Non-completion of RTW
 

Hi everyone
My second last stop on my RTW ticket is HKG. What will happen if I do not take my final flight to DEL and stay on in HKG? Are there financial penalties? Will my name be blacklisted?
Thanks very much

Potentially you could be charged for the fare difference between RTW and series of one-way trips (ie potentially a lot). This is what the rules say.

I can't recall reading of anyone who actually has been charged this, but quite a costly mistake if the gamble doesn't pay off.

Often enough discussed, although with the limited search capability, asking again is understandable.

The correct answer you probably already know - your contract says you must complete the trip, and if you don't do so the airline(s) may bill you for the difference between the fare you paid and the published point-to-point fares for the segments you flew. That would be an exciting number.

That's usually followed by "but so far no one has been dinged, as far as (we) know."

Because the cost of becoming the Poster Child for RTW Compliance is potentially high, it sounds like most of the regulars go to significant lengths to complete their rtw's. My gang needs to end up at CMB in a few months, and it would be tempting to stop in Hong Kong also, but I'm not even considering it.

Never done it, never would do it (too chicken). I also feel, and stated this before, that anyone who gets zapped for a LOT of $$$ is unlikely to come here and "boast" about it, so I don't find the lack of evidence all that reassuring.

A few of the threads where this has been discussed before including christep's fine discussion of how this relates to the conditions of carriage:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...=final+segment
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...=final+segment
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...=final+segment
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=439565
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...t=last+segment

I have failed to complete several RTW trips with no effect. I take about 10-15 per year for work.

Any updates?
 

Hi, I found this old post and wondered if there are any updates. We have a RTW that the last flight is HKG HEL OSL. Need to get to DFW and would like to just do HEL DFW on a seperate ticket and save the HEL OSL segment for later. IF for some reason we can't later use the HEL OSL ticket, would hope there would be no penalty?

Thanks in advance.

I 'forgot' to take the last segment of my most recent RTW, in October last year.
No repercussions.

Welcome to FT

Yeah, same, I may or may not quite intentionally dump my final DOH-CAI segment later this year. Depends on the deals to Asia at the time.

I guess fairly though in the fare rules I'm allowed to stop my ticket anywhere in the middle east. So would technically be fine, but QF are generally morons and don't understand that and insist you can't have a stopover in the same place twice (which you definitely can, just a limitation in their own system).

I'd say most likely I'll end up asking for a change from DOH-CAI to DOH-AUH instead. We'll see nearer to the end of the year how that goes. Worst case I'll force it in DOH by myself with a no-show. Sadly ex-CAI fares aren't what they used to be and nothing particularly appealing to Asia at the moment.

As long as you dump your ticket in an area that's allowed in your fare, then you have zero to worry about. However older posts were referencing dumping a ticket in a zone that wouldn't have been allowed in the ticket.

My dump last year violated the fare rules. With no adverse consequence

My itinerary started from KHI (Karachi, Pakistan) was originally intended to end there.
But I changed my mind and no-showed for the final flight (CMB-KHI)
An itinerary that starts in Pakistan is required to end in Pakistan, ending in Sri Lanka is not allowed.

But realistically- who is going to check? Sri Lankan Airlines would have just shrugged their shoulders when I no-showed.

I looked closely at my RTW ticket. The last flight is shown as HKG HEL OSL (two segments). Can you rebook one segment? No show? Fly later the same day on same airline on a separate ticket?

Trying to look at all the options to get home in less than 48 hours of travel. Thank for reading this far ;)

Flight vs. Segment is that an issue?
 

More detail - We have a RTW that the last flight is HKG HEL OSL (shown on ticket as one flight, two segments). Need to get to DFW and would like to just do HEL DFW on a separate ticket.

So can we reschedule a segment vs. flight? Or can we just no show the HEL OSL flight? and take the same airline HEL DFW 7 hours later on a separately booked ticket? This option gets us to DFW 8 hours earlier with 2 less stops than going on to OSL then DFW.

Just trying to understand the options. Thanks.

Speaking pedantically, the xONEx tickets need to be ISSUED to comply with the routing rules of the tickets.
I do also note that most airlines will happily sell you an airline ticket that you will not fly nor request a refund for..... "COVID?"

Be creative in scheduling your wandering
Fred

Were you already in Karachi, or did you just fly in to start the itinerary? I wanted to do that, but one of my close friends is from Pakistan and he said that he wouldn't feel comfortable about my safety at the airport even if it was just from arrivals to departures unless he was there to escort me personally. How was your experience?

I have been in the airport twice. Never to the city!

First time I flew in on a separate ticket (EBB-xDOH-KHI) to start a DONE4 (first flight KHI-CMB)
So just a few hours in transit, which the airport totally is not set up for. I had to wait just prior to immigration, until the Sri Lanka Airlines station manager turned up. He then took care of me. I only had carry-on baggage so no problem there.

I returned to KHI at the end of the DONE4, and started a DGLOB34 (first flights KHI-xDOH-NBO).
So again, just in transit for a few hours, this time with a checked bag.
The Qatar Airways station manager took me through immigration, issued my boarding passes (I already had passes issued by Sri Lankan, but he insisted he give me new ones) and he escorted me back through emigration. He then went to track down my checked bag. I was seated in the plane when he came onboard to give me my new baggage check! As I said, the airport doesn't handle transit passengers at all well.

I didn't return to KHI at the end of the DGLOB34 (I 'forgot' to take the CMB-KHI flight) and took a separate CMB-BKK flight instead :D

However, I felt perfectly safe in the airport itself.

It seems that adverse consequences are rare, but we shouldn't encourage it, nor individually develop a habit, because it could well be pursued by the airline.

I seem to recall ages ago that a major consulting firm used to book all its transatlantic travel as oneway LHR-JFK + oneway JFK-LHR-CPH and dropping the last segment. I don't know whether the airline pursued them but it would seem a likely target for the revenue management team!

If this was true then I'm sure there were consequences, given the firm's contract with the airline.

What would you do?
 

Oh Bother, I just realized why it's one flight with two segments. Can't have a more than 24 hour layover in Europe once you have done the Europe and US parts of the RTW and are in the ASIA part to return to OSL.

So, now I am nervous about using the same airline in HEL to get to DFW if I no show them earlier the same day.

The other option is to add a 2 stop flight to get from OSL to DFW. Currently don't see a good option for this using AA miles. Would probably book Iceland air if we need to pay cash.

Only bright side of that option is that I might change the HKG OSL to be on Qatar Business vs Finnair Business.

What would you do? Any creative ideas out there? Thanks for all help.

I don't think AY will care much if you miss your HEL-OSL. If you have checked-in baggage, you may have some struggle negotiating the short checking and while AY is usually pretty lenient there you never know for 100%.

The one thing I would do is not to have the same ff number on the two tickets.

Second ticket is an award ticket
 

Well so far both tickets have the AAdvantage number on them. But the HEL DFW is an award so no miles. I'm not even sure how not have the ff number on the ticket??

The rule is that you cannot have more than two stopovers in the continent of origin.
Your choice whether you have two at the start, two at the end, or one at the start and one at the end.

How many such stopovers did you have at the start? If less than two, then you can change HEL from a transit to a stopover.

(For completeness - transit means 24hrs or less between flights, stopover means more than 24hrs between flights; the term layover is not used in the rules.)

I had two stopovers already. Now in the North Am part. The Asia part ends in March 2025. Thanks.

For the award ticket you probably can't remove the ffp number because it's where the 'payment' came from. For the cash ticket it should be possible; at least you should be able to change it (maybe to a dummy number) and then claim the miles later 'because for some reason there was a wrong ffp number on the boarding pass'.

It's a long story but I almost learned it the hard way years ago not have the same ffp number on two conflicting itineraries.

Thanks for the heads up. I am trying to make sure I don't learn a lesson the hard way by getting my RTW return fixed now.

Worked on the last leg. I rebooked my last flight that was on Finnair HKG-HEL-OSL to a day earlier on Qatar HKG-DOH-OSL. The AA RTW phone person insisted that there was a change fee of $125 per ticket. The taxes were lower so she took my card for $114.147 each ticket. I thought if the ticketing points did not change there would be no change fee?

I think I finally have the ticket the way I want it now. That's good, just not sure what to do about the fee.

Thanks to everyone.

Your ticketed points did change from HKG-HEL-OSL to HKG-DOH-OSL
Therefore the change fee was USD125

Thanks for the answer
 

HA, if only the agent had explained it that way. She said "since you changed your airline and date of travel there is a change fee".

I made the assumption (HA) that I was booking HKG to OSL as the ticket points... Live and learn.

Unfortunately routing does matter as well. I haven't figured out for sure if changing carriers on the same route triggers a change fee or not, but even if not that could still trigger a YQ / YR difference.

I've only done it for AA to JL on a ticket that had YQ but was doing other changes at the same time that needed the $125 fee anyway. AA's and JL's YQ tend to be very close, at least the routes I've used on xONEx. I also did a change from AA code to QF code once, but it was an ex-Japan with no YQ anyway, so there wasn't any noticeable difference, that happened pre-ticketing so no $125 fee.

The rules are pretty clear on this, it doesn't.


Rule 16(a).1.b, Rebooking/Rerouting Prior to Departure:
Rule 16(a).2.b, Rebooking/Rerouting After Departure:
The $125 fee is only imposed for changes to ticketed points. No difference between stops and connections. Notwithstanding the reluctance of some carriers to follow the rules, these are quotes from the published rules. If the people who issued your ticket won't follow them, it's time to find someplace else to buy these tickets.