Thanks to all those that posted advice to my earlier queries (I'd name names but the FT seach function is disabled and I can't pull up my earlier posts). I got a LOT of good advice. Thanks again.

In the end I took a One World 130 mile business class award, oneway Tampa - Narita (business) - Nairobi (more business to do) and have NBO - LHR - DUB booked for a future date to meet the AA + 2 more airlines requirement.

The good news is I got my AONE5 ticket from my travel agent in Nairobi for the base fare of USD 7100 plus just under $500 in taxes less a 5% discount on the base fare for paying cash. A paper ticket, but printed, not handwritten.

The bad news. I ticketed on the 9th, two days before the 11th deadline I had been advised. Checked in on the 13th, BA NBO to JNB and had my baggage checked JNB - HKG - NRT where I planned to break the RTW ticket with a cheap AA ticket back to the USA for 2 weeks. In hindsight, check in took suspiciously long, but I was handed my business class boarding pass to JNB and told to check "the other side' for my CX boarding passes.

Got to JNB to find my entire RTW reservation had been cancelled - something to do with BA NBO not loading the ticket numbers properly into the system. And the CX flight was completely sold out, oversold actually, and zero chance to get on. So the CX agent sent me to the BA ticket desk whete I have become a fixture.

I've been here 7 hours already. I'm hoping BA will authorize an involunatary re-route JNB- LHR - NRT, which will get me to NRT too late for my ticketed flight, but would avoid an overnight here and could still get me home 6 hours earlier than waiting here for tomorrow's CX flight (but I do have a first seat protected on CX for tomorrow just in case).

And actually, if they authorize me to fly to LHR (I have 1st class seats protected) I think I'll take a cheap LHR - TPA oneway to get home on time, and then try to get cheaply back to NRT on Feb 25 to resume the rest of my RTW (which the NBO agent has successfully recreated in a new PNR).

More updates to follow...

Better news now. BA manager here just spoke to me, apologized for my inconvenience and said they were now authorizing the involuntary reroute via LHR (which wouldn't normally be allowed as I am scheduled to enter Europe after Asia and Nth America). Even better, they still have my bags here.

Now I have to see about getting a decent price for LHR - TPA and I can still get home on Valentines day...

Woaw...sounds awful...Good luck with it all !

Sorry to hear about the first part of your experience Jerry Maguire. This business with cancellation of CX reservations because of issues with entering the ticket # is becoming all too common - it's happened to me twice now on a RTW ex CAI, thankfully on each occasion I found out (using my initiative rather than the issuing carrier's) well before travel and was able to get it sorted without a lengthy wait at the airport, such as you describe.

When I check my upcoming RTW ex-CAI on checkmytrip.com all the sectors appear and all looks good with ticket number displayed etc., but when I plug in the AA reference into AA.com to view the reservation on there one of the CX sectors is not appearing. Should I be concerned about this?

P.S. Hope everthing goes well for you Jerry_Maguire, keep us updated!

Speaking from experience (one of these itins was also booked by AA ex CAI) I would vere on the side of the caution and say yes, check it...

A happy enough ending to my RTW problem. BA reissued my ticket (for free) so that it now started: NBO - JNB - LHR - NRT all on BA and then on to the rest of my Asia, SWP, Nth Am and Europe sectors. It is now an illegal itinerary, but has the notation that the reissue was authorized by BA Kenya.

So I flew BA to London in first (my first true first class flight in memory, and it was a VERY nice experience) and then I abandoned the RTW for now to go home on American Airlines using a remarkably cheap, last minute, LHR - ORD - TPA round trip ticket upgraded to Business with VIP's.

I actually reached Tampa almost 3 hours earlier than my original flight schedule. And the 17 unchanged RTW segments have been rebooked as I originally had them, so a happy ending all around.

Now I set the return on the new American Airlines ticket for Feb 23, which would have me in London on Feb 24, on which date I can use the BA LHR - NRT coupon of the RTW ticket to get me to NRT on Feb 25, then continue on to HKG and beyond as originally scheduled.

But that is an awfully long way to Hong Kong from Tampa, and I'm tempted to buy a new ticket to get me directly to NRT and join the RTW with the NRT - HKG segment, and cancel the LHR - NRT segment all together.

Could I have them CX just pull my exisiting NRT - HKG coupon and have the skipped LHR - NRT coupon reissued to somewhere else when and if I next need to have the ticket reissued? Or are CX likely to insist on an immediate reissue ($75 and lots of waiting)?

Your commented is interesting, as the BA station manager in JNB said that this is not the first time recently that CX has cancelled passengers (valid) RTW itineraries.

In my case it seems CX somehow set an earlier deadline on ticketing than otherwise imposed by the airline actually handling the ticket, BA.

The fact that CX had oversold flights into HKG for the Lunar New Year was probably more than a little to do with it!

It's also an automated process, so apparently the booking carrier isn't informed - reservations need to be manually checked.

I tend to find that the best way of keeping track of any renegade changes is to do frequent checks on checkmytrip.com

Interesting question. I would have thought it was not allowed to do an intercontinental surface segment (which is what you'd have if you cancel LHR-NRT). Looking at the star file, there's this:
So it seems that as long as you keep the transoceanic segments, you should be able to do this. Has anyone tried this before?

A non-transoceanic intercontinental surface segment? If so, yes, someone did, recently, but search is disabled so I'm going on memory here.

My case is complicated by the fact that my original ticket, and the rules of the RTW, say I should have flown Africa to Asia on coupon number 2 of my ticket. Instead, I was involuntarily rerouted Africa to Europe, Europe to Asia.

The question is probably mute, as I have decided to fly back to London, then take the London to Narita flight on my RTW ticket.

Extra flying, but then significantly more first class miles:

JNB-LHR-NRT = 11,610
JNB-HKG-NRT = 8,482

Something about this RTW ticket seems cursed!

I haven't even used coupon three and I'm into my second involuntary reroute!

This time my connecting AA flight from MIA to LHR was to blame - AA 56 yesterday was diverted to Raleigh to off load a suspected heart attack patient, so I arrived LHR after BA5 had departed.

But again a bright side - I have been rebooked LHR-HKG non-stop, so I actually get to my final destination earlier and without a reissue fee.

Now I am saving a flight coupon, but rather than reissue my ticket to reflect one less coupon (and for sure he did not want to do a ticket reissue), the BA ticket agent in the BA Lounge has pulled both LHR-NRT and NRT-HKG coupons and added a note to my record saying:

ATTN//PAX TKTING ...LHR NRT HKG...PAX HAS HAD TO TVL LHRHKG DIRECT AS INVOL REOUTE
//HAVE ALLOWED PAX AN ADDITIONAL SECTOR IN HIS 20 SECTOR MAX ALLOWANCE

Should this work when and if I want to reissue the ticket in the future? Or should I go to ticketing and insist on a reissue now since I still have three+ hours to flight time?

Too bad you can't fly CX LHR-HKG -- much nicer than BA F on this route. The notation should be fine, but may only be visible to BA (so you have to reissue with BA); depends how it was done. Safer to contact Special Services at LHR, ask them to do the reissue and waive the fee (which they often will do). One of the perks of LHR is to be in the Concorde room and do ticket reissues from there, goes much more smoothly than at the ticket counter (however they may not do reissues for everyone, if they ask you to go to ticketing, forget it and wait for a better location, BA ticketing at LHR is poor at best with RTWs, much better to do it in HKG with CX for example).

Thanks for the advice - there is so much still to learn. What terminal is the Concorde lounge? I am at T1 and don't have all that much time left before departure.