Need to extend ticket time limit on RTW-which OW carrier is best?
 

This was posted in AA forum, but it just occured to me that other airlines might be easier to work with. We have segments on QF, LA, AA and AY. Given the situation, would we be better off using LA or AY to ticket? I know QF is really bad with fuel surcharges, AA is the best which is why I booked with them, but they are a pain to deal with.

We have a Global Explorer booked for July next year. AA will only give us a 21 day ticket time limit. There is no way we will have the money that quickly. We are lower income working class people, we need to get a few months pay in the bank to pay for the tickets. We are Australians and can't get the easy credit Americans can get so that isn't an option either. This is about $8000 worth of tickets so that isn't the kind of money the average person can come up with in 3 weeks.

When the 21 days comes, we have to try to rebook the same itinerary, if there are no more L class seats, we will lose the booking.

I called long distance to both the US and UK, they won't extend the time limit.

Does any one have a way around this?

I should also mention that we don't have an AA office in Australia anymore. The phone diverts to India.

But that is 21 days before the date of departure, not 21 days after the date of booking. At least that is my understanding of AA rules for the GE, others with more direct experience on GE will probably confirm/correct this.

Edited to add:

A Travel Agent may be able to offer a different TTL.

I looked at the itinerary on AAdvantage. It's definitely 21 days from date of booking. I asked them to give me until March, I would have settled for Jan. They gave me 27 Oct, 21 days from today. I had it booked initially in Sept and it expired on 9 Oct so I called them, they refused to extend it. The seats were still available and they rebooked it and gave me a time limit of 21 days. They noted in the record that I had tried to extend it and was told I can't so when I tried with the UK office, they wouldn't do it either.

Viajero, how did you get that fare rule display?

The issue with Australian travel agents is that they don't ticket in house, and they are pressured to plate on QF which has ridiculous fuel surcharges. Also they have credit card surcharges of 2-4%.

Even if AA would extend the time limit, the fare is not guaranteed until ticketing. I would be fairly certain that the price will be higher in March than it is now. That's the trade-off between buying now vs buying later. CX is more strict than AA in setting ticketing limits. Remember that this is a restricted ticket (less than most), but still does not have open ended ticketing limits.

Whilst I understand your statement about 8K being a lot to come up with in a short space of time, I don't agree that credit is hard to obtain in Australia. There are literally loads of credit cards out there on the marketplace these days. In fact the banks are literally throwing them at customers, especially since all the non-bank groups are now offering cards (Aussie, Wizard etc) in addition to the supermarket offerings.

Back on topic, even though the fare rules specify ticket issue 21 days prior to departure, each airline can impose its own deadline. AA RTW desk gets a lot of speculative business (since it is the best of the RTW desks), so I can see that they have had to impose this rule to weed out the tickets that will never be issued. You can try CX to see what their fuel surcharges are (I think not much higher than AA after the last round of increases); pretty sure that CX will hold the reservation for you for longer than 21 days (I recall having to pester them to ticket one of mine that was months away). As stated, the fare and rules are not locked in place until you actually buy the ticket, so be sure to keep an eye out for fare increases (or fuel surcharge increases, though those are presently dropping rather than rising).

I posted a somewhat long-winded response to the OP's question on TTT.

I do have a couple credit cards but the limits are very low. I don't have a stable job, I am a temp usually in accounts and considered below average income statistically. My husband is an ongoing labour hire. I'm actually a very good payer, always on time because I plan my purchases and pay for them by the end of the month. This is why it is essential that I find some way to delay this purchase until Jan or Feb when I would have saved the money to pay off the tickets.

There is no CX at all in this itinerary. I have only QF, LA, AA and AY. The return to Australia is booked as an AY codeshare on QF metal because AY gives better mileage earning.

I'm not that worried about the price fluctuation in Jan/Feb because by then I would have the money. My concern is the airlines running out of L class especially on the Easter Island and domestic Peru flights. I have no flexibility of date change, I will be booking jungle lodge packages, Machi Picchu train, hotels on points and there is the Heiva festival in Tahiti. I will need to keep the exact dates I am planning on. I did build a cushion into my itinerary to give me enough time to make connections and allow for possible delays in Cuzco.

I guess what I am really asking here is how do I get hold of one of those AAngels that I see being discussed on FT who can make things happen when the regular call centre people won't budge?

Or alternatively, would LA be a good option to book the ticket with? (in regards to fuel surcharges)

I don't think AY has an office here but I am guessing European based carriers have high fuel surcharges.

have you asked your credit card companies to raise your credit limit? do you have anyone else with high enough credit limit to put in on their card and who trusts you? your parents, siblings, your hubby's parents, siblings, etc.

Also, did you look at AA credit card?
https://www.aa.com/apps/netSAAver/Vi...omotionContent

the have intro offer - 6 months no interest. looks like it will work for you, but i have no idea if it's for US residents only.

You cannot ... it takes some clout with any airline to ask for special processing and/or a favour. You don't have status with AA, and you don't do any business with AA. Even on the GE explorer ticket AA gets peanuts from the fare, unless you are flying AA trans-Pacific (via NRT) and trans-Atlantic. Maybe if you offer to do such a routing AA RTW desk would reconsider the ticketing deadline (but I think they don't have any leeway on that).

Your best bet is to ticket on QF and swallow the extra cost. Or spend a hundred hours dealing with LAN (I'm sure they will eventually get it done, but it will be painful, and long-distance calls to Chile are probably 10x the cost of phoning the US). Maybe make your first leg on CX (Australia-HKG), CX will always ticket when they are flying the first leg and I am pretty sure they follow the "21 days before departure" rule for ticketing.

As for your concern in running out of L inventory, that is a very valid concern, I've noticed lots of flights on AA that have L0 even though there are lots of seats left, and LA is really tight with the IPC route (plus there aren't many seats to start with on that route). As an aside, by repeatedly booking and then releasing L inventory on the same flight (as your held reservation cancels out), you are changing the future allocation of L seats for that flight (to be fewer seats) ... the joys of yield management software. Do it often enough, and the seats won't go back into L inventory after they are released. Something to keep in mind (so a strategy of rebooking every 21 days won't work for more than a month or 2).

So will AA, if you push hard enough. Let's face it, the "21 day rule" is not some exotic OW rule, it is right there, on the starfile, an AA document.

AA usually tries to get away with short ticketing dates, anf I find this only proper, after all it's good business to try, but if you persevere, and talk to a supervisor, and quote the starfile they will eventually come around. It pisses them off to have the starfile thrown at them so do it gently. :)

I am sure if you went to your bank and (assuming you currently pay on time) asked for a personal loan to purchase air tickets they would be more than happy to oblige. You would be surprised how incredibly easy credit is to get these days. Last month I had a big month on my CC including some large purchases in HKG, not only did my bank bar my credit card until I go in and unlock it they also offered my another $6000 credit. And the funny thing is according to what they know of me I earn $14k/annum without getting too OT I think it's quite disgusting they would offer someone on that salary the amount of credit they have.

If your crediting the flight to QF, the QF code is usually best. AY is only good if your bronze and trying to avoid BA sectors due to the 25% miles on L class.

Whereever possible try to stick to QF codes if that is your native programme.