Transoceanic rule- and MRU
 

In setting up an intinerary ex-MRU, I have received the following message from the BA office there.

"AS PER FARE RULES THE SURFACE BETWEEN CMB AND NRT
IS NOT PERMITTED TAKING IN CONSIDERATION THE FACT THAT CMB
IS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN AND NRT IN PACIFIC OCEAN."

Question: I know of the trans-atlantic and trans-pacific rules but did not know of this constraint. Is this actually in violation of the rules? (Incidentally, I was planning to use some segments of another RTW between NRT and CMB).

Also for general planning information ex-MRU, note that the JNB-MRU does not yet seem bookable as per the message today:
"PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SECTOR JNB/MRU ON BA6399 IS NOT YET
PUBLISHED IN OUR SYSTEM"

The comment about CMB and NRT is rubbish. Ask them to check with their ticketing desk.

BA scrubbed the September launch of JNB-MRU and are now evidently planning on it to start in November/December.

The MRU message is one more reason to think one should just mentally increase the price of any BA-sold xONEx by USD125, have it issued with a dead-simple-no-brainer itinerary, then change it when one can deal with more experienced airline reps. Otherwise you're talking with people who have no experience with one of their airline's most complicated products making judgements based on their reading of the rules.

Even a simple itinerary may be a problem. I deliberately chose a departure date when it showed (and is still showing) two "A" seats available on MRU-LHR (using Expert Flyer) but two attempts to have BA-MRU book it have been fruitless-- although we are waitlisted. (Also ITA also shows two A seats as being bookable). If BA-MRU can't book them, who can?

Try calling a different BA office (e.g. North America, or UK) :)

What I meant was to set up an itinerary with a good outgoing flight (MRU-LHR is your only option for the time being; use the date with your two good A seats) but with the rest of the itinerary somwhat fictitious (eg MRU-LHR-JFK-LAX-HKG-JNB, whatever) and then change it to what you really want (paying the $125 reissue fee) once somebody who knows what they're doing can handle it. Open-date the segments past LHR if you want to make it ultra easy. Note you will also pay any tax/fuel surcharge differential when you have the ticket reissued, but no more than you would have paid if the full "real" itinerary had been booked at the outset.

I started the process some weeks ago by calling the BA North American desk and got the standard response (reported here on various occasions) "If we were to do it for you, even if you started in Mauritius, we would have to charge you the ex-North American fare". Not helpful.

I experienced this type of problem when booking my last xONEx; ExpertFlyer was showing D4 on QF9 MEL-LHR but CX in CMB could not book it; they could not even get QF to release any on request! In the end I went SYD-LHR with a cheap flight MEL-SYD.

I have been advised that in quite a few cases, fare bucket availabity can vary depending opon the region it is beeing booked from. In most cases this is not an issue, but in my case above, and it seems, your's, it becomes a problem. FWIW, I believe ExpertFlyer shows availability from a North American "viewpoint".

Re your comments Gardyloo and Serfty.
What really surprised me was that BA-MRU was not able to book even the first segment starting in MRU-- it can't get much more direct than that! And it would have been nice if there is no "A" inventory for the date I suggested (even though it is showing on Expert Flyer) if they had suggested some proximate alternatives. It may be that EF is not reliable as to available inventory- especially for "exotic" locations but in the past I have found it to be quite reliable.

Damn! I was just planning a trip ex MRU and that news just sank it. :mad: I had my hopes up because I just updated my OW timetable and it now shows the JNB-MRU flights in October.

BTW: Anyone know if I can do an xONEWCx (Circle Indian Ocean) from MRU? The star file with prices I have doesn't list an MRU price - but it is old.

Alternatively could you PM me the BA contact in MRU so that I can enquire directly. TIA :)

edited to add:
I see that the earliest date for which KVS shows the JNB-MRU-JNB flights is 16 December.

I'm an outsider to the subject of the various CRS's and how they're linked, but "poorly" seems to be a reasonable adjective. For example, I wanted to use LA801 between AKL and SYD in A. The AONE4 was issued by Cathay, the flight was showing A4 on EF, but Cathay couldn't get seats despite messaging Lan a couple of times. So I called Lan from North America. Their agent firstly had to be convinced that they even flew that segment - she clearly couldn't even see it in her CRS. When I insisted, she asked a supervisor, and eventually came back with the seats. So the fact that a BA outpost can't see seats on a BA flight might not be so astonishing.

The BA contact in MRU is the publicly listed TravelShop. I haven't dealt with them but did some PM chat with an FT'er who was in the finals of getting an ONE issued. Apparently no real problem except that the MRU station isn't self-sufficient in ONE matters and will be looking to their rate desk in the UK for answers.

Is the matter of "ask us for help and we'll price your ticket ex-NA" dealt with by calling BA when the Canadian rtw desk is closed (but UK is open)?

The phone number for BA-Mauritius is 230-202-8000. In the dozen or so times I have called, except for one call it has been busy or they can't hear me. If you can't get through, PM me for an e-mail contact there. They have been very good about responding to e-mails promptly.

Got through first time and got the e-mail address. Same generic format as I was using for HRE. (Really can't see what the big secret is. :( It's not like it's somebody's personal mail adddress.)

Trouble is now the mail keeps bouncing back. Same with HRE. Both generate error messages from Postmaster at ba.com. Phoned HRE and they said customers were also complaining about not receiving e-mail. Is something wrong with the whole mail system at BA?

Has anyone successfully ticketed an AONEx in MRU through BA? If so, is it possible to do a quick turnaround collecting the ticket at the airport?

Thanks