OW RTW Desk Phone Numbers
 

I know AA's direct RTW Desk number is 800-247-3247.

What about BA, and CX? IS there somehting similar, or do you have to go thru the regular reservations line?

What a good and basic question. I've heard reference to other OW RTW desks, but have never seen a number. At various times I tried to get in touch with CX's and Ba's, but had no luck through the general number.

CX has an excellent RTW desk in North America, every bit as good as AA (and AA is very very good), but the number is unlisted (you will get it if you qualify). BA has an abysmal RTW desk, reachable only through transfer from the normal reservation line. QF also has a RTW desk, somewhere between BA and CX in quality and most likely to make mistakes in the booking (both against and in your favour). Not sure if they have a separate phone number as I gave up trying to use them. The big advantage to using other than AA is that AA must hand-write tickets with more than 16 segments while the other airlines can issue them by computer (I think QF has a 50 segment max limit, don't ask how I know this).

BA North America (Toronto?) certainly has a direct 800 number. I don't covet these things so I scribbled it down and tossed it the next time I cleaned my desk, but it simply popped out of a conversation - with the rtw desk, not the general res agent, I think. Next time you talk to them, ask and ye shall receive.

If I think the one place where I will make the most changes (or the only changes) is with the Asian/CX segments, and my ticket is issued by a travel agency, does it matter which of the carriers is the official issuing/ticketing carrier, or is it just as easy to bring a handwrittin ticket to CX to be revised as a CX issued computer ticket?

Also, if I want to leave from ZRH on Tuesday, can CX issue and deliver the ticket to me in ZRH, where I don't even think they have an airport presence?

It appears that you can fax a request to BA's RTW desk in Japan, details here:

http://www.british-airways.co.jp/fli...xplorer_e.html

If CX and BA's star files follow the same format as those for AA then there should be contact tel #'s at the head of each. Can anyone check?

In my experience only the issuing carrier has access to your PNR so the others aren't willing/able to make changes to your tickets, or even change reservations on themselves. They always want you to call the issuing carrier. Once I asked CX to waitlist an A segment with a D backup against a BA-issued OWE. Being their gracious selves they did it by creating their own pnr for that segment, and made me give them the ticket number so they could hold the space.

Note that at least some agents adhere to the rule that if you were ticketed by an agency, until you complete your first flight, only the agency can make changes to the booking. If you call the airline directly they'll tell you to go away. Others have commented here that they've gotten away with it, though, and like all things that depend on the airline agent's training and interpretation of the rules, ymmv.

So what does this mean? How does one "qualify" for the CX RTW number? Is it only avaialble to CX elites? Do you just call the main CX number and ask to be connected? What is the deal with airlines keeping these numbers closely guarded secrets?

I had no problems in getting the AA desk at LHR to change reservations on a BA AONE3 issued in CAI, this was for AA and CX sectors a couple of months ago.

BA's website lists their RTW contact number as 800-828-7797. Haven't tried it myself. Hope it works.

Reissues etc
 

Hi,

What I used to do in SYD, after a time on BA stock off CPH in A or D, was phone QF with my QF gold card and make a reservation saying that I wanted telesales to hold the seat and I would go to the airport to sort out the details and ticket issue.

Fine. Oh dear, I now have two reservations for similar sectors. Now go to the QF desk and appologise for the confusion. Could they sort it out by transfering the QF held sector from telesales onto the printed ticket stock issued by BA. This worked every time. Eventually, they got used to seeing me every couple of weeks at the QF desk.

When in Canberra, I found that the QF office downtown was great at sorting me out. Cathy Cotter was my star agent. Say hi from me if she is still there, from David, the Engish accident investigator. Must drop in again in September.

Hope that this multiple reservation idea works for you. I found it a good way of avoiding the "go back to the ticket stock issuing airline". However, many airport ticket desks are not used to RTWs these days. Take two copies of the fare rules with you. One clean one that you can photocopy and a spare to write on. Then you can highlight all of the rules that you wish to use and save the agent time in printing out and searching. I hope to produce a word file of the rules shortly and will start a new thread when it happens.

May the status points be with you..