In my experience calling the airline to make even a simple change can take a long time.

Yep, what should take about 10 seconds can possibly take hours on a phone.

Hi,
I had a stopover in SCL before, just shortened it to stay a bit longer in Peru, so I don't think that was the issue (it was never mentioned to be an issue by anyone, and I have been in touch with a lot of people...).
I spoke to several people at TAM in the meantime and I agree that some of them simply don't have a clue how that ticket and the rules works (one guy told me TAM cannot change the ticket at all and I would have to get in touch with Oneworld online booking, as this is where I booked the ticket - quite frustrating to deal with that sort of response).
Anyways, I managed to change the date another flight in the meantime at no charge, talking to someone who finally understood the rules. Also, I spoke to BA who managed to leave a comment in my booking following which I got an email from TAM confirming that charging the penalty fee the first time was a mistake and I should get in touch for a refund, and that they agreed with the understanding of the rules.
Then, two days later, the same person sends another email saying that actually the penalty fee of USD 125 for a date change is a TAM policy and is charged for every transaction/ticket chsnge. And that is was not a mistake as such, just charged on wrong grounds (misinterpreted Oneworld rules).
This really starts to be a little ridiculous, and it sounds to me a bit like an invented justification.
I mean, one basically books this sort of ticket on the basis of Oneworld rules (subject to local service fees), but that an airline can just impose such charge for every transaction somewhat defies the purpose of this ticket.
Does anyone have views on TAM's behaviour? Is that charge justified?

The airline can charge a transaction fee but 125 USD is enormous

Hi,

Currently on a DGLOB34 ticket, with the scheduled next segment being AA from MIA-LAX tomorrow. From the information I gathered from this thread in particular, I thought date/time changes would be fairly straightforward.

However, called BA today (issuing airline) regarding a request to move the ticket from the 30th of April to the 20th of May - same routing (MIA-LAX).

After the customer representative came back to me having spoken to the fares desk I was informed that no flights whatsoever was avaliable in the whole month of May with AA on this routing. I said to her I have seen plenty of inventory, and that there also are several flights a day (I informed her we would be flexible on date/flight times).

The reason they could not do this was because the available seats had to be exactly in the same fare class (guess this means price) as when I originally booked the ticket (september 2015). The only option they had was to book me in economy class, with no option to pay the extra price difference between the fare classes either.

I was quite surprised by this as I thought this would be a straightforward change.

I called up the AA RTW desk, and he said he could see inventory on business (domestic first) on the 24th and 26th. After a call back to BA giving them this information they were able to change dates after all - but to the 24th (with no change fee)

At the end happy to have resolved the situation.

Has anyone else experienced similar situations? Is it correct that availability for DGLOB tickets have to be exactly in the same fare (price) category as the original booking - with no option of paying a change fee?

Thanks for your advice!

Kind regards,
Alf

The rules for an xONEx, which is the bulk of this thread, and an xGLOBnn are slightly different.
Both rule sheets are quite clear about what booking class is allowed. For the business class tickets, most flights book into D, generally a discount business class fare "bucket". Other business class fares are often filed under J or C. The J and C "buckets" can't be used for DONEx's or DGLOBnn's. So while an airlines website might be showing availability in business for a set flight, there may not be any D seats left for sale, thus that flight can't be used for a oneworld ticket, unless the airline chooses to open a D seat for sale.

Also, once travel has started, any oneworld member airline can make changes to the ticket. If the ticket was issued by BA, BA are the only ones who can touch it before travel. After starting the ticket, AA could have made the change.

There are many things that can be happening.

The first is that the BA agent was looking for BA codeshares on the AA routes. The availability on the codeshare often differs from the AA availability. However for D and A classes to be zeroed out for the entire month is unlikely.

The second possibility is that the BA agent didn't understand the nature of AA domestic F. The fare, like many, does permit booking into A class on AA metal when D is not available. But for a BA agent, it is counter intuitive that a D fare (business) could ever book into A class (first). For them, it is like an economy class fare that lets you sit in business class: must be a mistake. The BA codeshares on AA metal are rewritten so that first class is seen as business class exists on AA flights when viewed as a BA codeshare. So that can throw a spanner in the works.

That isn't true; but the fare as ticketed on the original date needs to be valid on the new flight. That might mean being in the same fare class, or another class that the fare allows.

The RTW fares specifically do not allow per segment upgrading. You need to upgrade the whole ticket. [This is true for most fares.]

As a technical point, your expression "price difference between the fare classes" has no meaning. The whole ticket has a price, in this case it is decided by the fare DGLOB34. The individual flights do not, themselves, have prices. You cannot divide the fare into parts. Of course, you can find a price for the individual flights, by investigating what it would cost to make a ticket for each flight, but that has no relationship to the price of the ticket for the whole round-the-world journey.

Himeno and Calchas,

Many thanks for your replies and guidance - very helpful. Did a search now for A fares on the route in question and as you said Calchas, there are many available flights that month. Reassuring to know that the ticket is fairly flexible.

Again, thanks alot!

Alf

True for money, but it is possible to upgrade individual xONEn sectors using miles. I've done this with AsiaMiles in the past using a roundtrip upgrade where the underlying sectors were actually on two separate DONE3 tickets.

Absolutely possible.

Upgrading flights on oneworld tickets are only possible with L fares on flights with premium economy with a per sector surcharge, or within the rules of a frequent flyer program.
ie, as a QFF member, I can use my QF points to upgrade QF coded, QF operated flights on an xONEx.

All very true of course, thank you for noting this.

My post should be considered strictly in the meaning of upgrading a D fare by paying some kind of supplement on individual sectors.

Upgrading by miles is a tricky issue for JL mileage bank.
I asked JMB customer service 'Can I credit miles to JL when CX D class is upgraded by CX miles to first class (booking Z)'.
JMB answered 'Z' is ineligible for crediting to JMB by mail (e.g. not oral communication). In this case, they say they can not credit miles based on the orignal fare (D).

Of course, they may be wrong.

Upgrades are not supposed to credit for the upgraded class but rather for the original fare class paid.

You misunderstad my point, because of my explaination isn't good.

JAL said I can't JL ciredit partner miles soley based on booking class whatever price is paid.
I specifically asked CX's upgrade case.
JMB sevice center confirmed I couldn't earn any miles at all even I paid business class fare.
JMB service representative doesn' know what will happen in this case.
Because for JAL's own upgrade case, JAL explicitly says it is credited base on the original ticket. However, partner miles crediting, they say 'solely based on booking class whatever paid'.

So the question is, does CX tell JAL I flew at class D or class Z?