After alot of planning and expensive calls from England to the RTW desk at American Airlines, Texas (the BA agents in England were absolutely useless,) I recieved an approval for my itinerary and purchased tickets for my girlfriend and myself in WAW! Originally, I'd planned on buying my tickets in London, but I found out that my itinerary would have me transfer in LHR more than once, which is a no-no in the rules. So, we decided to start the trip off in Poland. Here's all my details in case you're curious as to how to do this yourself, or just curious as to where I'm going, where there are 3 airports in one line, that indicates a transfer:

WAW > LHR
LHR > CAI
CAI > LHR > BOM
DEL > HKG
HKG > PEK
PEK > HKG > BKK
BKK > MEL
SYD > HBA
HBA > SYD > AKL
AKL > LAX
LAX > DFW > SJO
SJO > DFW > DCA
JFK > LHR > WAW

Here's some info which is slightly contrary to the prices in SpotWelder's sticky, I think: The AA agent that booked my itinerary told me the price for the tickets in Poland would be $2900USD, the tickets in America would cost $3800USD, and the tickets in England would cost $2600USD. At this point, I was in London and had been planning to buy the tickets there, but as I said the routing wouldn't work. I knew that I'd be saving money, as compared with the purchase price in the US, but I was very surprised to learn that the tickets would cost 300$ more in Warsaw.
Also, I have seen alot of posts trying to figure out how to purchase the tickets in Warsaw. Here's how I did it: I asked the AA rep on the phone, "where can I pay for this?" He told me that I'd be using TAL Aviation, as AA didn't have a ticket desk in Warsaw. TAL Aviation was very nice and the lady said she had not sold one of these tickets before. Unfortunately, she had to hand write the tickets on a red carbon-copy booklet and it took her a very long time to do the 2 of them. The final price, with taxes included and paid for with a MasterCard, was PLN9904.05, with a conversion rate of 3.10872PLN to 1USD for my economy, aka "coach" tickets.
If anyone can answer these few questions, I'd really appreciate it:
- If I lose this stupid booklet of flight coupons, is it replaceable?
- If I decide I want to delay my departure from somewhere, do I need to get tickets re-issued? Is it free to change the departure date? How do I find the phone numbers to call a ticket agent?
- Can I use multiple airline membership cards, depending on the carrier (i.e. a BA card on a BA flight, an AAdvantage card on an AA flight...) and consolidate them later?
Thanks, and happy travelling. If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to write and I'll try to get back within a week or 2!

Congratulations and happy flying. Don't lose the tickets. Date changes shouldn't cost you; a change in itinerary will. Can't answer your FF program question; I'd try to get the right no. on each segment before you go to be safe. Probably worth some homework to know what you'll get from each program for each flight. How to contact the carrier? Guess it depends on where you are.

Two questions: (1) How long did it take Tal to write the tickets, and did you go there first, or just go in once the tickets were ready? And (2) is your MasterCard US-issued? I presume your bank will charge a 3% currency conversion fee?

Thanks.

(1) It took TAL about 2 hours to hand-write two booklets, and we went there only after Amaerican Airlines confirmed that my itinerary was confirmed and ready for pickup. But the office is very easy to find, it has a huge "American Airlines" sign above the door
(2) My master card is US issued, but I haven't checked to see if I got hit with a commission fee, I sure hope not!

Thanks very much. It's a currency conversion fee that you should look for.

Thanks for the pointers on this. It looks, then, that the best way of getting an xONEx from Warsaw at the Star files price is to get AA in the US to agree the itin. Then go to Tal Aviation in Warsaw, watch them write out the tickets and simply pay on credit card (issued wherever). Incidentally, Tal have not replied to either my email or fax asking them to confirm that they can ticket a DONE4.

When I tried emailing Tal in the past they were very slow in responding. It sounds like the phone approach may be the best, as used by Mycombs.

I'm not well versed on the ins and outs of GSAs but I suspect that they are often small offices with limited resources. A sudden influx of requests for weird and/or highly complex tickets may overwhelm such operations. Note Mycombs said this was the first RTW written by the Tal rep.

I think I read somewhere that after 16 flights the tickets had to be hand-written, but that with fewer segments they could be e-ticketed or machine printed. That might be easier for such operations to handle, otherwise more time will need to be allocated.

Yes, I think you're definitely right on their probably limited resources and that a 16 and under segment rtw would be easier for them.

Mycombs, I'm delighted to find your post and learn that you have your RTW ticket.

You must consider the paper ticket equivalent to money. If I were you, I'd copy the ticket and send a copy to your parents. Then, if the worst happens and you lose it, you have the ticket number so that you can file for a lost ticket.

No, the ticket does not need reissued for a date change. You can call the airline directly to make the date change.

You need to decide which program you want to use in order to maximize benefit from your earned mileage. You will not be able to consolidate miles later, if some are credited to BA, some to AA, some to CX.

Yes, for a USD100 fee (in the case of AA).

I think I read somewhere that after 16 flights the tickets had to be hand-written, but that with fewer segments they could be e-ticketed or machine printed. That might be easier for such operations to handle, otherwise more time will need to be allocated.[/QUOTE]


I suspect the 16-segment computer-generated ticket limit applies. I had 20-segment handwritten ticket reissued after using 8 segments. The reissue was done by the computer, not hand. Because of this, some have suggested having DONE4 issued with <16 segments initially, and then making changes to the itinerary later with addition of segments. Of course, the $75.00 change fee applies, but it might speed up the initial ticketing process. I often make 1 or 2 changes during the course of travel. Good luck. I may try to end my current RTW in WAW and start new one there, just for a change from CAI.