change. Good luck with your choices!

Even though I have only flown 5 RTW's in the last 20 years, the complaints about the AA RTW are misplaced. Sure there can be an occasional bad agent, but the pluses far outweigh the neagtives.

1-A dedicated desk that is open 12-14 hours every day, not some general ticket sales desk.
2-Changes are usually done within 24 hours, many times sooner.
3-The only cost is the $125 fee for change in ticketed points. Plus any extra taxes and fees that a change may incur which you would pay anyway. I received a refund of those same taxes and fees when those fees decreased. Show me any other discounted fare that has those provisions.
4-AA does not charge a local service fee that JL and QF do charge.
5-A and D class are much more open than other discount fare inventory. Most issues seem to be point of sale/commencement or married segment restrictions. A TA may have better results, but not the 1 time that I used a TA instead of AA.

What did you book?
 

I looked at your postings for details. Could you share what and how you booked? Cost? Thank you!

I totally agree with the sentiment in support of the AA RTW desk. I've done 4 trips with them and wouldn't hesitate to use them again, but AA, IMHO, has cut off their nose to spite their face. If you care about miles and points--and who on this site doesn't--you want to avoid airlines who issue said rewards based on fare paid rather than miles flown. Here's an example: DFW-ICT-DCA-ICT on AA was 3940 butt in seat miles and earned 5005 Loyalty Point\s; DOH-AGP on Qatar was 3372 miles flown and earned 12,477 LPs. Granted the oneworld excursion fares are a bargain so the amount prorated to the first example must be miniscule (and beyond my math skills). My TATL flight on AA earned 5863 LPs, the TPAC flight on JL earned 25,061. I did deliberately try to minimize the distance flown on the former, and maximize it on the latter.. So, with some regret, I'll be booking next one with a TA.

Thank you for the post about LPs
 

Thank you for the examples.

I am new to RTWs and typically only book one a year in business class DONE3 or maybe DONE4. Have been crediting to AA without any regard for Loyalty Points just to get miles to book award flights. I don't think I could earn enough LPs to matter since I don't fly that much. Am I missing something here?

Also I am confused on the requirement for booking the TATL or TPAC on american metal to use the AA RTW desk. I have seen posts that a Codeshare would work. I don't even understand Codeshares at all - does it matter if you only want AA miles?

Yes, you are missing two things: status, which is earned by accumulating loyalty points, affects how many redeemable miles you earn. There is a multiplier at each status level. And the second thing is that your award miles are also affected by the scheme of the airline you choose to fly. It's more than ironic that if you want AA miles you will earn more of them on other carriers (in most cases). Those examples I gave also apply to award miles earned: 1 mile = 1 loyalty point (again, in most cases).
Codeshares will work: you can fly on Qatar with an AA codeshare flight number across the Atlantic and AA will happily issue your ticket, but the AA earnings will apply, not the much more generous Qatar points. It also works in reverse--fly on an American airplane with a QR codeshare and you will earn under the QR scheme. (Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert and find myself bumping into self inflicted sanfus all the time.)

We ended up with a DONE4 of OSL-LHR-IAD-SEA-ANC-DFW-MEL // NAN-SYD-CMB-BKK-KIX // CTS-HKG-TFU-DOH-OSL with stops in all places except Doha at the end.

Booked with BA via email (sent them the itinerary with exact segments) and then when the booking was created had to call to pay. Total was about £6.5k per pax. I probably could have reduced the fees a bit by booking with another carrier but in hindsight I'm glad I didn't. As it was BA-ticketed we were grandfathered into the old system for status earning with them and were less stung by the changes to BAEC starting in April 2025.

Would appreciate people's views on this, I just tried to book the following with AA RTW desk, presuming it would have been a DONE:
HND-SYD-AYQ//AYQ-SYD-PER//PER-HKG//HKG-PEN//PEN-HKG-LAX//LAX-JFK-MIA//MIA-SKB//SKB-MIA-DOH-OSL//OSL-LHR-HND

The agent was great, but it wouldn't price, and then it took a while but in the end the ticketing desk (Whilst I was on the phone) said that it was rejected as I couldn't go back to Asia and do stopovers, this means there must be a nuance to this rule:
Or is it this rule, seems more likely as I guess I have 2 arrivals (PER-HKG, LHR-HND).. but I thought the extra southern continent meant that was allowed?
The lady did say they just basically removed segments until it was allowed, which means it is some nuance to their booking rules. So I think the problem as she explained was, 1) Direct Asia to Australia combined with 2) Back to Asia, having the Penang stopovers. But unfortunately she was pretty unclear as she couldn't really state which rule was the problem. I believe the advice was that she wanted me to do something like Tokyo - Australia - North America - Europe and then do my Asian stopovers later.

Ideas welcome on where the problem is?

I think the problem was that you were originating in Asia, so you couldn't do Asia stopovers after leaving Asia unless you had returned for the end of your ticket.

Whereas if you had started your trip in another TC, I believe you could visit Asia, then Australia, then Asia again before proceeding to another TC.

That's how I've done it on both of the ex-Japan DONEx's I've had. But that was by my own planning. First time I went TYO-SYD-North America and beyond, the second one I did TYO-xHKG-AKL-North America and beyond. I did my Asia stopovers on both of them at the end of the ticket.

Thanks both for taking the time: Whilst I can't see this written down anywhere I now realise, or at least understand, it isn't allowed, and by coincidence my other trips didn't fall foul of it. In this particular case my "smart" plans were blown up by this "rule", as essentially I wanted a holiday in Australia, then to stopover (at home) in HKG for a few months, then attend a wedding in PEN before having my Christmas holiday in the USA, each of which is individually fairly pricey, so I prioritized the wedding over Uluru. Though there is a nuance as amusingly this would then enable a nested Asia-Oceania-Asia Easter holiday on a second DONE4, but ticketed out of OSL (much cheaper), that I will try and do in a few months when 360 days for the last flights arrives and report back.

As such, I changed my plans to drop Australia and go back to a DONE3 (quite a bit cheaper in Japan, even if it means less long flight legs) and replaced it with Malaysian Borneo (looking at far away places still starting from TYO and a first leg in JAL). That does mean an extra "surface segment" flight which is certainly pricey, but not as much as the DONE3 -> DONE4 cost. It was ticketed this morning (will share the appropriate insight in the booking & pricing leg when I can get a breakdown).

So the troublesome part changed from:
HND-SYD-AYQ//AYQ-SYD-PER//PER-HKG//HKG-PEN//PEN-HKG-LAX
To
NRT-KUL-BKI//HKG-PEN//PEN-HKG-LAX
(separate ticket back to HKG/surface segment to be booked). This went through without any comments of course - I added another leg in Europe, but didn't manage the full 16 segments in this case.

That's interesting -- I thought MH and JL only flew NRT KUL not Haneda.

Generally speaking, it's usually better to start a RTW ticket in a tc that you don't live in.. That way you can break up the ticket into separate trips and go home in between. ymmv.

You're right, a bit of a copy/paste problem - should have been NRT-KUL rather than HND. I prefer JL to MH (though I did KUL-NRT-KUL in MH "F"/business suites recently, JAL is going to be better in business I feel, even if I've got the 767 on this day)

And the TC point is very fair and good advice for anyone reading.

Until this particular problem occurred I had managed OK with my "2 stopovers only" in Asia North by using the South continent, though it turns out it was sheer good luck that I managed to always do the stopovers before/after. In the case of living in Asia getting to another TC is quite a mission to get somewhere cheap for starting like the Nordics, as I need to move 4 family members including a two kids under 5: whereas it's quite easy/'cheap'/5 hours to get to Tokyo. As it is, I will now have a RTW starting in Oslo soon, so I could throw away the next legs and always start there.... but I will be very tempted to take my LHR-HND flight with JAL on the A350 :). However, that's a next year problem, as my penchant to do Tokyo starts does mean sometimes I "waste" money and do a TYO-HKG-TYO return before I start my next RTW to buy time, but it is poor value vs another DONE3.

Sigh - yet another battle with BA for my already ticketed DONE4

I am looking to change the date on one of my flights which I confirmed when ticketed that all changes of dates were free - in looking at the fare rules it just says that changes are permitted but it doesn't say for free and it also doesn't say there is a charge for changes (unless you are changing the routing etc).

Has anything changed with the rules or can someone confirm:

a) All changes to dates are free (where does it actually say they are free or no charge)
b) There is no re-price or re-quote on date changes

The fare rules on the oneworld site seem to indicate the above - from the rules it says: Rebooking is permitted as long as the routing remains the same

I assume a change in date does not mean the ticket needs to be re-issued which would be a $125 USD fee

Simple date changes are indeed free, send them back to study the rules if they push for a fee. Some airlines like JL charge for all changes, but most do not.

In theory the ticket does not need to be reissued, only revalidated for a date change, but there can be problems if they don't reissue so almost always do.

It's frustrating that the rules don't explicitly state date changes are free, as it explicitly does say USD125 is charged in some circumstances. Unfortunately, because of that, the rule seem to suggest a carrier is free to charge without falling foul of the rules.

Actually, I think that the rules are clear.The only mention of a charge is when there are "[c]hanges to ticketed points". The rules make clear all other things for which there might be a charge, such as in rule 12. No mention of any additional charge for something = no charge.

100% agree that's what it clearly should be taken to mean. Alas we know that the airlines do not always agree or at least act to the contrary claiming they are entireld to do so. Moreover, if they take and maintain that line there aren't really many practical remedies. I.e. be aware that having just cause to think something should work a certain way does not mean it will always do so in practice.

That said, you're extemely likely to not be charged if (a) your'e dealing with the AA desk or elsewhere that usually knows what they are going, and (b) if you aren't chaging dates such that a transit connection has become a stopover (or vice versa but usually this is overlooked -- so HUACA probably works if you get push back.

Just to clarify - assuming date changes are free - I presume that as the ticket is (just) being revalidated then they do not recalculate taxes etc and so costs in all circumstances to change a date are zero/free.

If they (BA) decided to re-issue the ticket would that involve a re-calc of taxes which (due to variable exchange rates) is bound to lead to a minus or a plus from the original calculation. In this case - and if taxes increased - would BA have a case to ask me to pay them ? given that the date change is free but increase in taxes needs to be paid

Those 'shouldn't' change unless you change the routing or change from a transit to stopover or v.v.. Quite a few places have higher fees for a stopover vs. a transit.

I have small question. When I book the BA flight from SYD to LHR which is touching down in SIN. Do I see it right that this small stopp in SIN counts that I visited that continent? So this would then convert a xONE3 into a xDONE4?

Correct.

https://www.qantas.com/content/dam/q...er-01May20.pdf

Trying to book a RTW trip for January 26 and seem to be running into a few road blocks, we want to include a lap infant so know this will have to be done as a phone booking.

1) Do BA at any time have a UK based call centre anymore or is it always transferred direct to India?
2) If not I hear better things about the AA phone line, if we book with them can we still get avios and tier points to our BA accounts?
3) When trying to plan a business class routing from Oslo there is essentially no availability (surprise surprise!) but it does show a routing to Perth via Heathrow and Doha but with only economy availability on the Heathrow to Doha leg. If doing the same trip starting in Manchester it will allow the same flight in business but as UK origin is nearly 50% more expensive. What is even more bizarre is that if I switch to asking for a First ticket there is no first options but it does then show up a route via Heathrow with all business availability. Is this a bug with the planner and would fall down when trying to book over the phone? When planning with first and not using any non-business flights it shows up the pricing as the business price still.
4) Final query - If using a city as a forced transfer (Perth to Tokyo via Singapore but as two seperate legs) will this mean that bags need collecting in singapore and re-checking in?

Thanks in advance

lordmwa Welcome to FT
1. Others will answer
2. Yes. AA just need AA flight in the itinerary.
3. Others have reported the first flight with QR does not ticket on the OW tool. No idea what you mean by "50% more expensive" as the base price for *ONE* is fixed based on origin. Small variation for carrier surcharges and real taxes depending on route. The OW on line tool has *many* bugs.
4. What route/destinations are you looking for? Bags on the same PNR get interlined at international transit airports. With a international to domestic transfer some countries require you to clear immigration & customs at first port of entry

Other thread ---> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onew...iences-74.html

Sorry I realise that was exremely unclear, booking from Oslo shows a price approximately a third less than from Manchester for the same rest of literary approx £22,000 from Manchester for two adults and a child and approx £15,000 after exchange from Norwegian krona from Oslo.

For the bag question the two legs we are looking at are perth to Tokyo via Singapore which I can't get to show up without adding Singapore as a city and Tokyo to Vancouver via Hong Kong as direct to Vancouver wasn't available with jal from Tokyo and don't really want to transit the US in Seattle!

For Tokyo-YVR are you searching at NRT? Unsure if TYO works in the tool.
QF also fly SYD-YVR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancou...tional_Airport

Pricing from ~6 months ago https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36757225-post2617.html

Your questions better in if https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onew...iences-74.html

I suggest contacting a travel agent or the AA RTW desk instead of making decisions based of what the online tool is telling you.