I have an AONE5 issued by Trailfinders in London. I want to change the date of the flight from Santiago to Aukland but Trailfinders want to charge me £50 per ticket to make this change before I set off on my trip. Is this normal? American Airlines have changed their segment for me already at no charge, but QF and LanChile refuse to make changes until I set off. What are my options please?

That's a very poor show from Trailfinders but it does demonstrate how booking one of these direct with the airline has its advantages. Suggest you print out one of the star files of the fare rules for ONEs and remind them that a date change is not chargeable.

Failing that, if you haven't already tried it, suggest you find out the locator for the QF and LA bookings (should be able to retrieve this from the lead locator on your intinerary printout) and call the airline direct with this info.

Wish you luck, this kind of things is really annoying, especially when you've shelled out on A class.

In fact a date change does not require a ticket re-issue at all. Just change the date/flight on the reservation (you can do this with your FF airline or LA/QF) and just turn up at the airport with your ticket as is. Reissues are only required where the routing changes.

Is this true of all paper tickets or just the RTW ones?

I can only speak re RTW xONEx (OneWorld Explorer) tickets (and I assume xGLOBx (OneWorld Global Explorer). Both of these say valid on AA/CX/BA/QF/IB/AY/etc.... which mean a coupon is valid on any of OW airlines and does not need to be endorsed. Some(most) paper tickets will usually contain a restriction as to validity of airline/flight/date.

It depends if or how the ticket is endorsed. If it is a full fare ticket with no endorsements then yes, you can use it on any flight (on any airline) which flies between those points; in principle this can be by any routing which is within the Maximum Permitted Mileage for tickets between those two end-points.

Cheaper fares will often be endorsed "Valid on <airline> only" in which case you can change the time and date of your reservation without reissuing the ticket, but you cannot change to another airline.

Both of these are subject to the constraints of the "not valid before" and "Not valid after" dates on the ticket.

Cheaper still are the flights which are endorsed "Valid flt/date shown". These cannot be changed, or will require a fee to be changed.

Obviously there are subtle variations on all of this with specific ticket types and specific extra endorsements, but those are the three main categories. OneWorld RTW and Circle tickets are in the second category. Any change of date/time allowed but limited to OneWorld airlines.

In all cases there is no difference in principle between e-tickets and paper tickets.

I believe that Trailfinders is simply charging you a SERVICE fee and that it has nothing to do with a reissue charge.

Airlines believe that a reservation made by a TA belongs to the TA, not the passenger, until after the first segment has been flown. That's the reason for the refusal. And the TA has to make a living and be paid for his time somehow, so a charge probably isn't out of line. Presumably he's a good TA which is why you booked through them in the first place, and you're getting your money's worth.

If you want the airline to change the res for you at no cost, as with all things related to the industry, if you call enough times you'll probably find an agent who'll do it.

Hi JohnAx, You are absolutely right, the £50 charge is a service charge, but I only want to change the date of one flight (Santiago to Auckland) as I have heard that this flight gets very full. If anyone out there has taken this flight, could you tell me if it was possible to change your reservation, say 2 months before departure. Thanks

The flight for two months from today is showing F3 A2 J9 D7 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L0 S9 V9 O9 Q9, as a random example.