I hate paper tickets
 

The one time I am not duly vigilant and Murphy bites my rear end, bad. :(

Got to ADL airport to check-in for my ADL-AKL flight and the QF check-in agent pulled the wrong coupon off !. By the time I discovered the error I was in HKG. I know, I know, I SHOULD have checked the blasted paper ticket right there in ADL, but for some reason I did not, and now I am in HKG with a useless ADL-AKL coupon for a flight I have already taken and minus a HKG-LAX coupon for my next leg, due in a few hours. Up the creek without a paddle, nice. :(

Anyhow, went to CX city office in HKG, explained everything to a CX supervisor and was told, basically, so sorry, Mr Viajero, no coupon, no flying CX today. :mad:

Fortunately, AA's office is right next door, so explained my problem to them and they came up with a solution: pay a USD100 fine and have the ticket replaced (not reissued, just replaced). AA was very nice about it and processed the replacement ticket in about 20 minutes.

Raced to HKG airport, went to QF, explained everything, agent said, basically, will send a telex (telex?) and IF the wrongly lifted coupon turns up will put a note on your PNR, sorry but this happens all the time, we are just not used to dealing with paper tickets. Nice.

Anyhow, not crying, just a heads up, for those unlucky enough to hold paper OWEs: triple check them at check-in and don't leave that counter until you have made sure the agent with the ten thumbs has lifted the RIGHT coupon. Were it not for some nice and efficient AA agent right now I'd be grounded in HKG and my itinerary shot to pieces. As it happens all I have to lament is an unfair USD100 fine and a one day HKG visit thoroughly destroyed.

If it was an old-style red ticket with many parts I can just about understand this, but I really don't see how an agent could take the wrong coupon off a printed ATB ticket. I mean, isn't it always the top coupon that they take? The only possible error I could see would be accidentally lifting the first two coupons if they were stuck together. But how can you accidentally lift the second coupon while leaving the first one in place? (Assuming that the coupons are stapled together of course.)

It's a 20 segment red carbon copy paper ticket printed by hand (AA cannot do them any other way, it seems), with all the coupons plus lots of white pages all stapled together. The agent was mildly shocked by such thick booklet and started flicking through the pages, commenting how it was the first time she had ever seen such ticket. I guess she flicked through a few too many, and simply got distracted and lifted the wrong one; anyway, who knows why or how, all I know is that I ended up with the flown sector coupon still in the booklet, unlifted, and the second next one, for a yet to be flown sector, missing.

I have had this happen several times - mostly I catch it before leaving check-in and they staple the copon back in.

Happened last in MEL in Aug - was flying MEL-SYDx-AYQ. The check-in agent (coincidentally a friend) had toren off too many coupons. Considering we were chatting I didn't even think to check.

At SYD QP was paged and told that they had discovered that the coupon I checked in on at SYD for SYD-AYQ was actually AYQ-SYD (ie the next one). I said that the coupon must have been taken in MEL. After some time they returned the wrongly torn coupon to my ticket and said they would try to locate the wrongly torn off coupon in MEL.

I think i was lucky this was all on QF. I can understand why CX didn't want a bar of it.

I also don't accept the fact that it's an easy or understandable mistake for them to make - for god's sake there is not all that much to the job of checking people in. Tickets are the currency of the airline. If you can't check the ticket a person is using then you shouldn't really be doing the job!

Are all xONEx paper tickets?

P

I just had (my first) two AONE3 RTW tickets issued with AA (using AA/BA/QA) and they are both electronic tickets.

Is this odd?

Sitting here with 18 segments left on my OWE (paper, red carbon of course). Thanks for the heads up!

Sorry to hear of your aggravation, expense, and especially loss of time in HK, Viajero (but glad you found some solution). It certainly is convenient that AA and CX share the same space downtown (in Kowloon at least, not sure if they also have an Island CTO); I've found that the AA people in that office are among the best and most knowledgeable anywhere in the AA realm.

If this is the case, could AA issue us an Electronic Ticket from BKK or other site around the world? My only problem is I am also flying CX.

The only CX or AA CTO is the one in the Peninsula Tower in TST. The "AA" people there have always been wearing CX uniforms whenever I have visited (albeit at a separate counter that is badged as AA).

But anyway, it is, as you say, a good CTO. But having said that I find the ATO even more efficient, particularly in their ability consistently to be able to reissue AONE3 tickets forme in about 25 mins. It took over an hour at the CTO.

They were dressed as AA people when I went last month, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit if they were really CX employees in disguise.

It was extremely convenient to have CX and AA at adjacent counters. I had an AA-issued award ticket for the 1-stop to JFK on the following day and wanted to switch to the non-stop (no award seats available, but only 4 of 8 seats taken). I went to the CX counter and asked to be waitlisted; they said that AA had to specifically indicate on the PNR that the flight was changeable (without itin/carrier change). So I strolled 20 feet to AA, the agent immediately understood what I'd needed and modified the PNR, and I retraced my steps to the CX fellow who actually got a seat cleared. All in all a painless process, took less than 10 mins total.

I am flying rdu-lgw-ams,lon-syd-jfk-rdu on my firs aone3
ams-lon-nrt-dfw-rdu, rdu-lon-ams for my 2nd anone3
all of my flights are on AA/BA/QA and they are all electronic. I was going to add in a nrt-hkg-jfk (cx)-rdu but I don't have the time. I have no idea if that additional routing would kick it into a paper ticket or not.

The downside of electronic tickets is when the airline can't see them and they are lost in cyberspace! This has happened 5 times to me now, and I've learned to always have my ticket number with me as well as the PNR. Even so I've been unable to take the flight that I wanted several times because it took too long to straighten out the computer mess that made the ET disappear! Very frustrating -- and in those situations a paper ticket would have been painless and I would have made the flight instead of missing it!!! I am a big fan of ET but the industry needs major work to make the ET more reliable, and not put the onus on the passenger to prove that they have a ticket and are not commiting fraud.

Another way you can lose a coupon with paper tickets is when the Agent accidently takes two adjoining coupons out at the same time.

This has happened to me and it's hard for the agent to notice as they are generally quite thin. Also, that red 'carbon' can get quite sticky, helping the coupons 'become one'.

Not all. One case (there might be more, I don't know) is when the ticket is issued by AA and involves more than 16 segments, as was my case.