Hi all,

I would like to share some information I discovered today and also would be grateful for some advice.

I am in the process of arranging a RTW OneWorld TKT and had sorted out my route (more or less) when I discovered that part of my route Santiago to Auckland was according to the travel agent Booked at least for the next 8/9 months.

I found this hard to beleive and called LANCHILE to find out why - and certainley wasnt expecting the answer I got!

Basically only 4/5 seats are allocated per flight for people who hold such a ticket - the reason is because of the lack of flights connecting the two continents. LANCHILE would not like to waste these seats on people who buy a ONEWORLD RTW ticket rather have as much full paying customers as possible.

The guy told me that at the moment there was plenty of availability in Economy (I asked abotu March) but it was pointless to get on a waiting list as he has been informed by his Airline that they are interested only in Full paying customers.

The RTW tkt I was interested in is �1350 the flight to Auckland (single) is �759.

I find this another cynical ploy by airlines cashing in as if I had bought the ticket I would have had to buy and additional ticket and pay for the change to my original tkt.

Now i know and have read on this board that it may not be that difficult to get a seat on these planes but I would be grateful to hear back from people especially those who had to deal with this problem - to help me decide what kind of tkt I should buy.

Also does this happen on other routes?

Many thanks and look forward to hearing from you

J

Get your agent to look at LA to PPT and the QF codeshare onwards.


Tony Bailey

The codeshare won't work on a oneWorld Explorer RTW since it's not on oneWorld metal. It would work with a Global Explorer RTW.

This problem is unique to LA who is very stingy in offering any discounted seats on any basis (not just OWE). They go on the plan of selling 90% of the plane for full fare, and flying empty when it doesn't happen. The SYD route is particularly bad as there are so few seats per week and so few alternative routings (though OWE allows routing via LAX, for example, as long as you have purchased NA as a continent -- so you always have that option, using any North American transit to get to SA). Given that you are flying economy you would be better off to fly SYD-JFK-EZE, for example, instead of SYD-SCL (lots of other alternative routings).

Many thanks for your advice - I am a bit annoyed that the RTW Explorer ticket is sold as a flexible product when in reality some airlines dont allow people to use it easily.

LAX is not an option as I dont have N. America included in my tkt

Has anyone tried getting on a waiting list and does FF work to get you the first available waiting list ticket.

Thanks

J

Have you tried booking on QF's code instead? QF will allow you to waitlist in L class.

I understand your annoyance, but if you were LAN, what would you do? That route is very popular, with only a few flights per week and more than enough passengers willing to pay normal fares,... why allocate more than a handful of seats to a heavily discounted fare which brings very little revenue to the airline?

I have travelled the Oz-Chile route many times over the years, way back to the 707 days, and it has always been extremely difficult to get a seat, unless booked many months in advance, even with 'normal' fares.

That particular route is probably the hardest to get award and RTW seats on within Oneworld. All airlines limit the number of RTW seat in all classes on all flights. On this particular flight LA limits it even more.

A RTW fare is a discount. If you want a guarantee then pay full fare.

LAN is a tough customer when it comes to RTWs (okay, they are tough on the customer). I have no tried to get AKL-SYD, but did have luck getting SYD-AKL in F using the QF flight number. SCL-USA flights and vice versa can be tough, but trying the AA code share is good option.

Has anyone done FRA or MAD-SCL in F or J on LAN as part of a RTW?

I have had a much easier time on all other airlines. CX, BA and QF are, in my experience, pretty easy.

If you have QF Platinum status you can ask QF to clear you on the QF codeshare and almost certainly QF would do that immediately; LA will not, making you wait until a week or so before your flight. If you can tolerate uncertainty (and a non-zero chance of not making the flight for several days) then that is an option. I think it would be cheaper and safer for you to buy another continent and route via NA (the extra FF miles more than pays for the extra fare cost, and you won't have any trouble getting exactly your dates). You can do that using as little as 1 extra segment (out of the 20 seg limit) and would have the benefit of a more comfortable flight on QF and AA (LA in coach is rather poor).