Purchasing xONEx outside your country
 

Hi,

Sorry for the additional post but does anyone know the best way in buying a xONEx ticket outside your home country WITHOUT flying to that ex country you are starting from?

I would like to purchase a ticket ahead of time but do not want to fly beforehand just to pick it up and then again when I start my trip?

In addition what is the best payment method? I have worked out that Purchasing 2 DONE4 tkts = $10,000 (ex WAW) However, Credit charges would come to $500.

Any ideas on minimising this cost?

Would be grateful for your thoughts

Thanks

J

I think most of us take the hit on the credit card, but if you are getting charges of 5% then can I suggest you get a better card - Citibank charges me less than 2% on most transactions.

The alternative might be to find a TA who would accept money being wired to their bank account. But you are always going to get hit for about 2% if you have to switch currencies.

Some TAs (e.g. EMECO in CAI) will courier the ticket to you (sometimes even not charging anything for this). Alternatively you can simply pick the ticket up at the airport when you arrive there. I have done turnrounds like this at CAI (using both BA and AA/Emeco), Paris (using CX directly) and Taipei (using Amex - our corporate TA at the time).

Why two trips?
 

Hi,

You should be able to book this ticket with a Warsaw ticket agent and have them issue the ticket for you to collect when you depart. This will save one trip. There are many looking for such an agent in WAW.

For a travel agency it would be possible to do a bank transfer of the money. This would save a considerable amount on the US500.

Alternatively, start by booking the trip with one of the airlines and get them to hold the reservations until the day before, travel a day early, take cash in USD and pay on the day. You may have to use a credit card to hold the booking but insist that they put a note in the booking about paying cash on departure. You will have to have the ticket issued at least 1 hour prior to the go.

Spotwelder

jonny

As you will have seen on the BA forum I am trying to book a DONE4 ex-WAW without much success. I've made some itinerary changes so BA Poland have sent it back to fares for re-pricing.

As soon as I have news to report on whether I have succesfully paid for it or not I will update this thread.

As back-up I have asked another TA in the UK to try to price it up at the ex-WAW fare. They say they have successfully priced some ex-WAW trips on a SOTO basis at the SITI price but have never tried doing the same on a RTW.

Hi Gaza,

Good to see other people trying to do this. I have contacted (tried) several TA's in Poland without much success. I have also contacted BA Poland who while at first were willing to ticket my itinerary have now decided to play the silent treatment and do not get back to me. I guess they are wondering why so many foreign people are trying to ticket a RTW in Waw.

Now if I was a TA and made some sort of comission on selling tickets I would certainley be more accomodating to a large group of people that are trying to buy such tickets.

Looking at other threads CAI seem to have caught on.

I will also update people once I get anywhere

J

I'm one of those who are trying to locate someone in Poland who inspires confidence that they can issue a RTW ticket. I've had two affirmatives so far, one in Krakow and one in Warsaw, but one said they are not familiar with the product but are "willing to try." :rolleyes:

I still have several enquiries outstanding and will give them another couple of days before re-sending or trying to fax or phone (time diff. is annoying.)

Gaza, do you have an email address for the WAW BA office? Or is contact limited to the phone/fax numbers listed for the CTO on BA's website?

On the other hand Citibank lied through it's teeth through the dot.com boom and has left Enron, Parmalat etc. employees and communities destroyed......

American Said they would do it.
 

Yesterday I called the AA desk to get some pricing in USD, for the 3 ONE's I am taking in 2005. The agent I spoke to said that I could reserve and confirm a ticket from any location, but I would have to pay at the local ticket office. I asked if I could call them and pay via phone, and she said many people do that. Most have used Cairo, but Poland seems popular this year. That last sentance gave me reason to believe that she knew what she was talking about. Thought I would pass it along.

Cool, thanks.

But which local ticket office? BA's CTO in Warsaw? The BA counter at WAW?

AA has a daily codeshare flt on BA metal WAW-LHR, so would the ticketing be through AA or BA?

Or why don't I call the US AA RTW desk and ask them myself? Duh.

Thanks again.

On this subject, here is my experience, which may be of some help to non-US residents, some day.

I called AA Madrid today and asked a question about purchasing a OWE ticket; one hour and fifteen minutes later I was still on the phone with the same AA agent, getting nowhere (no, no, no, no,...). Now, thanks to this board I knew I was right and the agent wrong, but trying to persuade her to see it the right way was proving just impossible. At the end, out of sheer frustration I said something like "how can I talk to the RTW desk"?... after the typical "round-the-world-what?" question :rolleyes: more explanations from me, then silence, a couple of "please wait" from the agent and finally, another agent on the line, with a totally different attitude, who took no more than 15 seconds to hear me out and tell me exactly what I wanted to hear, in a matter-of-fact, professional way.

The punch-line: my call to a local MAD number had been transferred, just like that, to a supervisor at the RTW desk in the US. The lesson, as the supervisor told me: "next time ask the agent to transfer you to the RTW desk".

Now, I know that all this business of phoning the RTW desk is like "so what?" for you guys in the US, with a 1-800 line available, but for us out here things aren't always so easy, or obvious.

So, next time don't bang your head against an overseas wall, just ask to be transferred to the RTW desk in the US, where the chances of finding a more experienced agent are so much greater.

I haven't called today, probably won't be able to until tomorrow, and will report back.

Note that not all US-based RTW desks inspire such confidence. See the mini-transcript of my conversation a few days ago with the BA RTW desk in the US here.. Perhaps I should have asked to be transferred to the London desk. :(

I wonder, does Iberia have a US RTW desk? Finnair? I bet with a little work you could make this whole process amazing fodder for a magazine article.

Yes, I did read the post at the time, and noted it. I think the difference today, apart that this was the AA RTW desk, is that I got the impression that when calls are routed from overseas to the US they go to a supervisor, at least it happened that way in my case. All I can say is that it was sooooo pleasant to talk to a "Yes-sir, sure thing" person after 75 minutes with Ms. No.

Hi,

With the new activity on this thread I thought I would update my expriences of buying a xONEx.

I had an email from my TA in the UK telling me that it was after all possible to purchase a DONE ex waw in the UK at the Polish price. Having read the rules and knowing that this is not possible still let her go ahead. Today she came back and told me it was not possible.

BA Poland and the TA I contacted in Warsaw, who were more than forthcoming a week ago when I talked to them on the phone have still not replied to me.

It is quite amazing the different experiences one gets when trying to book this ticket.

Having read the AA posibility - can anyone tell me if they would issue me a DONE4 ex WAW if I don't actually fly with them? My route does not include North America.

We should have a competition who manages to get a xONEx fare first out of Poland.

Thanks for your help

J

Why not try AA for everything? Use the AA RTW desk to plan a simple itinerary, then contact the GSA in Warsaw and have them do the ticketing? Once you have started the trip, do a reissue in a city where AA has a CTO, such as BKK or HKG or NYC, etc. I would try to have the first 4 segments finalized, so that when one reissues the ticket, it is less than 17 segments. Avoids all the pitfalls of hand written tickets for those who are not familiar with their use.

@:-) @:-) @:-)

Thank you. Thankyouverymuch.

I have found out the identity of the GSA and have emailed them with that idea. PM me if you want the address. It is now Friday in Poland so if things run normally I won't get a reply until Monday. Or maybe never.

BTW they are also the GSA for CX and QF. Might work using those channels, too.

Update a couple of minutes later. Got an autoresponse from Warsaw - the chief agent is out until 22nd Aug., will respond then. Fluent, idiomatic English. Who knew?