Welcome back OW4U!

Just one quick suggestion: will the online booking tool let us chose our issuing carrier in the future? Now it is determined by the first flight if I am not mistaken.

Also will we be able to manage our xONEx's online in the future (change dates for instance)?

Oneworld contacts
 

Who can one contact at Oneworld where their is a dispute between Oneworld technical rules and a member airline's interpretation of them?

nielsdc: Sorry to hear of the difficulties you have experienced. I'll ensure the appropriate folks at BA are aware of them. oneworld4u

henkybaby: We are looking at all feedback on our RTW booking engine to help us shape future developments. I cannot at this stage indicate what that may entail, or give a timeframe - but I can state that we much appreciate all suggestions! oneworld4u

JayPee: If you believe any oneworld airline is in breach of its oneworld requirements, and you are not getting suitable satisfaction from that airline's own customer relations people, please feel free to provide details to me via my private notifications FT email. oneworld4u

oneworld4u, I have been in discussions with AY regarding QF's Premium Economy. According to AY the agreement between AY and QF states that no AY points are given when flying W or T on QF. I am very surprised as I can earn T class points to BAEC when flying QF. I would really appreciate your response to this - is there something I can do to earn AY points?

For more information see thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/finna...m-economy.html

Same issue occurred with my friend, except this time it involved AA, JL, and CX. My friend wanted to change a date on his xONEx ticket:

JL said: the original travel agent (some obscure travel agency in Japan) had to re-issue it.
AA said: the next carrier (LA) has to re-issue it.
LA said: LAN has no record of friend taking the previous flight so the entire trip is null.

What he felt was that all three didn't want to do anything with the ticket because it's too much work, they don't understand it, or maybe they weren't trained in it as much as their "usual work." In either case, he was frustrated at the whole experience and came back home with a bad image about OW. :(

Vulle: I'll see if I can glean any more on this from AY - but my hunch is that it treats QF's Premium Economy as Economy in terms of FFP miles/points. Remember that AY itself has no equivalent cabin/fare - just Economy. BA, however, does have an equivalent cabin - and has an extensive bilateral agreement with Qantas which goes much further than the general oneworld requirements etc. oneworld4u

Thank you for your reply oneworld4U. As you mention AY seems to treat PE as regular economy, when flying in BA's WT+ you get 100% of miles, not 110% as when crediting to BAEC or AAdvantage. It just makes me very surprised that AY gives no points when flying QF's PE but 100% when flying BA's WT+.

Anyway, I've now joined BAEC and will credit all my OW premium class travel to BAEC. With AMEX Platinum I can transfer Membership Rewards points to BAEC so I'll be booking at least WT+ in the future and upgrade to Club as often as I can :cool:

Vulle: I've checked with Finnair and they confirm that currently Finnair Plus does indeed classify Qantas' Premium Economy as an Economy fare. As I pointed out before, Finnair does not have an equivalent cabin. However, Finnair says that the current position is subject to review. If it changes, you'll be sure to hear through your regular Finnair communications channels. oneworld4u

oneworld4u, thank you for your effort. To be honest I am quite happy with finding out about this before I travel - I've now joined BAEC and I guess there will be no turning back :p

Dear Oneworld4u,
I have followed this discussion in the AY Plus Forum. It seems that the problem is that AY is NOT classifying Qantas' Premium as an Economy fare

QF Economy booking class Y B H K L M S: 100 % AY Plus points
QF Cheap economy booking class G N O Q V: 50 % AY Plus points

but
QF Premium Economy: 0 AY Plus point.

So AY treats QF Premium Economy as an Extremely cheap Economy class giving zero points.

BTW it is very nice and helpful that OW has a lurker here.

nordic, thank you. You managed to summarize my long writings with a few words. ^ I need to learn that myself :o

AY's problem is that they give 50 % of points when flying in QF's discounted economy but 0 % when flying in Premium Economy.

nordic and vulle: Thanks for your input... As I said, AY are looking at this. Hopefully it is something that can be resolved. If so, it would be communicated through regular AY FFP channels. Happy and safe flying! oneworld4u

Is there a minimum operating standard for OneWorld Carriers?
 

Hi there, just a quick question for you. I have taken a lot of One World flights over the last 24 months, and read all the blurb about OW being the "leading quality alliance" etc. Now, as a member of the highly secretive secretariat in Vancouver, maybe you can advise if there is a certain operating standard to which airlines in the alliance have to adhere? With the exception of Malev I have flown on all the member carriers in the last 18 months and have to say that there is such a huge difference in the quality of service offered that it is hard to believe that there can be any required operating standard in place. (and I am not comparing one airlines 45 minute commuter flight to another airlines 16 hour transcontinental service).
Further, is there a central OW customer service desk to which I can write - as I have written to a couple of member airlines expressing dissatisfaction at service on their planes to which I have needless to say received no response. The exception was Finnair who did respond - around 5 months after I mailed them, promising to follow up and get back to me - well a year later I am still waiting, but hardly suprising after the horrific experience of flying Finnair.

Belated welcome to Flyer Talk wijibintheair :)

Did you follow up with Finnair? I'm not excusing them but it's possible your issue was on someone's desk/to do pile and got mislaid or the person no longer works there.

Thanks for the belated welcome. re follow up with Finnair - no, to be honest after a few months of not hearing anything further I just deleted their mail and decided it was a lost cause, and likelihood of me ever chosing to fly them again minimal so...

Euopre intercontinental arrival and departures
 

Dear oneworld4u - another question for next time you visit. Why is it that only Ghana/Nigeria/Kenya/Uganada/Tanzania are allocated 2 intercontinental arrival/departures through Europe? As it is impossible to get to North or South America without going through Europe in at least one directions from any African country, why is the 2 permitted transits in Europe restricted to only those 5 countries?

The northern African countries are defined as part of Europe for xONEx. The southern African countries have routing options to Asia & Australia. Thus it is the middle African countries that the OW network is insufficient and backtracking is required.

ok thanks for that - but what about countries such as say Angola - which also only have the option of starting with London? Just curious as to how this is all determined.

I guess this question is similar to above posters: BA's new addition of MLE as a destination is flawed on a RTW because the only OW carrier that flies there is BA's LGW-MLE. But with MLE being in Asia, one cannot include MLE on a RTW unless there is a specification to backtrack back to Europe (LGW).

How is that any different to PPT?

Dear oneworld4u,

are there any definete dates when Mexicana will join OW ?

Cheers,
S

MX joining date
 

SkywalkerLAX: A few us from the central oneworld team were actually in MEX last week to discuss this very point with MX. The good news is that its implementation is firmly on track. We expect to be able to confirm in a month or two its joining date, which will be later this year. I cannot give publicly a precise date at this stage although we have our own confidential schedule. A key step was successfully passed a few weeks ago when MX cut over its reservations and distribution IT platform to Amadeus. We'll announce on oneworld.com its joining date as soon as we can confirm it publicly. All the best, oneworld4u

S.A. block during FIFA world cup 2010?
 

I'm currently planning a xone5 for next year, one section of the trip is south africa and I need to get from DUR to JNB on June 10th, and from JNB to SYD June 12th. The oneworld itiniary planner can't seem to find any flights (even though I know BA and QA have flights on these dates). Is this because of a block on RTW's during the FIFA World cup that kicks of June 11th, or should I try my luck again in a couple of days?

cheers,

Availability to and in S Africa is bound to be very very tight during the World Cup. I wouldn't expect to be able to get any discount class fares (that being what RTW tickets are) in that region during that time.

Ok, that was what I feared. The DUR-JNB will not be a problem as I can do that as a land segment, but the JNB-SYD will be a major problem. Had hopes that flights out of S.A. would be available as its just one day after the opening game (june 12th)..

I've come to the conclusion that the online booking tool is so bug-prone as to be virtually useless. Is it really that hard to get something like this right???

Norwflyer: It is quite usual for airlines not to make available discount class fares (like alliance fares) on routes at times when demand is expected to be very high. I have no inside information, but I imagine that no airline is selling low fares for travel to or from South Africa at around the time of the rugby world cup. Things may change closer to the event, as demand and availability become more clear, but that is not much help if you want to plan ahead. oneworld4u

OneWorld It issues from a Oneworld Addict (not me).
How long will this go on ? Surely an alliance issue to resolve

Oh Mwenezi I could not agree more - I thought that the whole process of "integration" for new members was supposed to be bringing their IT in line with all the other members! I think someone should definitely tell (CX) Uncle CUPID! One thing is for sure, I will never again book a OW RTW ticket issued by Uncle CUPID what a nightmare it is trying to make any changes to it. Have had other tickets issued by BA and QF and no problems changing it anywhere, but none of the other carriers seem to be able to understand what goes on with a CX issued ticket.

It was a few years ago, but with a CX issued ticket ex CMB, I had little trouble with changes.

Most adjustment I was able to enact via email with the issuing office, howeverone ot two other short notice changes I did directly with AA and QF (the operating carriers for the segments) and these were done with little fuss.

My RTWs have generally been by CX in BKK. As serfty indicated, changes are relatively easy. I have usually just emailed CX in SYD (aus_sales) and it has usually happened within 24 hrs. Other times, I have just rung QF and they changed the reservation (on QF) and asked that the ticket be endorsed by ticketting (at the airport) prior to fronting at check-in (due to it being a paper ticket).

OneWorld Timetables for Palm
 

I've been using my Palm PDA to carry several airline timetables. It seems that the OneWorld alliance no longer offers this service.

If I'm right, why has it been discontinued? If I'm wrong, where can I download it from?

All the official OW downloadable timetables are here: http://www.oneworld.com/ow/flight-in...ble-timetables If your device can't cope with any of those formats then I fear you may be out of luck (Palms are a pretty small niche market these days aren't they?)

OneWorld Timetables for Palm
 

Niche or not, there was, until a couple of months ago, a comprehensive OneWorld timetable. Now it appears to be gone.

So, out of curiosity, I did a search, and it seems that OW4U hasn't posted since September 1, 2009. Mods, is there any to determine when the last time that OW4U accessed FT was? Apparently One World doesn't see the same potential benefit from being active on FT that Starwood does, but I'm curious to know if we've been abondoned completely or OW has chosen not to be actively involved any more.

Dr HFH: You'll find that oneworld4u made a post earlier today re JAL and oneworld... We set out our roles for engagement very clearly right at the start when I started participating in FT. And that was that I would add comment where appropriate, but would not respond to every posting related to oneworld and would not intervene on personal travel issues. Please remember that commercial confidentiality has to be honoured and this does sometimes make it tricky to be as active in FT as I know a lot of you folks would like. oneworld4u

Seriously are you suggesting that because you posted yesterday for the first time in nearly 6 months on any forum that there have been no other OW related issues that were important enough for you as the deemed OW rep to respond to?:confused:

If you want to see how it's done properly go and have a look at the SPG forum.

Mods - my suggestion is that this thread be shut down and removed from stickies. It seriously does not warrant the consideration/prominence IMHO.

Very dissapointing.:mad:

Seeking clarification of the Transit Asia exception
 

Oneworld4u can you please provide us with the definitive answer on the rule regarding the second transit of Asia on One World Explorer tickets
Are the only additional ones allowed those between SWP and Europe?

The on-line booking tool allows the construction of itineraries (see this thread) with transits of Asia when travelling between:However, FTers have reported that ticketing airlines will not ticket itineraries with a transit between SWP and Nth Am or between SWP and Africa (see this thread). Indeed, older threads indicate that was has been the generally applied rule for some time.

So, oneworld4u, what transits is the rule meant to allow?
If it is meant to allow all the above transits, then perhaps One World should remind its participant airlines of that.
______________________________________________
The current wording of the rule is:
4. FLIGHT APPLICATION/ROUTINGSThe previous wording was:
4. FLIGHT APPLICATION/ROUTINGSThe difference between the two wordings is the addition of the comma after ‘stopover’ to the current wording.
Why was the wording changed? Was it to change the rule so that all the above transits are allowed? (in which case, IMHO, the wording could be improved).