Hi, Our family is planning a rtw trip beginning in June. We have been trying to book a five contintent Explorer ticket but with no success. We want to begin in London and have already booked tickets there. We called BA North America rtw desk and after several weeks of run around were told that they could only book us with the US price. We then tried BA in London. They initially told us that they could give us the UK price and that we could pay for the tickets at any BA counter at any airport. After repeatedly being promised that they were still in the process of pricing the ticket they said they could not sell us a ticket as we do not have a UK credit card and are not in the UK (even though (in desperation) my husband said he would fly to London and pay for the tickets. We then tried Cathay Pacific as they appear to be the only alliance airline that has an office in Canada but were informed that you have to book with the same airline as your first flight segment and that would force us to fly from London to Hong Kong first which does not fit in with the rest of our trip. Any advise or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Try booking with the AA ATW desk:
+1800 247 3247

The AA ATW desk is generally more competent than other oneworld airlines in organising these things. Less surcharges too. Call weekday mornings Dallas time for best results.

According to the rules you'd be able to get the UK fare if the ticket is purchased in Canada. So you should be able to get your itinerary priced at the UK fare by telling the ATW desk that you're intending to purchase the ticket in Canada. Give 2-24 hours for the itinerary to get priced.

Now I have no actual experience of issuing a ticket in Canada, but you should be able to purchase the ticket by fronting up at the nearest AA ticketing counter (at an airport I'd imagine), or ringing up the reservations hotline for Canada if your itinerary is eticketable (not more than 16 segments, no open dated coupons).

You might want to reconsider starting in London as it is one of the, if not the most expensive starting points. Might grab a cheapie fare to Stockholm/Gibraltar and start there to save a good deal of money.

Maybe the OP is looking at a LONE5, not a DONE5 or AONE5. If that is the case then ex-LHR is a reasonable option.

To zowie19655: Welcome to FT and the oneworld forum.

Hee hee, I've never actually looked at an L. Only D/A.
And I didn't mean to be rude either. Welcome to FT!

Thanks everyone. I'll try the AA desk today. Do you know if it is true that your first flight has to be on the airline that you book through? You seem to really know what you are talking about here.

No, it does not have to be like that (AA, for example, will happily sell you a RTW where the first flight is on another OW airline), but if an airline refuses to sell you a ticket there is little anyone can do, rules or no rules.

Thank you very much everyone. It worked perfectly. AA RTW desk was amazingly helpful and within 24 hours we had everything book and paid for.