OneWorld xONEx guaranteed by OW?
 

With the airline industry being in turmoil the way it is the following question seems legitimate. Are OW products guaranteed after issuing?

Suppose I buy a DONE4 with CX (or AA, BA, etc) and CX goes bankrupt I can still use my ticket right? Of course not on the CX routes, but they should be guaranteed by the other participating airlines.

In other words: a Circle Pacific is a OW product, not an AA, CX, BA product and thus not affected by possible Chapter 11s. True?

Nothing is guaranteed. When you buy a ticket you enter a commercial contract with who ever sells the product. Nothing more - nothing less. Its all between you and seller (an airline). You are not buying from OW

Check your travel insurance.

OW is a marketing alliance; it is not an airline and cannot issue tickets or provide financial or insurance products.

Circle Pacific fares are published (and ticketed) by each individual airline participant:

[KVS Availability Tool 3.1.2/Platinum - Sabre: Fares/ZUJ/SG]

As you are trying to buy your xDONEx ticket from AA (not CX) look at this thread AA tickets How safe ?

But theoretically if I buy a DONE4 from AA and I have no flights on AA, the other airlines will still honor the ticket if AA goes bust? I am not worried, just curious how this is arranged.

Not necessarily as you will have paid AA. You will have a commercial agreement with AA, not any other ariline.

If you not worried why did you ask the question ?

Check your travel insurance policy

Because I am just curious how this is arranged. OneWorld 'advertises' special air travel options on its site. It can be argued that I am bying a OW product through a reseller. If the reseller goes out of business I am still allowed to use the product it sold me. Especially if the use is not limited by the inability of the reseller to supply part of it.

It is more a legel 'inquiry'. My ticket is bought with BA. It was triggered by the AA safety thread, but that went in a completely different direction.

So to be clear: I am interested in the legal aspects of it.

Of course you could argue this way. Only problem is, it is not true. Oneworld just creates rules for a fare which an airline sells to you. They do not sell anything to an airline which they can re-sell.

Trying to be clear in a commercial transaction is equivalent to flying to the moon in a hot air balloon. If there is ever a dispute, lawyers will spend endless time and copious amounts of your money to prove you are either wrong or right depending on the side they are paid by to argue for or against. :rolleyes:

That said, I assume the marketer, oneworld, would have no liability for failure to provide the the contracted services since the services are actually sold by an airline directly to you. If you bought them from an airline and one of the other airlines fail to deliver as promised, the airline that you bought the tickets from would have some liability similar to a store having sold you a defective iPod. I suppose, in this case, oneworld is sort of like a newspaper who publishes good deals but is not responsible if you buy an iPod that is defective based on a ad in the paper.

OTOH, see the first paragraph. Anybody can sue anybody for anything and frequently do, at least in the USA. :D

Cheers

As I raised in the other thread regarding AA issued DONE4s you will have the risk of losing the whole IF the carrier goes under (EVEN if you don't have any flights) then you loose the whole ticket as AA is the carrier that issued the whole tix and took ur payment. They will redistribute the money to other carriers.

I hear what you are saying, but I am still not convinced. Neither is a lawyer friend of mine. He thinks it is a two edged sword. Ah well, we will see.

Like I said, lawyers can and do argue whatever side pays them.:D

Cheers

LOL! True, true, true...

All I can say is that you just don't want to end up in that mess unless your lawyer friend can defend for you for free.

If you don't mind paying extra then issuing on CX/BA/QF stocks will be much safer than AA.

I have asked for a quote from both BA and AA for the same itinerary. If the price difference is not too great I am sticking with BA. Is there anybody here that has compared the two before? I would be surprised if the difference was more than $500,- especially since we now are allowed 'only' 16 segments.

I will keep you posted.

You will be surprised at the difference!;)

Prepare to be surprised.

All concerns being true, still, for oneworld I'd get the ticket issued from the cheapest airline possible, and if any news should arise, then I'd make some minor change to the itinerary and get it reissued on another carrier's stock at that point.

Historically, as long as a carrier operates -- even if they are in receivership -- their stock has always been honored (at least amongst any carriers of the status of oneworld carriers). The only questions arise if the carrier ceases operations entirely, at which point one could be at the mercy of the other carriers.

But even then, realize that a carrier like BA would probably have liabilities to the failed carrier (segments booked, flown, but not yet paid for in the past XX days), and that they certainly want to pay those liabilities by charging that account for flying you around rather than paying cash.

All in all, it's a good question, but not one I think we need to worry much about at the current time.

Steve

Thanks Steve, that is actually quite a comprehensive response and one that comes close to what I would expect. I already decided I will book with AA without worry (unless the price difference is minimal, but somehow I doubt that now).

Posted wired (PeaBerry2008/1.0 cup /Caffeine 5.2.1/Kona-12.0 VendorID/503)

So henkybaby, any update on AA and BA prices. I know with AA I have always had to call them back in a few hours to get a price quote, they have never called or emailed me with a quote. I don't know about BA's procedures.

I have mailed and called the AA agent in CPT and because my first flight is June 7th 2009 they will book and price the ticket tomorrow.

I called BA in South Africa and they bluntly stated that I would have to just send an email to [email protected] and it would 'eventually' get to them. I have done that 2 days ago and so far I have heard nothing.

I am afraid that AA is going to get the business, since what I do know already is that mindpearl is $270 cheaper on the booking fee alone..

I send an email to BA over a week ago and still no response. So I went ahead with AA. Great service and not at all expensive (tax wise):

1 BA 58 D 07JUN S CPTLHR HK1 815P 650A arr 08JUN
2 BAOPEN D LHRDXB DS1
3 BAOPEN D DXBLHR DS1
4 BAOPEN D LHRBOM DS1
5 CXOPEN D BOMBKK DS1
6 CXOPEN D BKKCMB DS1
7 CXOPEN D CMBSIN DS1
8 QFOPEN D SINPER DS1
9 QFOPEN D PERBNE DS1
10 QFOPEN D BNEAKL DS1
11 QFOPEN D AKLSYD DS1
12 AAOPEN D SYDHNL DS1
13 AAOPEN A HNLLAX DS1
14 AAOPEN A LAXMIA DS1
15 BAOPEN D MIALHR DS1
16 BAOPEN D LHRNBO DS1

Fare and Taxes:

BASE FARE TAXES TOTAL
ZAR45300 7102XT ZAR52402.00

XT 126ZA 120WC 10EV 2496GB
614UB 65AE 45WO 168TS
123SG 24QR 28QR 23WG
84WY 242US 43YC 55XY
39XA 59AY 356AU 28WG
459WY 96IA 156KK 307UB
36XF 1300YQ

Total to be debited: ZAR52 402.00 + ZAR236.00

Still a paper ticket now, but as soon as I have confirmed all my flights (with or without dummy dates) they will change it to an e-ticket free of charge.

Great service by Mindpearl!

If I ever get a quote from BA I will let you know...

Ditto that AA CPT is super!!
 

Just did 4 Aone4's with AA CPT, Fast service. I asked the office to run My AMEX asap and It posted in two days. Great way to surf the exchange rate waves.

As the experts in RTW on this board have stated ( I AM NOT ONE OF THEM):
AA rates the tickets most reasonable.
As a note: the agents at Dedicated AA deck in the USA is the most knowable airline folks in the business. OW should use these folks as a model.

I wish I would have found them 7 RTW trips ago!!!