I'm in the US at the moment and need to change the date of an AA flight on my AA-issued DONE4. So I assume I need to call AA to do this. But the RTW desk is closed at the moment and I'm concerned the available D inventory will go before they open tomorrow morning. AA Reservations say they can't do anything -- either change the reservation or create a new reservation to hold the seats. Is this so? Do I have any other options other than waiting the 9.5 hours until the RTW desk opens?

Eh? AA reservations won't make you a reservation? What exactly is AA reservations for then?

If the flight is on some other carrier and you know that carrier's underlying PNR then just call that carrier's reservations and change your booking. If it's on AA then just call the Plat desk again until you get an agent who has a clue.

DONE3 are not "VALID FLT/DATE SHOWN" so the date on the ticket coupon doesn't have to match the date on the reservation.

It is an AA flight. So I should call the Plat desk and ask them to book seats on the new flight under a new PNR without touching my existing PNR (which they say they can't touch)? And then call RTW tomorrow to sort the existing PNR out?

When I called the Plat desk earlier, as soon as I mentioned Oneworld Explorer the agent said I would need to call the RTW desk when they open. How can I get around this (I imagine I need to mention the fare code for them to know to book the seats in D)?

Just call again until you get an agent with a clue. Don't mention the words "OneWorld Explorer". Just tell them you have a reservation in D on this day and you want to change it to that day, and here is the PNR.

General AA res agents seem to have no training in rtw rules are are supposed to refer all res changes to the desk. Obviously DONE rules are different from those that apply to a simple there-and-back D-class ticket - e.g. changing a date can change a transit to a stop, with tax consequences. I can't see how the res agent wouldn't see from the PNR that the ticket is rtw, and thus will always send you to the atw desk. PITA, surely, since they're not 24/7.

OT, just noticed that the French seem to use 24/24 to indicate "always".

7/7 for everyday and 24/24 is more accurate than 24/7 which reads to me as being open 24 days a week. 24x7 is ok tho

Dave

Sorry to disagree with most but yes, AA general reservations have instructions not to touch a RTW, so unless you happen to catch, by luck, an inexperienced agent who simply goes ahead with the change, without thinking, you are going to have to wait for the ATW desk.

So, IMO, the answer is yes, that's the way it is, but no, you don't have to take it... just keep on calling and chances are you will get an agent who will make the changes for you.

Well OK - my experience is still almost entirely with paper tickets - in that case the AA agent has no way of knowing what type of ticket it is unless you volunteer the information, particularly if it's not on AA stock.

Well I tried one more time without success last night, then decided to just wait until 7am CDT. Inventory was still available, so all is well...

As an addendum to this - I am looking to change two flights - both have D inventory available. The first is BA LGW-BGI and the second is BGI-JFK - the tickets were issued by CX - just trying to work out who to call :/

I had exactly the same situation as the OP on Sunday evening with BA.

Not wanting to wait till next day for the LHR - CPT in A and LHR_DXB_LHR I thought I may as well take a chance with the regular BA desk. She took the PNR, made the changes and suddenly put me on hold for a few minutes. She then came back and said that this was a RTW ticket and she did not have much experience and was not sure she did it correctly, but has reserved the seats in my name anyway and asked me to call the RTW desk next morning just to confirm. When I checked the manage my booking on BA...these segments did not show up.. so I guess she really did not do it correctly.

Anyway on Monday morning the BA RTW could see the reservations she made and updated the PNR correctly.

I guess I was lucky to find a junior operator as any experienced BA operator would have immediately slammed the phone down upon seeing it was a RTW.
So the moral is to keep trying a few times.

Personally I have never had a problem with open-dated tickets and separate reservations. All the airline needs is the booking class and the ticket number. My average xONEx has had perhaps 4 or 5 completely separate PNRs during its life.