Greetings:

Has anyone out there bought a DONE4 from a travel ticket company such as 1st air net?

They are doing all the contact work with BA (I am using IST as my starting point) This is a big help to me since I have a hearing problem. They will issue me a paper ticket based on IST price.

All seems to be going along just fine.......but.......I have not seen any mention of this type of ticketing in FT.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks,

TomT

I have bought OWE ATW tickets from an agent in Thailand for ex BKK trips. There's no reason not to use one and there is no reason why there should be any problem.

When they hold the booking, do ask for the BA Amadeus locator and you can look on checkmytrip to see that the booking is there; when they issue it, it will likely show you the ticket number.

Dave

There's nothing wrong with buying OWE tickets from a reputable travel agent. The two questions I'd be asking is "is the agent honest?" and "does the agent know enough about OWE rules to be useful?".

If you're comfortable with the rules yourself you can do most of the setup with the "local" BA rtw desk (who surely has means of dealing with hearing-impaired travelers), with only a couple of fax'es going back and forth to IST.

Hi -

Is there a reason you used an agent instead of a local OW tickeket office?

If there is and you had a good experience can you give me the name of the agent in BKK that you used?

Thanks!

Yup. By using the TA, I can get the ticket issues by him and he will send the ticket to me via DHL which avoids the need to have to actually stopover in Bangkok; can book BA to BKK and then use the OWE ticket to continue through to London on the same flight

I have sent you a private message with contact details

Dave

Does 1st air net have an office in Istanbul? If not, how are they able to issue tickets at IST prices?

Thanks all for the feed back..........

SanDiego1K:.

As for 1stAir having a IST office, I have been told that"they have a european agent that will issue the tickets",BA is pricing the itiniery at this point.The tickets would be sent to me,hard tickets, no elec because of 20 segs.A rough est. was 6400USD, including Tax,$ conversion and ticket issue.The agent mentioned that tax was high due to NA/ USA flights being charged local tax rather then international rate.

On the whole all has gone well and the agent seems to know what he is doing, they claim that ATW trips and F and J tickets are what they work at.
Having the tickets before we get to IST works for us because we are short on time on that end and will be hitting IST on a Sat.,going out Sunday.(If this works out)

Any other comments would be appreciated as always.........This trip is a 50th. wedding present to beloved wife (Not me, Hee,Hee ) so I don't want anything to mess up...or.... as little as possiable.

Thanks again,

TomT

Is it a rule that the airline office won't send the tickets via DHL?

I suppose there's no such rule and atleast most airlines/agents are willing to do it on customer's expense, of course. One thing should be remembered, though, paper tickets are basically like cash, so some precautions might be in order. Also, customs issues can be a hassle in certain areas.

My first premium RTW was issued by a US Agent (not 1st Air). It was before I discovered this fourm. The ticket was issued ex-Cairo by a local agent, and sent to me, but the price I paid was some $1000 more than the actual ex-Cairo price, and the ticket (in hindsight) violated a bunch of rules. Luckily I flew everything as ticketed and no questions were ever raised. But I wouldn't do that again...

I think 1st Air are reputable, but I would double check your itinerary carefully, and make sure that the price you are to pay is indeed the ticket price plus any agreed service charge.

I just called 1st-air.net and they told me that I could buy a DONE5 ex-IST from them at the IST price, BUT that they would need us to join their Passport Premiere for $299 or $499 per "couple". I am still going to try to get British Airways IST to price my DONE5, but the people at the BA US RTW desk are not being very helpful (today the guy told me I could only hold the ticket for 48 hours and that they could not hold a ticket to be purchased out of the country).

Please see my recent post elsewhere on forum: (here is link)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...49#post5616349

Inas from Emeco FedEx'ed me the ticket at no additional charge. DONE04 ex-CAI is ₤36,831.90 ($US 6,622.54), so not that much different from above poster's ex-IST ticket.

And as I mentioned AA RTW so much easier to work with regarding getting pricing after ticket is sent to the rate desk. Plus, I feel more confident if I have to make changes to the ticket at a later date -- AA seems easier to work with.

I have found BA IST being extremely efficient to work with in the past. I do not know the current situation for the last couple of weeks, however, but it would be very weird if the German desk in Bremen is less competent in dealing with these issues than the BA people at IST office were, even their airport counter people are very friendly and responsive. Valid ITN and the locator obtained for their RTW desk UK (they will hold it for 30d no questions asked, as do the US BA RTW staff, btw)...

I do not know you way of communication with BA, but I have personally found out that nothing beats good old phone conversation, then you (usually, atleast) have the agents 100% attention to your case. Emails and faxes are easilly forgotten etc.

Sorry to hear you had promlems with them...

Just heard back form 1st-air. They are quoting a price for IST DONE5 of USD 6315 excluding taxes and surcharges. This is about $300 more than the base price of EUR 4968 which is about USD 6015. According to them, this is an "administration and ticketing fee" and it's in addition to their $299/$499 Passport Premiere fee.

From my own research, it seems that the differences in pricing based on where you purchase an Around the World ticket seems to have disappeared. At one time, it seems that you could save several hundred or even thousands by purchasing an RTW in Bangkok, or Cairo or Turkey as indicated here. From what I have found from calling the One World RTW desk, there is no longer ANY difference for starting an Around the World in Istanbul or any other Euro city like Rome, Lisbon or Paris as they are all part of the Euro zone

The Passport Prem club seems to offer some deals on this, which is why I am trying to determine if the fee is worth the savings. 1stair.net says that the purchase their Around the World fares from the carriers directly or from a third party in Asia, but that for Star Alliance and One World it is more carrier direct. I have used 1stair.net before with favorable results but don't know how the club pays off

Any insight or experience would be appreciated