Thanks for the reply John! Haven't found anyone having any success with the Jordanian travel agency route, though I'm looking into it. I do have a follow up question regarding this:

How exactly does this work? I thought the pricing was all based on segments/continents visited, so wouldn't changing that drastically run into similar problems? Or do you just mean once I have a ticket booked the oneworld people will let me add segments and reprice it with just the 125 change fee? Because if so, that does sound like a good deal. Thanks again!

Once you decide you want e.g. an AONE3 you can plan and book as simple a route as you wish. Then after you have flown at least one segment* your price is locked and you can change anything you want within the normal rules, and the cost will be $125 plus any additional taxes and fees that the added segments incur.

*I think "any" segment does the deed, but if it matters in your case, you should make sure (e.g. by asking here) that it's not the "first international/intercontinental segment".

The $125 is the handling fee for re-issuing a changed ticket, no matter how many changes. But if you make more changes another time, you'll pay it again. Changes that don't involve routing are always nominally free, although in the past some airlines have found ways to 'monetize' such events.

These days it seems that your changes will have to be made by the airline that issued your original ticket. I don't think that's a written rule, just general policy, and if your ticket is issued by AA, you'll be in good hands anyway.

[Aside, given the incredible service I got from AA's South African presence* a few months ago - highly professional, even priced the ticket in-house when they got tired of waiting for the rate desk, and certainly took a c/c over the phone - if no better alternative comes to hand I'd give them a call and see if they would do the ex-AMM. Downside is no email, 9-6 weekday hours.]

*they answer "American Airlines"; I don't know their formal relationship. When they issue a ticket it does show up on aa.com quickly.

You do want to make sure that your basic 'starter' route gets you out of AMM on RJ going the direction you intend to travel; my very uninformed guess is that if you haven't left the starting region (Europe/Middle East) you could actually change direction from east to west, but I suppose no one has actually tried that.

I also believe that you can add an additional continent later, for the difference in pricing between the two levels that was in effect when you bought the original ticket. That's also uninformed on my part, and probably seldom done. And once when I considered it, the AAgent's opinion was that I'd have to pay the current delta price, not the 'legacy' one.

If you have close friends and family in Jordan have you asked them to inquire around about a travel agent yet? They may be able to find one that will be receptive. Other people have reported that they have booked through Emeco (the AA GSA) in CAI. See this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...?highlight=cai


They (Mindpearl) are the official AA GSA for South Africa.

15012 followed by 4613-201 followed by utter despair
 

This tool is making me crazy.

My painstakingly designed original itinerary was a LONE4: GIG-SCL-AKL-BNE-NOU-SYD-MNL-KUL-KTM-HKG-PEK-OVB-LBD-DME-GYD-LHR-GIG. I ran it through the website and after inputting my credit card details I got the dreaded 15012 error message. After reading this forum, I found out that this error occurs when the tool uses AA to book the ticket although the first flight is with another company (in this case, LAN).

I then redesigned the itinerary to get rid of this first LAN flight. In the process the itinerary became a LONE5 because I included the US, although had no original intention to visit the country in this trip. Of course the trip became more expensive, but I figured out it would be worth at least being able to book it. I had been trying to buy the RTW ticket for ages, and that was that.

So my itinerary 2.0 became GIG-DFW-HNL-SYD-NOU-BNE-AKL-KUL-KTM-HKG-PEK-OVB-LBD-DME-GYD-LHR-GIG. I ran it through the website and of course I faced another bug. This time the error message was:

We are having difficulty accepting the credit card details provided. Please validate and try again. This may be due to an invalid credit card type, in which case please provide another one (4613 - 201)

The credit card is indeed valid.

Now I don't know what to do. I want OneWorld to have my money but they seem unable to take it from me.

Have you tried my broken-record suggestion of a 4-segment itinerary? You'll waste $125 making the ticket what you really wanted, but at least you won't be wasting much typing getting to the point where the tool says 'get lost'.

Hi JohnAx

After calling American I was told the tool is on maintenance, and it should be back on Monday (I surely hope the bugs are being fixed). I will try again on Monday, and case unsuccessful, I will book a simple itinerary and then change it afterwards.

For a ticket originating in South America I can make as many changes I want for USD 125, even before the first flight, correct?

Thanks,
Guilherme

None of the OW customer-use desktop software I've seen has ever been better than 'pitiful', so don't hold your breath. Good software can be expensive and the airlines have every incentive to do it on the cheap.

Regarding early changes to a South American ticket, is that a special rule? Ordinarily any [voluntary] change before first flight results in a ticket re-issue using new pricing and rules.

Starting in South America used to be expensive. Has anyone looked at starting in the Caribbean? North American pricing translated to the currency of the owning country?

Why don't you just call the AA around the world desk in the USA (use Skype for a free call) and book the entire rtw ticket over the phone? Years ago I actually booked one through the Brazil AA telephone service and it was issued (and, at that time, physically printed) in Rio. I never use the oneworld on-line booking tool for anything, even planning. It's just too unreliable and time consuming.

OW's RTW fares are supposed to be sold SITI - Sold In, Ticketed In [country where the trip starts]. If you call the AA RTW desk in the USA to buy (for example) a DONE4 starting in Cairo and expect to pay the Egyptian price equivalent to USD 6,701 plus fees and taxes you'll be very disappointed when the desk says you must pay USD 10,799 plus fees and taxes.

The time-honored work-around to the SITI rule used to involve finding a travel agent in Cairo (in my example) who would act as your agent to make the transaction at the local price. More recently OW is allowing their booking tool to play that role for you, although as is regularly mentioned, it doesn't play well.

All of the above is completely correct, as far as I know, except that I do all of my rtw booking over the phone with AA in the USA and ask them to price it in local currency. I then go to my travel agent or the AA office in the starting country and purchase the ticket. I very seldom happen to be in the starting country while planning, but I'm always there for ticketing and, of course, to take the first leg.

Bug, Bug .....
 

Completed a RTW itinerary online. The online tool validated and priced it. When I clicked “Proceed to Booking”, it went into an endless loop. The twinkling circle kept on going to eternity! As I posted this message, 20 minutes had gone by! Grrrr! :mad:

Just tried this with an itinerary I have saved in the tool
took about 30secs from clicking "Proceed to Booking" to getting the next screen

Which airline is doing your ticketing?
(For my itinerary it is AA, so the "Proceed to Booking" takes me to americanairlines.eu.amadeus.com)

Check your pop-up blocker and other security settings. As pandaperth points out it should direct you to another website which you could inadvertently be blocking.

Good suggestions, plus the browser itself might be the problem unless it's mainstream and current. IE isn't my first choice, but when all else fails I try it and sometimes it solves the problem.

Panthaperth,
Thanks for the heads-up.
I tried 2 itins, one with CX and one with AA as ticketing airlines. Same never ending loop!

Skunker,
I tried 3 different browsers and cleared blockers to no avail!
Thanks anyway.

Here I have another problem: tried to select flight SCL-LAX for Feb & Mar. No LA600 show up at all. All flight with routing via DFW or MIA. The oneworld timetable shows the flight, but not the TOOL.

Changing dates (thought it might not be a daily flight) did not solve the problem.

What dates did you try? What class are you looking for?

Looking in expertflyer, both business class and economy class (booking codes D and L) availability is patchy on LA600 - some days have zero availability in one or other.
I just did a dummy itinerary in the tool (SCL-LAX-HKG-LHR-MAD-SCL) - found LA600 available for a date that showed L availability in expertflyer

I am looking for D, around mid Mar. Simply nothing available! Even looked on aa com. I don't use EF.

This is confusing

In the tool, I am using a simple itinerary (SYD-LHR-MAD-SCL-LAX-SYD) and for SCL-LAX on LA600 I'm seeing D availability on 10 of the 14 days in the mid-March period (9-22 March)
- I presume this doesn't match what you're seeing

In expertflyer I'm seeing D availability on 8 of the 14 days

But 4 of the days that expertflyer says have zero D availability, the tool shows availability
And for 2 of the days that expertflyer says have availability, the tools shows no availability

So something is wrong somewhere:confused:

(Note: I'm looking for only one seat)

The inconsistency between various tools ( aa com; oneworld timetables; ow rtw booking tool, not in position to comment about EF) is a real disappointment, if not a source of frustration!
Thanks for checking

EF is the only on-line source I use. When I find availability, I call the rtw desk for my booking. I can't recall any occasion on which EF and rtw didn't agree about D or A availability on any airline. W is another matter. EF often shows W available on LA and rtw says no availability.

With QR joining the booking tool now seems to include the QR routes during the city selection screen, but when you go to pick flights no QR flights are displayed.

I sent a ticket into oneworld so hopefully it gets fixed soon.

QR flights now appear to be loaded and selectable in the booking tool, rather than just the online timetable. However, there is this caveat on the oneworld page:

"NOTE: on 1 November 2013, Qatar Airways flights will not be available as the first segment of your itinerary when booking your oneworld Explorer itinerary through our online booking tool. To originate your oneworld Explorer itinerary on Qatar Airways please contact your Travel Agent or Qatar Airways http://www.qatarairways.com/contactus."

On a separate (or possibly related) note, I've got an itinerary in the tool that goes SSH-AMM-DME-xDOH-IAH . . . HKG-JED but the tool says it's incomplete, wanting to return me to SSH. Is this a bug or have I done something wrong?

I played around with the cities and my itinerary originating in SSH and ending in JED is now bookable.

Watch out that the tool doesn't price it for a Saudi origination rather than Egyptian. This has been a recurring problem when using the tool for an itinerary ending in a different Middle East country than the origin.

Thanks for that. Good to know. I've priced it up and it comes to a little under USD6300 which I'm happy with.

Anyone have any idea if this is going to be on-going or just an initial issue while QR get used to the RTW fares? Real pain as from South Africa they are the only option for a first leg to Europe and any itineraries travelling in a westerly direction.

Can't fly from JNB to LHR?
 

Long time reader, first post.

Logged onto the xONEx tool tonight and an itinerary I had saved (and which was pricing okay with dummy dates) is now presenting an error and doesn't seem to let me resolve it.

The error is:
"2621: One of the visits to Europe must be a transfer without stopover (less than 24 hours) between Africa and the previous/next continent. Additionally travel may not include Mauritius/South Africa."

The itinerary which up until today was working alright is:

JNB-LHR-MCT-LHR|LHR-LAX-DFW-SEA|SEA-DFW-JFK|JFK-HKG-BOM-HKG-DEL|DEL-NRT-SYD|SYD-LHR-NBO with vertical lines representing stopovers.

I've read the rule sheet available on the Oneworld site and can't understand what has changed in the past 48 hours, can someone help?

Yes. The rules have just changed. The copy of the rules on the Oneworld web site has not yet been updated (and in fact the web site is now showing an old version of the rules - from 1 July 2013)

The changes are being discussed in the Changes to the xONEx Rule Sheet thread - see from post #66 onwards.
Sadly, your itinerary is no longer valid

What? Has BA stopped flying to Sth Africa?

The ow online timetables still show:
2 flights daily (LHR-JNB), one flt offers A380 ^
2 flight daily (LHR-CPT)

Yeh, but wijibintheair was claiming QR was the only airline from South Africa for a first leg to Europe ;)

Anybody else notice that on intra-Middle East flights on QR for a DONE you get downgraded into Y not upgraded into F? :td::td:

I didn't know QR operated two-class first-economy flights.

Given that it does, then the fact that a DONE passenger is downgraded to Y is not a bug - because there is nothing in the rules that allows the passenger to be upgraded to F (as there is in the case of such flights on AA in the USA)

The new rules are available on oneworld.com with QR included and the new Africa backtrack provisions.

Tool would not let me select flights subsequent to an overnight flight (that doesn't cross the dateline). Date selection has greyed out all dates except date of departure of the prior leg, which of course would require time travel.

The tool shows a direct IAH-JFK every day, a single flight operating as AA210. I have successfully generated and validated a oneworld Explorer with this flight (that also shows in the online timetable tool). Now AA tells me that flight doesn't exist. Sure enough, I go to aa.com and there are no direct services on my day (31 July) and presumably every other day that the tool shows there is indeed a direct service.

So the Explorer trip I've spent months piecing together, trying to stay within the increasingly convoluted and complex rules and what do I ultimately fall foul of? Not the 'only one backtrack between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan if originating in Uzbekistan and purchasing only a xONE4 or higher for travel that takes no more than one week to complete' rule or the rule that only allows you to use airlines beginning with A-K. No. It's the rule where you have to chose flights that actually operate, rather than ones that the tool allows you to select, even though they don't even exist.

How on earth can someone ever hope to generate even the most simplest of round the world itineraries if the tool displays phantom flights?

I now have to consider a whole other sector - one I don't have - in order to make the itinerary work. I'm so angry.

Well the flight shows in the AA Timetable

So, for a change, I don't think we can blame the online booking tool!

Edited to add: Just checked in expert flyer and for dates around 31 July 2014 the flight does not appear
So it looks like AA is discontinuing it sometime (but its own timetable doesn't show that fact)

All the intra-Middle East flights are 2 class and marketed as first and coach, when in reality it isn't true first, just marketing.

My question is why isn't there a similar rule such as AA in the US? Getting degraded to Y (L bucket) and getting .5 EQM and .25 EQP is a deal breaker for me.

Sorry my bad - was meant to have written the only option to fly to Europe without having to fly BA, and I do all possible to avoid BA!