jat

I have an around the world LLONE4; and I'm half way through it - it originated in Australia, now I'm in the UK.

Anyway, I've been making various changes to my intinerary through the Qantas/BA reserverations line - planning to have my ticket reissued later with AA (who doesn't charge fees - and I have lots of flights with them)

Today I rang AA to ask them about my reservation, and the 6 character booking ref didn't work. I gave my name and next flight (which is also an AA) flight and they told me to talk to my travel agent because my ticket has not yet been issued.

I explained to them this is impossible, as I've already used half of it. I then read them the ticket number and they said OH it's a Qantas ticket. I said yes. After being on hold for a while they asked me to contact Qantas because they have no information on my ticket.

I don't understand how this can be - especially since they had details re my flights, but they say that it looks to them as though the flights ORIGINATE (i.e. first segment) starts in the UK.... Incorrecet given my first segment was PER-LON

Any ideas as to what might have happened/what to do!?

jat

I forgot to mention that both qantas & ba can pull up my details without issue. but say that i have to get it reissued by BA...

Austinrunner

Welcome to the seamless oneworld reservations and ticketing system (sarcasm intended)! Qantas (Amadeus) uses a different system than AA (Sabre). It is often true that when you make a booking with Qantas, AA's system cannot see some or all of the booking and vice versa. And don't get me started about the (in)ability of a oneworld member to ticket a booking made with another oneworld member....

Viajero

When you do a reissue your ticket number(s) change. You seem to be trying to match new reservations (on a yet to be reissued ticket) with the original ticket number. Could that be part of the problem?

jat

That makes perfect sense - that the yet-to-be-reissued ticket doesn't have a number; as changes have been made to the itinerary

but I told AA that the ticket needs to be reissued, but I don't want to reissue it until all my changes are final....

any ideas?

jat

actually maybe i did some mistakes - ive been changing my ticket throuhg both QF and BA's phone lines.

but they both seem to use the same booking ref ID

Austinrunner

That's because both of those airlines use Amadeus.

jat

Good ol computer systems....

Is there any way to request a 'transfer' information between systems? I really want to issue via AA because they dont charge the 25pound fee that BA does for a reissue

Or does cathay use AMADEUS as well?

christep

Just reissue the ticket through your carrier of choice (AA if you can for minimum fuel taxes by all reports) as OPEN dated. Reservations and ticketing are separate things. Life gets much more complicated if you try to couple them too tightly.

jat

But how can I reissue through AA if they can't find my details?

christep

You just ask them to reissue your ticket with the routing you want with all the coupons open-dated. There is no need at all to have any dates on any of the coupons except those up to and including the first international flight. Then you call all the airlines you have reservations with and ask them to insert the new ticket number into the reservation.

If you are asking for a reissuse of an e-ticket that they can't see then that is a little more difficult, but you need to push them to get the ticket image - in principle they must be able to find it.

But personally I do try to avoid e-tickets for exactly this sort of reason...

jat

Ahh OK. I've got a paper ticket. I guess the only complication is that I planned to get the ticket reissued at the airport before taking my flight. This would mean I'd have to ask for them to reissue with all the routing changes open dated, and then just board? Or would I have to go the BA desk to enter the ticket #


Also, I wonder if there will be complications, since my original 4 continent involved me going through SOUTH AMERICA (i.e. the printed ticket I have now), but I changed all my flights etc to go throuhg NORTH AMERICA instead (i.e. changed the continents). It took a few calls to make this happen - think I'll have problems at the desK?


PS first international flight as in the first sector flight EVER on the ticket (i.e. when I left perth - now in the UK)

christep

If you turn up at checkin with a ticket coupon which is valid for the route and a reservation in the corresponding class (A/D/L) on the flight you want to take then you won't have a problem at check-in.

The only thing you have to watch is that some airlines cancel reservations which don't have ticket numbers entered into the PNR. So as soon as you have a ticket with the correct routing you should call all the relevant airlines and make sure that the ticket number is entered into their reservation systems so that you don't get auto-cancelled.

jat

Thanks for all your help - it is MOST appreciated.

Given the possibility of flight cancellations, I guess I should get my ticket printed now. Given that AA are having trouble finding my details, I am not so confident that even if I show my ticket, they will reissue with the new routings. Also - the AA ticketing offices are only in Heathrow and Gatwick, so it owuld mean a trip out there, costing almost as much as the BA reissue fee itself.

Do you know which airlines in particular will cancel a reservation automatically? That has me REALLY scared, as I planned to issue on the date of travel

christep

Well CX do if you don't have any status with them.

But remember, if your ticket is a paper one then the airlines can most likely only see the details if it is on their ticket stock, so you can give them the old ticket number even though that ticket doesn't actually have a coupon for the segment that you hold the reservation for... I have never had a problem doing this. In fact a tame travel agent can issue you a dummy ticket number to hold the reservation until you have a real ticket to enter there.