Question about AONEx booking time
 

All,

Another useful forum, this site never ceases to impress! I have done some searches but still have a few questions. I am currently planning an AONEx, probably from Cairo to save £££s and was wondering what is the normal time to book and ticket it.

Presumably I check my itinerary is acceptable using the very useful oneworld explorer checker, see that the initial flights I want to take are available in the appropriate class (A for first?) and then send it off to Mrs Sobhi for pricing etc. How long does that process normally take - days, weeks, does it vary much?

Also, I intend to keep some flights open as unsure of my plans here, although I might need to minimise the segments in order to avoid a paper ticket and more hassle I suppose (having read through other threads this seems to be the best way?)

Any comments appreciated.

PS I am mainly doing this to maintain BA Gold as my travel patterns have changed a lot this year, with no work trips.

I'd allow a couple of weeks minimum to get the ticketing sorted - you may be able to do this faster, but my last AONE3 took around this time to sort and ticket, with a couple of to and frows about flights to ANC. However, if you have a straightforward CAI-LHR-LAX-HKG-LHR-CAI that you plan to reissue later, you may be able to get it done in record time.

I personally like holding a paper ticket - comforting if you're at the dog end of a RTW in DPS and trying to get home. Paper is hard to dispute, but what are you going to do if your eticket has gone AWOL and you flights leaves in 40 minutes? (I may find out as I'm on my 3rd itin and have been foreced from paper onto 'E').

To avoid paper, the tip seems to be to minimise segments and avoid ground segments. My current AONE3 was LHR-LAX JFK-LAX, with my returing from the US from LAX and re-entering via JFK, this, apparently, is a no-no for etickets.

Good luck, enjoy, and don't forget to tell us how you get on!

I agree that two weeks is a good safety net for getting a RTW ticket issued. Perhaps you can do it faster as you have some overlap in the work day with Cairo. The Cairo work day is basically when I am sleeping, so only one email exchange is possible per day.

You will speed the ticketing process if you run your itinerary through hauteboy's OneWorld validator and confirm that it meets the ticket limitations. If you are new to OneWorld RTWs and don't use the tool, you might need to have some give and take discussion with the agent, which adds time to the ticketing.

My newest one was issued yesterday. I sent the complete itinerary about a week ago. There were a couple back and forths with Emeco in Cairo, due to a typo from me, then it went on to Dublin for pricing. Emeco advised me the price, I agreed to it, and sent them scanned copies of my passport and credit card. Wtihin 24 hours of receiving that, they issued the ticket and sent me scanned copies of it and my credit card receipt.

I've bought three AONEs from mrs Sobhi and I've always been able to sort everything out in two days. One to get the booking done and verified, one to get a price and fax her my credit card details. It doesn't take longer than that. But in general it's of course a good idea to book as early as possible. First, Mrs Sobhi seems to be busy now and then and it may take her for a couple of days to answer. Second, for some routes (US-Hong Kong in particular) first class seems to be always full and trying to squeeze in just a couple of days before departure will depend solely on cancellations by others.

/hv

That's exciting news! In the past, EMECO has been very reluctant to accept credit card payments except in person. Last year, I had to wire the money to them. Once you get by that issue, EMECO is super helpful with RTW ticketing.

Btw, I'm sure Ms. Kamal could take Ms. Sobhi in a fight! ;)

Agreed - with the proviso, as stated previously, that the itinerary is valid - i.e. if you know what you're doing, and/or have validated it using the OWE validator tool, and know you have availability on all your chosen flights. If you make it simple for them (having done all your homework, and running any queries past this forum rather than the agent) then they are likely to be able to respond faster than if your itinerary is full of errors, or has lack of availability problems.
There are other people in the BA CAI office who can put together a RTW ticket too. It's possible to call them, and fax your details (see BA contact page). So if you find lack of response via email, try the phone & fax.

Having paid for the ticket(s) by credit card with either BA or AA in CAI (as above), will they then mail it to you, or do they insist on you picking it up in Cairo? My next RTW won't start for another 10 months and I'm reluctant to have to wait that long before holding the ticket in my hand as I have no opportunity to go there before then.

Strange. I wonder if this is directly related to booking in CAI. I've been doing 2 or 3 AONEs for the last 15 years and have always included LAX-HKG or vice versa. I've ticketed in the US, Canada, Gibraltar and Australia and have never had trouble obtaining A class with CX on this route. CX won't allow you to reserve a seat until six months before the flight, but I've made reservations up to 11 months in advance without ever having a problem.

I don't see why a CAI ticket would be a factor. I always have LAX-HKG in my Cairo issued tickets, and have nary a problem getting the flight. I use the christep method of open dated tickets, and have always gotten my first choice of flights from LAX-HKG.

The ONLY flight on which I had problems securing space on the RTW I finish this coming week was from MEL-CNS. I booked a seat in coach in order to travel the day I wanted, and on the day, was able to move to biz. (I had an AONEx ticket, but this flight only had 2 classes of service.)

I don't see any reason to get the ticket in mail. Depending on your home country getting a ticket in mail might attract taxes, duties and stuff. In Finland it would mean +22% (VAT) to the ticket price as they consider all foreign-issued tickets a "service" with a full VAT. If this is not a problem in your location, they probably will mail them to you. At least Emeco does that.

On the other hand, you can get your flight ticketed whenever you want. If you don't specify anything, they'll ticket it about a month before departure. But if you feel like it, you can have your RTW ticketed as soon as you've paid for it and you can then see the ticket numer by doing a checkmytrip.com query. As soon as you can see the ticket number there, you have a written ticket somewhere and personally I'm happy with that. The safe at BA Cairo airport office seems to be secure enough and that's where they store the issued tickets...

/hv

Why don't you send Emeco an email and ask? I am flying in on one RTW ticket, and out on another, so picking up my ticket in Cairo is a easy for me.

Why are you ticketing so far in advance of travel? Do you anticipate a fare increase?

My previous RTW from Emeco was Fedex'd to GCM. But if you have any free time whilst in CAI, they will, upon request, meet and greet you along with providing transport to their office. Very nice people indeed.

I too had my EMECO-issued AONE5 Fed Ex'd to me in the States.

I too like having the ticket in my hand before I travel to start the RTW.

Thank you all for your constructive comments.

As I know my broad itinerary for the next two years (work related) and I don't mind having it issued with open segments (following the advice of christep), I prefer to have the ticket issued now so as to avoid any POSSIBLE fare increases. I haven't heard of any in the immediate future, but the strong likelihood is that another one will happen well before I start the RTW in Aug 06. I've never known them to go down.

EMECO sounds like the way to go, particularly as Mrs Sobhi at BA hasn't responded to my last Email (though others have said she's very efficient).

Full Score, here's another reason to chose Emeco (AA). ReelChief and I have both had October AONE4's issued in Cairo, his from BA and mine from AA. He paid 14% in fees; I paid 8%. Although neither of us have the breakdown of our fees to compare, it seems likely that BA is imposing higher fuel surcharges. That's roughly $400 more.