Aa Rtw Desk
 

Agreed that AA is better than BA at this...Have booked several tickets with them...

Sorry, I recall having read this in a previous incarnation of the FAQ, but can't find it now.

Can someone confirm:
The ORD>DEL counts as a transatlantic flight? And, moreover, I could do a DONE4 visiting Asia, SWP, USA, Asia?

E.g., NRT>SYD>LAX>ORD>DEL>HKG>NRT?

Thanks much,
Shawn

Yes and Yes.

Taking this flight (and it's turnaround) precludes any EUR stopovers.

Yes, this routing is a *ONE4 - you're 'visiting' Asia>SWP>NthAm>EUROPE>Asia; the ORD-DEL flight is regarded as being NthAm>trans-Atlantic> trans-Europe>Asia flight

(m) Nonstop transatlanticTravel on AA between DEL and ORD is permitted.
For travel ex South America/South West Pacific – when this service
is utilised a minimum of a 4 Continent Fare must be charged.
For travel ex North America/Asia – when this service is utilised a
minimum of a 3 continent fare must be charged.


That's bad news... the wording doesn't seem quite so clear to me:

Does "ex South America / SWP" mean "including" or "originating in"; and if it means "including," does it implicitly mean simply that "flying ORD>DEL" counts for an extra continent (Europe) but you don't get stopovers in the continent.

Is there a good logic for this, eg., it would make three-region RTW trips (SWP>HKG>JFK>ORD>DEL>HKG>SWP) too close a substitute for the higher fare round trip business class flights they offer?

I have now updated the CX version of the rules & prices (for travel originating in HKG), as issued on 1 May (Circle Asia & SWP) and 1 June (the rest), {outdated link - see post #2 for latest}.
(The CX/UA RTW as issued 1 July 07 and apparently still current is also there)

Thanks Bukhara and Guy Betsy for this info.

I think I should clarify the CX situation, with reference to the CX e-ticketing guide for Travel Agents (Word doc).

What they cannot do is issue an entirely open-dated ticket. Their e-ticketing guidelines explicitly state that the minimum requirement to be able to issue an e-ticket is for one booked (i.e. confirmed or waitlisted) segment, which doesn't need to be the first segment. All other segments can be issued open. So Bukhara is wrong about CX and Guy Betsy is missing the word "entirely".

The guidelines also are consistent with my personal experience. I have travelled on e-tickets from CX with open-dated sectors.

Just to add that I now have further evidence that Guy Betsy and Bukhara are simply wrong about open segments.

The AA RTW desk has just quite happily set up for me two AONE3s ex-MNL where the first 8 segments are dated and the remaining 8 are open. No issues have been raised by either the AA RTW desk or their GSA in Manila in doing this.

I had a similar itinerary setup this year (March/April), and no issues were raised by the AA RTW desk or the GSA in Cape Town, until ticketing. When we were finally ready to issue the tickets, the tickets started printing on paper, instead of the e-ticket that we had asked for. After going back and forth and finally setting up a conference call between the RTW desk and the GSA, they acknowledged that there was a limitation and that open segments could not be issued as e-tickets by AA.

Of course YMMV.

uuuuuuuuu

My paper ticket (with the first segment booked and confirmed) is lying in the drawer of a desk at Mindpearl in Capetown. I have e-mailed them this information and hopefully they will realize that issuing an e-ticket IS possible.

I will keep you posted.

Now I find that when they come to press the "Ticket" button, AA Manila has actually generated a paper ticket for my AONE3s - first 8 segments confirmed, second 8 open. No explanation given, despite earlier promises of e-tickets.

Strange.

But I have to say that I do love taxes and surcharges of $602 (7%) on a $8481 ticket that includes 16 segments and two stopovers in London!

I have now updated the CX version of the rules & prices (for travel originating in HKG), as issued on 1 August, {outdated link - see post #2 for latest}.
(The CX/UA RTW as issued 1 July 07 and apparently still current is also there)

When I first started doing this years ago oneworld didn't publish the rules in an easily readable form. Now that they have them on the oneworld website do people still find these CX files useful?

I for one do. Thank you.