I am UK based and have a * Alliance RTW ticket ending in Asia in September. When Oneworld announced the 10% offer the fares out of ICN seemed too good to miss, especially against the * Alliance fare increase, so I set about booking an AONE3. I thought others may be interested to hear of how my experience

I tried for several days to book using the online tool. I always got to the itinerary being validated page and then the next page froze. My first flight is on CX from ICN to HKG so I emailed CX in Seoul with a question about duration of the ticket and to ask them to set up the itinerary for me. About 3 days later they replied with the answer to my question (does the maximum duration run form the booking date or the first flight date) and to say they did not handle ticketing. They offered to send my enquiry on to a specialist TA in Seoul. I thought that may create a problem in paying by credit card and I was not prepared to wire money to a TA that I did not know, even thought they were recommended by CX. (UK consumer laws give a lot of protection if you pay by cc even for overseas transactions.)

Within 30 minutes of my asking CX to do that the TA called me in the UK to discuss my requirements. I have used several AONE tickets so I knew from her questions that she was familair with the rules. Her spoken English was good and her written English is excellent. She has replied to emails by return or overnight (because of the time difference).

A few days later, I am ticketed and ready to go. There was no problem paying by credit card. The total cost was 10,028,000 Won, including all add ons, which is coming through on my credit card as about �4,800. There was no service charge, although they will charge 30,000 Won for changes.

If anyone wants the TA's details PM me and I will pass them on.

Good to know - did the price match what you expected? And do you know if the TA would ticket through AA rather than CX to save substantial amounts of fuel tax?

The price in GBP was marginally less than I expected. I use a credit card which does not impose foreign exchange loading fees (which can be 3%) so that was to my benefit.

I dont know about ticketing through AA - my routing has only one AA flight, YYZ to JFK. I understand that to ticket with AA they have to operate or codeshare the first flight, or that there has to be at least one long haul sector on AA. Frankly I would rather pay the extra and fly trans pacific in First class with CX and trans atlantic with BA!

My current AONE3 was set up by the AA RTW desk, ticketed by AA's GSA in MNL and only had 5 domestic US segments on AA, no long haul, so that's not a hard & fast rule. Personally though, in F, I'd take AA transatlantic rather than BA if that were to save me over US$1000.

Thank you lowlander for recommending me the TA.

I have successfully issued my DONE4 via the same TA. I can confirm that the TA is able to issue the ticket on AA stock. ^

I concur with lowlander that the TA speaks excellent English, is prompt in replying to emails, and knows xONEx rules inside out.

edit: I might also hasten to add that I do have a transatlantic segment on AA.

I just want to confirm, so this TA can ticket XONEX tix over email/phone using your credit card?

I,m based in the EU and have booked a AONE5 on Saturday using the tool ... ticketing airlines is CX. Everything, including using a non-KRW credit card seemed to work. I have received the itinerary with the PNR and all flights have listed as confirmed (although I have to change the dates of the last 8 segments or so). Does anyone know (or have the experience) how long it takes for CX to issue the ticket with e-ticket number? Thanks.

The charge came through on my card today, the bank applied a somewhat dearer exchange rate than what's shown on xe (AUD7208.32 vs AUD7080ish) + a currency conversion fee (AUD216.25). The charge came through as being from "Daejoo Air" which is actually the AA GSA in Korea.

Could you please send me on the details of the TA?

I will only be able to book definite dates for the first leg of the RTW (ICN to HKG in February 2010) with the rest of the legs throughout 2010 to Jan 2011.

Would it be better to book the whole trip with dummy dates and plan on changing them later?

Can I just check on the advantage of booking through the TA rather than the online tool?

Thanks in advance, apols for all the questions and thanks for your post!


Rob.

I have booked a RTW last year via a travel agent in Canada ... the difficulties (to me) was to try to change anything before departure - in my case, I wanted to change operating carrier of a later flight segment. I called the airlines who issued the ticket and the airlines who operated the segment which I needed to change, they all told me they couldn't change unless I have flown the first segment and told me to call the travel agent to change ... in my case, the travel agent was not responsive at all!! So, I ended up doing the change after using the first segment.

I prefer to book it with the airlines directly. I have used the online tool (2 weeks ago), put in dummy dates and CX Seoul had issued the eticket charging my credit card (non-KRW card) without any problem. I subsequently have sent emails to CX office in Seoul for other requests and they have been very very responsive, helpful and friendly!

That's standard procedure for all agency bookings (not only RTW) - the TA 'owns' the PNR prior to departure. After departure you can either go back to the TA or have the issuing airline take over the booking for 'ongoing maintenance.'

I prefer to book with the airline directly too but in this case I couldn't for reasons detailed in other threads. The TA i used in Seoul seems extremely responsive no matter how big or small my requests are. But I don't intend to do any changes till after departure to avoid any complications.