Dear FT RTW experts,

Hoping to get some updates and advice from those with recent firsthand experience here. Pre pandemic, I did three ex Japan DONE4/5 fares, and always valued the optionality of rerouting (usually 2-3x per ticket) despite it being such a pain to do so. It got tiring and with all the pandemic issues in air travel ie changes/cancellations/revenge travel etc, only now with things fully reopen everywhere am I considering looking at them again.

- Is it still the case that the rerouting/changes are to be done with the airline that issues the RTW ticket, which is determined by the operator of the first leg/flight on the issue RTW ticket?

- Are there any particular airlines that are better in terms of ease and access when it comes to rebooking/rerouting RTW tickets assuming I am familiar with RTW rules and well prepared (usually with route in hand)? I historically used CX which required a voice call to the normal ticketing line to describe the issue briefly only to get them to have a CX RTW desk call you back and explain it exactly (i got quite used to this). But given the past pandemic years I wouldn't expect this to be much smoother if not worse so wondering if JAL, AA, BA, etc would be better and any particular views when it comes to the rebooking experience?

- Generally is D class availability harder now vs 3+ years ago on transoceanic routes?

- I saw on the webtool now that there is a maximum mileage limit (34k?) - was that always there or did that appear only recently?

- any other comments/advice on how things may be different compared to pre pandemic?

thanks!

General consensus is that AA seems best for dealing with changes, etc. BA seems ok too from threads I've read.

I had a QF issued one and was one of the worst experiences I've ever had with an airline. They make it as difficult as possible to do anything with the ticket after it's issued. Never again! I'm structuring my next one to allow either AA or BA to ticket it. Which means I can't buy it from the OneWorld website again.

I also noticed that thing about the 34,000 mile limit the other day and posted about it in the Q&A thread. It seems like it's just poor wording on the site. There are two types of OneWorld RTW tickets, one is limited to 34,000 miles but the Explorer is not. The OneWorld site will in theory show pricing for both types and once you go over 34,000 miles flashes that error for the other type but I'm still getting pricing on an itinerary over 34,000 miles, initially even though that was the error I saw too, I think the real error was too many segments in Europe. The online tool is horrible for telling you where your error is at.

The ticket I have with QF was 49,000 miles, I did some pretty extreme routings with QR on that one since the middle east is considered Europe for that ticket, that was via the OneWorld online tool.

If you use oneworld website and just have first leg BA or AA metal doesn't it automatically have those carriers be the issuer? I have only used the older version (pre 2020) and always CX.

Hear anything about JAL? i see you have location as nrt/hnd

Noted on the mile limit, thanks

If your first leg is AA or BA then the online tool would very likely ticket it on them, my understanding is that it tickets it on the first carrier.

Personally I wouldn't ticket it on JL. It's not that they are incompetent, generally I find them to be pretty good but things take a long time. Japanese very strongly stick to the rules and will research them like there's no tomorrow. You won't get a JL agent to bend the rules for you if that's something you ever need. But my real point of hesitation ticketing a complex ticket like RTW with them is the English level isn't great on average and it adds unnecessary communication barriers. Also their call center hours in the US are pretty ridiculous and in Japan they don't have a toll free number, so gets expensive to call them.