... is less on BA than on QR?

depending on plating carrier.

On what plating carriers is BA less than QR?

I think the intention is you will need availability in both F and A to book a first class A fare.

I suspect “A” will eventually become primarily a mid tier business class bucket, except for dual-inventory A fares which allow booking into F if there is space in the A bucket and the F bucket.

Similar logic to the “instant upgrade” fares that are common in North America.

I don’t see it as a nefarious move. The main thing that should concern us is not that this is an attempt to remove AONEx flyers, rather that BA might not treat the AONEx product range as a high priority.

You're not getting to DXB on QR due to the embargo. So, if someone needs to go to the UAE, then QR isn't an option.

Oh, right. forgot. :eek:

I'm not sure which thread I should post this in, but AA, IB, JL, CX, QF and probably all other oneworld carriers except BA now allow (in fact, require) the use of the F bucket, not the A bucket, on the AONEx products on BA flights on LON-DXB and LON-BOS.

e.g.,

The exception actually comes in as a common override for all "A-" fares including travel on BA flights; it isn't specific to the AONEx product.

This also prevents the usual rule for downgrading to D, E, L or Y if those classes are full or unavailable for booking, so the exception may be reworded.

BA has touched their table but not yet in a useful way.

BA now also requires use of F class on those flights which no longer have A class under their implementation of the AONEx product.

I would expect this change to be formally incorporated into the rules soon enough.

What does "A required when available" mean? If the flight sells A, then book into A? I'm trying to understand this line in the context of following the two route-specific exceptions.

You read the table from the top down, stopping when a rule applies.

"A REQUIRED WHEN AVAILABLE" means that if the flight has A class and has space in A class, then the fare must be booked into A class (unless a rule further up the table already took precedence). If the flight has no A class, or if A is 0, then you can continue down the table.

If you wanted to restrict it book into A if A is ever sold on the flight, and not allow the passenger to downgrade into a different bucket if A is full, the wording is "A REQUIRED WHEN OFFERED".

[This is actually a human-readable interpretation of a set of logic rules. The computer doesn't read the table exactly when it wants to book a passenger into a bucket, but it gets the information from the same place as the table is constructed.]

By the way, I actually dug out the ATPCO documentation that describes the format of this table. The document is literally 272 pages long: just for the RBD table, just to describe the data format for allowing a fare to define which classes it books into. So don't feel too bad that it isn't obvious how it works. :)

Can you please interpret this in simpler English as Lon-Bos seems to be one of the sectors.

Is this a more restrictive interpretation/policy for BA than all other Oneworld carriers?

All of the oneworld carriers I checked now require you to book into F class on a BA-marketed flight between London and Boston under the AONEx fares.

Previously you booked into A, but could downgrade to D, E, L or Y (in that order). Not that you would.

Isn't it less restrictive since can book into F which generally has better availability than A?

I have booked a rtw ticket last night one the OW rtw website and will be calling BA today to pay.

I now want to make a couple of changes to the flights, not just dates/time but location.

Can I do this for free because I haven't paid for it or does it count as issued once its created and I would have to pay a fee?

Your itinerary has not yet been ticketed (this will not happen until after you have paid)
Any changes you make before ticketing are free of charge
BA might charge you a service fee for making your changes - I don't know they do or not

What class are you interested?
Based on the latest currency exchange rate, I found this on EF:
DONE3 ex-TYO is less than ex-OSL
DONE4, 5 & 6 ex_OSL is better

Thank you! I guess I should have looked at it myself. I'm not lazy, I swear! I just sort of remembered that back in the day (like, ten years ago) sometimes RTWs were cheapest when purchased in out-of-the-way locations. TYO and OSL are much easier.

BTW, allset2travel very nice site and photos! ^^

Yes, most of us on this board remembered and many had taken advantage of such fares. Personally, I started ex-AMM DONE3 by using then valid "Canadian Exceptions"; and couple of ex-JNB (DONE4 & DONE5 respectively) due to currency exchange working in my favor! Currently in the middle of flying an ex-NRT DONE3 which will be nested with an upcoming ex-OSL DONE4.
Oh, those good old days!

Thanks for the compliments re my travel photo site.

Before I knew better, I did one AONE3 ex-U.S. Then I joined FT and smartened up. In the early years (for me), I bought them directly from BA at MRU. There was no central faring; and the BA staff at the station didn't really understand the rules. This went on for a number of years, until South Africa became the place; and I was buying from Mindpearl. The BA flights were overnights from LHR arriving early morning, then departed South Africa in the early evening, so they just sat in South Africa all day. I had a number of single days at both JNB and CPT and did some great sightseeing. At that time, a close friend was chairman of a consulting company which had offices seemingly everywhere; and his J'burg office found an excellent tour guide for me.

I had one ticket ex-South Korea; I can't recall clearly right now, but it may have been the 10 year anniversary 10% discount year. Then I stopped buying them until ex-SEZ last year.

I agree, those were the days.

DXB F availability much less since A class abolished
 

I wonder if it might be a point-of-sale issue? Try setting the PoS in EF to match the starting point you are using in the OneWorld tool. Also try calling the AA RTW desk to see if they can book a sample itinerary that the OneWorld tool shows as not available (not to necessarily have them book it, but just to see if they can).

There's your first problem.

This is a rank amateur question, but I didnt see it on the wiki.

Do I call the airline who I paid for the flight with or the airline who I am flying with if I want to make a change of time and also change city.

Have you already flown the first flight on the ticket?

No I haven't

What ticket did you buy? An xONEx?

If you have not yet flown the first flight, then any changes to "ticketed points" (the set of airports you touch) will force a re-fare at the current price. If the base fare for your ticket has not changed, then this is nothing to be concerned with, although your taxes and fees might be more or might be less. If less, you do not get a refund. If more, you pay the extra. You should call the airline/agency that issued your ticket in this situation (although any OneWorld airline could handle it, many won't know how or won't want to, although the AA or BA dedicated RTW desks would handle it).

Thanks [MENTION=40177]anabolism[/MENTION] I paid BA so about to call them now. it's a small change from one airport to another in the USA so hope it doesn't change it too much.

When you call to make the change, take this approach: "I'm thinking about changing my ticket [describe change here]. If I did that, would there be any additional charge? How much?" That's what I always do on any ticket. If you call and say, "Hi, I'd like to change my ticket to....", you could end up with an agent who, in his/her zeal to provide good customer service, makes the change before you understand the cost. Then the space you previously had may be unavailable. Overly cautious, yes; but I always prefer to avoid rather than solve problems.

I usually called (or emailed) the airlines that issued my ticket.

Well I called BA and the girl attempted the changes, was put on hold and she came back and said that the changes have to go through sales team (which I expected) who are on skeleton staff so said they would call me back. Not had a call back a day later but both changes have come up on the booking, haven't paid any services fees yet and I was able to select the seats this morning!

This means perhaps only that the PNR was changed, not the ticket.

You need to keep an eye on this, if the itinerary remains unticketed other airlines may eventually cancel the sectors.

Nothing wrong with taking a cautious approach, of course. If on the phone with an agent, the usual process is for the agent to make the changes in the PNR and calculate the price/fees without committing the changes (like editing a document but not saving it). Then if you say "Oh, I didn't realize it would cost that much, never mind," the agent discards the changes and everything is as it was. As far as I know, there's not a way for an agent to know what the charge would be without tentatively making them and seeing, especially when changing the ticketed points or airline code on a flight, since there could be tax differences even if there's no fare difference or fee.

What I described as a possible, worst-case scenario happened to me only once. The prospective change was too expensive, so I said never mind. But the space was already gone. Lesson learned.

Sorry it happened to you. Depending on exactly who said what when, if the agent updated the record before confirming the cost with you, that was a clear agent error and I would have escalated with the airline. They record such calls and so could verify that the agent messed up, and could overbook original inventory to fix an agent error. Agent errors happen and there are procedures and policies to fix them.

Thanks. Back then I had no idea about this stuff and just accepted it.

If anyone is interested BA called me back this morning and made the changes, was meant to be charged the $125 fee as it was a city change but because the took best part of two days they waived the fee and just charged the taxes.

Excellent outcome! Glad it worked so well for you. If you don't mind, could you say which type of fare you booked (e.g., DONE5, AONE3) and the origination city?

ermmmm its DONE4 I think, it's DONE but not sure how many continents.... :confused: Originating in LON and going to North/Central/South America, over to Australia and back to LON via DOH.