Ready to book AONE RTW ex Mauritius
 

Have scoured these threads to see how to actually create Reservation and provide CC details for AONE ex Mauritius. It will be a BA ticket. I am in Connecticut. Do I email the BA desk in Mauritius with the route or do I get BA RTW in USA to reserve and send to them. I obviously want the low fare.

You can't have done your research that thoroughly, but on account of just 3 previous posts, I'll go easy on you. Just do a search within this forum using the keyword 'Mauritius' and you'll find the answers you desire.

My advice: just call your local BA office to set the itin up and then email the MRU office with the locator.

Welcome to FT, btw.

Wow. I, who follow BA/MRU discussions with great interest, believe I've read here that calling the BA rtw desk for North America to set up a booking ex-MRU (or ex-anyplace outside North America) is much more likely to get the caller insulted and offended than to get any useful airline business accomplished.

I could have missed more recent discussions to the contrary, of course, but based on discussions of stinging rebukes six months ago, it seems that most posters following the MRU trail have learned to deal initially with the MRU office by email (and learn that it takes a few days for a response, which then leads to a pleasant booking experience, give or take issues about finding space out of MRU.)

Good luck to OP, and don't be afraid to ask further questions. Most of the people here are very anxious to be helpful and tolerant, otherwise many of my own lame and/or off-topic questions would have gotten me ridden out of here long ago.

Here are a few of the threads:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ight=mauritius
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ight=mauritius
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ight=mauritius

I found that the BA people in MRU were extremely responsive and it didn't take much time at all.

In my case I emailed the itinerary and booked (and later had to cancel for other reasons) a rather simple AONE4 originating at MRU that did not challenge the Europe 2-entry question, nor that used too many BA segments, owing to my dislike of Heathrow and fuel fines. It was my intent to have it re-issued after I got to the US, where the BA RTW people wouldn't try to upsell me on a N. America price or get all pedantic about relevant fares.

I got an email with PNR details immediately upon the MRU office opening on a Monday; the tariff information came a couple of days later. Couldn't have been easier.

As always, I'd recommend the OP first post an itinerary here so it can be koshered, rather than having to rely on remote stations or BA GSAs do the rule interpretation.

Thanks

Flight MNRU to LHR had no A so did MRU to JNB to LHR which had only one A on my date so I called BA in USA not RTW desk as closed w/e. They made me a PNR today as follows

MRU-JNB-LHR-JFK..BDL-DFW-TYO-HKG-ICN-HKG-JNB-MRU

I must check rules for a break between JFK and BDL as can easily drive back to JFK otherwise I plan to e mail this to BA at MRU tonight.

I believe the correct the e mail address is [email protected]

Surface segments are fine and do not count toward the 20 segment total, so you can, for example, fly into JFK and out of BDL (or vice-versa) with no penalty to you

Sorry if my earlier response seemed harsh, I was merely pointing to the fact that the questions asked had already been answered in related threads, which I see have now been posted (by someone obviously feeling more helpful than I was yesterday).

Not sure what you mean about callers to the NA desk getting insulted / offended, though. All you're doing is calling up to make a reservation. Pricing and ticket issue is something else and should of course be dealt with directly with the BA office in MRU.

Is it something you've actually tried?

I only ask because I just started an ex-MRU AONE6 that I set up with BA GSA MRU (who are lovely) directly and I've had a few contacts with BA NA RTW desk since.

In each and every instance they have been incompetent, insulting, arrogant, confused and 100% knowledgeless on even the most simple oneworld explorer issues. IME, they are the worst bunch of airline employees I have -ever- dealt with.

Glad to hear that YMHV'd-- I must have just run into 4 bad apples (in a row.)

Isn't it also true that BA NA RTW simply refuses to book an OWE that starts anywhere other than in NA?

Well, if it's any indication, they recently refused to even reissue my ex-MRU AONE6 (to change one segment from DXB-LHR to CAI-LHR).

And, of course, they didn't pass up the opportunity to mention "well you saved a lot of money buying in Mauritius-- and you're not really in Mauritius, now are you??" and "oh, you have to go back to where you bought that from-- we deal with people who bought from us."

Of course, by contrast, AA RTW desk has, for the most part, a delightful, creative, informed and very professional group of experts working there.

My experiences with the NA BA RTW desk parellel that of the above poster. I have nothing but headaches with the BA RTW desk here in the US. However THE AA RTW is so far superior that I try to do all of booking with them....

Before the Toronto BA RTW office was dismembered, I spoke rather frankly to a phone rep there who indicated (roundabout way in case the call was being monitored "for quality purposes" :rolleyes:) that they were under some siginficant pressure to upsell the products and that while they were not paid commissions, their status hinged on revenue generation. I don't know if this was a grousing employee faced with relocation or redundancy, but was something of a lightbulb moment.

I have prevailed on them to create PNRs for non-N. America origins, then I've sent the locator to the relevant field station to have them queue it for pricing. The NA RTW people grudgingly agreed, but as with others, it's seldom an easy process. OTOH AA is a breeze (most of the time - they're not flawless either.)

When I had BA RTW USA create a PNR for non-USA origin, they warned me that it would price as a USA origin. Then when the field station got my request, they said the same thing (maybe because of PNR notes?). After that experience, and their general attitude towards any request, I decided to only deal with the AA RTW desk (where I ALWAYS ask for my favorite agent) and have had nothing but great service from them.

Thanks for all input the thread links really helped. I had not really understood how to search for these threads and had been wasting time in the BA area

Job done. BA Gold desk created PNR yesterday. I rang back and they changed some details no problem.
E mailed MRU they responded overnight here in CT and gave me their location identifyer and asked me to get BA RTW to transfer over.
Rang BA Gold again today who could not help so I was put through to RTW who were reserved and could not help then feigned ignorance at first but transferred booking once I gave them the MRU office code. (I reminded them of Gold and significant spend in their office just to sweeten them until they clicked that transfer button ) I can now see the reservation on BA dotcom with the MRU location as the contact number.
Now I have the contact I'll deal direct for next tickets so thanks.

I have one follow on question
Routing includes NRT HKG ICN to get from NRT to ICN both on CX. The flight will be taken in April and JAL have a non stop. I am hoping $125 I can make the change after April to the JAL non stop once they join OneWorld. Knowledge on this anyone?

Glad you got sorted out and, again, apologies for my initial grumpiness. I should've been more patient with a newbie.

Just as an afterthought, it matters not which office is listed as the issuing one for your reservation. All you need is the all-important reservation locator so that the local office can do the rest.

Enjoy your trip.

Current wisdom says no, the member airlines that you can use during the life of the ticket are the ones current at the time of ticketing, not at the time of travel, BUT, with JAL's entry already announced, with a firm date and all, things could be different now, I don't know.

Have you had success working with AA's RTW desk and getting them to price/setup tickets for non-North America pickups? My current thoughts are ex-NRT.

Thanks!

Steve

Yes, last year I set up a ticket with AA USA RTW desk, and when everything was set, I contacted the AA agents in Stockholm to get the ticket issued (paid with US credit card). Then I picked up the ticket two months later at the airport. The whole process was very smooth.

I am about to phone Tokyo (soon as they open) to see how I can pay for a DONE4 ex-NRT that I set up a couple of days ago with the US AA RTW desk. So far no problems, but I'll be curious how communications go with AA's Japanese res center. I tried phoning on Monday (Japan time) but got only a recording saying the office was closed when it should have been open. Turns out it was a national holiday in Japan. What nerve. ;)

Followup - phoned and listened to music for a couple of minutes (praise be to Skype) then got an incredibly helpful phone rep who spoke impeccable English, and took credit card info and said the e-ticket would be confirmed in an hour or two, or a day at most. He said I'd be emailed a confirmation message, and if for some reason it didn't work as an e-ticket, they would have paper tickets waiting at the NRT counter the day of the flight, and the PNR would be annotated with the reasons it couldn't be e-ticketed. Confirmed the price and warned me that my credit card would add an exchange fee (duh). The whole thing took around 5 minutes.

Sorry to hijack your thread but do I need the credit card I booked with for a AONE4 starting in MRU. My parents are paying so the card will not be in my name. Flying BA, CX, AA and QF

The switch should be relatively easy post-1 Apr but you could always try putting the question to the OW corporate office.

The easiest way to solve this is to ask your parents to get you added as an additional / supplementary cardholder. You'll then have a card in your name which debits their account. This assumes, of course, that you can be trusted :D

Sweet! Thanks for the update. I really appreciate it.

Steve

Update update -

They couldn't do an eticket as I had two openjaw segments (NRT-LAX//YVR-JFK//SEA-DFW) which took the line count to 18 despite only having 16 flights listed (didn't know that, learn something every day.) So there will be paper tickets issued at NRT when I get there next week. The PNR is annotated that we tried but couldn't on the eticket thang.

Didn't prevent AA from letting me confirm an eVIP into F/A over the ditch (coffins but who's counting) so color me happy.

(Had to laugh - the eVIP authorization note is on Line 93 of the PNR :eek:)

Oh dear. I just got off the phone with the AA RTW desk and booked a 15 segment AONE4 (with the intention of reissuing it later), but I also have two open jaws. That would push it to 17 segments... does this mean just a paper ticket, or a hand-written paper ticket? If the latter, I'll try to avoid it by canceling a few hops around Asia at the end, and just reissue it when the segment/line count is below 16 again.

With AA, anything over 16 segments is a handwritten paper ticket. A segment must start where the last segment originated, so open jaws or even a LHR/LGW transit (unless they can put it as LON--not sure if that's possible on an e-ticket) adds a surface segment to the ticket. However, the 20 segment limit is for flights only, so surface segments don't affect the flight segment count.

Yes that's my interpretation. I thought about reducing the no. of segments but figured that would send it back to Dublin for repricing, and I didn't want to take the time, as I was afraid A inventory on my LAX flight would vanish in the meantime. The AA Japan guy I spoke to on the phone said the tickets would be waiting at the ATO when I got there, so what me worry.

Ah well. You learn something new every day.

If I'm going to end up with hand-written ticket anyway, I might as well go for all 20 air segments and save the reissue fee later. Reissuing a hand-written ticket fills me with foreboding... alternatively, I may still cancel a few segments to get the total segment count down.

Gardyloo, if you had your reservations on hold then surely you wouldn't have to fear the loss of your A seat on the LAX flight?

Wasn't sure - got caught in bouncing ball calls between the EXP and RTW desks, all the while with no confirmation that anything had actually been purchased. Meanwhile A4 on EF went to A3 then A2, so I punted. I'll be doing a reissue anyway so figured I'd handle it when I had more time.

But if you have a reservation then the seat is yours, as the seat is subtracted from the inventory at the time of the reservation, rather than at time of purchase. At least, that's what I always thought.

My understanding too, but I was just being cautious in booking with NRT - didn't want to add complexity to the process in case things weren't as easy as they turned out to be. Next time I'll be more bold/proactive. Worked out okay anyway.

I'm definitely going to just ticket a limited number of sectors jut to make me feel better -- besides, I know I'll be reticketing anywy and once I get back to SFO I'll feel better :)

Steve

Has anyone received an official answer of whether a "post 01-April" re-issue of a "pre 01-April" ticket will be allowed to be reissued with JL/MA/RJ segments?

The policy always has been you fly what you started with. No reason to expect it'll change. Works both ways so when someone leaves you can continue to fly them for the validity of your ticket.

The agents that I have worked with in the past tell me that the t & c at the time of ticket issue govern. That's why a copy of the tariffs are kept for a few years as number_6 has posted many times.

Although it's a far cry now from MRU as in the thread topic, I thought I'd add my own tale to Gardyloo's experience ex-NRT. I set up the itinerary with the RTW desk, and just got off the phone with AA in Tokyo to have it issued. The lady spoke very good English, so no problems there. She initially claimed that CX would have to issue the ticket, as my first flight (NRT-HKG) is with them. We argued a bit, she put me on hold for a while, and then said it'd be no problem to issue the ticket.

It should be an e-ticket as I canceled enough segments from my original itinerary to keep the count below 16, including open-jaws. We did the whole credit-card thing, and then she proceeded to read back the entire trip to me, flight by flight. I didn't really have the heart to stop her. Anyway, here's hoping all goes well with the issuing of the e-ticket as time is starting to run short.

All in all a very pleasant experience with the AA RTW desk as well as with AA Tokyo. ^

I am a traditional BA.com booker and enjoying the dialogue and the prospect of savings $ so leading back to the original thread. Received my travel information and fare from MRU very favorable. CX HKG to JNB as penultimate flight shows available in D (no A as seasonal) on Expert flyer but on my BA.com shows waitlisted. Had rung BA USA prior to moving booking to MRU Monday and they said available and would take 24 hours to clear. Now its 72 hours later and still says available C7 J9 D9. Was thinking of calling CX to get confirmed then will buy first ticket. Any ideas.

Also thinking about second and subsequent MRU RTW anti clockwise works best for me so entering MRU via JNB from Asia or Australia so can go in on QF from Oz or CX from HKG so that allows me to connect from ICN and NRT via HKG. When in India looks like have to return to HKG the to JNB. Is there any other way.

You don't have to wait for the ticket to be issued to chase reservations. I have no idea why your CX flight hasn't cleared if there's D9 availability. Make sure that your BAEC number is in the PNR, and also ask BA for the CX record locator (this will be different from the Amadeus PNR that BA uses). Then call CX to see if they can confirm the flight.

There are no direct India to Africa flights on oneworld, so you're stuck having to back via HKG.

I am now midway on a AONE5 issued from MRU and I have found that they are they are excellent even at booking open dated segments immediately over the phone or by email. In some places like India the RTW awareness is very low with BA and Qantas and this can be a real hassle as they want you to fax the ticket or go to their office or some such thing. Also, the Qantas office in Mumbai even told me that they could not book flights on Qantas as the ticket was on BA paper and only BA could do so !!! I have found Cathay to be the best at making reservations on open dated segments over the phone outside the US.