XoneX changes/refund
 

I bought an XoneX ticket through mindpearl back in Feb. of this year starting in S. AFrica going to 5 continents. In the midst of our world trip planning I interviewed and will probably accept a job in New Zealand which would cut our trip short. I am wondering a couple of things: 1)I would like to rebook the ticket to fly back to the US even though I didn't have N America as one of the continents initially (I would cancel one of the other continents in the rebooking to keep it as a 5 continent. We would probably have to forgo our trip from the Bangkok segment and on.. Is this possible?? 2) Initially it looked like you could get refunded for the part of the ticket that isn't used or at least get credit for other tickets for the unused portion - is this possible? Wanted to consult with the true experts before I call into AA. Thanks - hopefully this makes sense.


More info if needed. Here's the schedule... sorry for not having the correct abreviations!

Johannesburg SA to Delhi (via Hong Kong) Oct. 6, 2009
Delhi to Kathmandu (ground segment)
Kathmandu to Bangkok (via HK)
Bangkok to Cairns AUS
Cairns to Sydney
Sydney to Buenos Aires
BA to Lima
Lima to NYC - THIS IS SEGMENT I ADDED B/C I HAD TO GO TO N.A. OTHERWISE ORIGINALLY IT WAS LIMA TO MADRID...
NYC to Rome
Rome to Athens
Athens to London
London to Mauritius
Mauritius to Johannesburg

So again after Bangkok what I'd like to do is fly to the US and use a couple of segments w/in the US and then get refunded for unused segments if possible...

An around the world ticket is for travel all the way around the world.

If you leave segments after north america unused you will not be able to get a refund. If you try to reticket as Africa to North America via Asia and Sth Pacific then you may have to pay more (because oneway fares can be very expensive).

In terms of continents, your original itinerary is an xONE5 comprising:

Africa --> Asia --> Sth West Pacific --> Sth America --> Europe --> Africa

If you want to now go to Nth America, you can do this by:

• changing the ticket to an xONE6 and paying the extra cost, or
• dropping one of the other continents in order to add Nth Am and paying the change fee (US$125)

Whatever changes you make, the whole end-to-end trip has to still be a valid xONEx ticket - in your case in particular that it ends up back in Africa.

Note than you cannot drop Europe - because to get from the Americas back to Africa you must go via Europe. Since you intend to keep Asia, your choice is to drop either SWP or Sth Am (or both - but there is no refund for dropping to an xONE4).

After departure you can cancel the remaining sectors of the ticket - paying the cancellation fee and obtaining a refund of the remainder (if any) - see rule 16(b) of the rule sheet

Of course, since you haven't yet started, you can cancel the whole trip:eek:, paying the cancellation fee and getting the remainder refunded.

Response
 

I usually really like FT and the helpful responses I get but this seemed a bit sarcastic.:confused: I do realize what a RTW ticket is for but my circumstances have changed... thank you Panda for the following response.

What he means is that you have to go around the world. You cannot stop half way. A refund is very much out of the question. To add insult to injury, if you do not complete the itinerary the airline can proceed to reprice your sections flown as a multi-city after the validity of the RTW has expired. This can be very, very, very costly, although I have not heard of situations were it actually happened.

Your best bet (and most logical answer) is to cancel the whole thing and book the segments seperately. If you have a A or D class ticket this will no doubt mean extra cost. You might consider a Visit Asia from Delhi and buy the JNB-DEL and BKK-USA tickets.

I am a bit confused by the rule sheet pandaperth provided and the cancellation paragraph (expecially 16B-3). It would seem to allow midway cancellation (and even providing a refund). I am flying back from MIA-xLHR-NBO myself in May (to end in Africa) and I have been told in no uncertain terms I could not cancel the ticket in MIA or LHR or I would incur a fine.

Anybody? (EDIT: I have now been told the reason for cancellation needs to be valid, like illness or death in the family. Is that right?)

Congratulations on the new job by the way!

Yes, but if you're really just going to LHR, then you can leave the LHR-NBO segment open and just never fly it. I've done this with some of my ex-JNB tix.

I cannot leave it open since it is my second entry into Europe and thus a transit only. I need to book both MIA-LHR and LHR-NBO. Hence the xLHR.

Ah well, I can always get 'sick' on the MIA-LHR leg... :)

Well you didn't say where you currently live or exactly what the timing is with regard to starting you new job, so one has to make some assumptions...

From this statement I assume you would be moving to New Zealand in the midst of your trip.

I assume this means you are currently living in the US and would be moving to New Zealand.

I assume from a timing standpoint this is because you would need to return to the US, pack and move to New Zealand.


OK, now given the above assumptions are correct here are some suggestions...

1) Scrap S. America and replace it with N. America.

2) Prior to leaving for the start of your trip in S. Africa, pack up your household belongings, and schedule delivery in New Zealand to coincide with your arrival there.

3) Do your trip as planned, but after Bangkok continue to Sydney, and then to New Zealand. Plan on staying in NZ for quite a while, unpacking, working, etc.

4) Adjust your current job's end date and the new job's start date accordingly.

5) If your new employer is paying a lump sum relocation charge then no worries. If they are purchasing air fare for you, then ask them if you get there on your own, would they credit you for the unused ticket in the form of cash or a future ticket back to the US.

6) You have a year from the start date to complete your RTW trip so about 10-11 month after your start your new job do the remaining segments including the return paid/award ticket from S. Africa to the US. Then use the credited ticket from your new employer to return to NZ. Or if you don't have a S. Africa-US return ticket, see if your employer would get you a ticket from S. Africa back to NZ instead.

You get two holidays instead of one out of your xONEx.


Obviously the above, or any other non-date/time changes, would require a $125 change fee. Of course the first and foremost "circumstances changed" option is to get a refund.

Deleted duplicate post.

That's simply not true - I have had open-dated ticket coupons with "required transits" involved on a number of occasions (mainly because of the 2 stopovers in continent of origin rule, but the principle's the same). I also quite happily got off a LHR-MNL flight at HKG (in the days when BA did that route) and never reboarded the last "sub-sector" to MNL (which was the termination point for the ticket) without any penalty, and have failed to take the last full segment on a number of occasions for various reasons. Again, no problem.

Note though that the rules do now penalise "no shows", so to be safe it would be better to have the segment(s) open-dated.

The problem is that I have an e-ticket. No open segments allowed. AA refuses to reissue without MIA-xLHR-NBO being ticketed so that my LHR stop is a guaranteed transit.

Christep, if you have a clever way (other than changing to a paper ticket*) which allows me to:

- book MIA-LHR in advance
- prevent the no show penalty for LHR-NBO
- make sure I can end my itinerary in LHR without the risk of a high penalty

or any combination of the 3, I would be extremely happy!

* I don't want to do that since my travel dates are pretty much set, I will lose all my seat assignments and I cannot do online check in with a paper ticket.

Simply not true - you shouldn't lose any seat assignments (those are a function of the reservation, not the ticket) and it is of course perfectly possible to do online checkin with a paper ticket.

On reflection I don't think the no-show penalty really matters if it's the last segment - what the rules say is that if you want to reschedule after a no-show then they charge a US$125 fee, but in your case you're just throwing away the rest of the ticket (it's the last segment) so I wouldn't worry about it. Try to get the LHR-NBO departure on the same calendar day as your arrival from MIA to mitigate the huge UK air departure tax.

The 2 for 1 holiday is an idea although I just don't know if we have time to pack everything here... we also wanted to be able to see family over the holidays before starting the job. So has anyone experienced the penalty fees for canceling or not showing up for the last segments... How do they charge you for these? Basically I would just be missing the SEA-LHX-JNB segment and wouldn't be using the rest of the ticket so a no show penalty shouldn't be applicable. It seems by the "rulesheet" that cancellations would be possible - I remember when booking the ticket seeing the cancellation paragraph as well...

Apologies. My response wasn't intended to be sarcastic but as I had a flight to catch I didn't write it as well as I should have.

Rule 16(b)(3) applies
This means that if you travel only partially around the world you can only be refunded the difference between (xONEx fare less 5% or 10%) and the sum of the oneway fares for the flights used.

That rule is silent on penalty if the oneway flights cost more, however as you no longer fulfil the fare conditions they can in theory charge the extra amount if the oneway fares for the flights taken add up to more than the xONEx fare. Will this be charged in practice? Probably not if you don't bring attention to it. Only you can decide if the risk of a possibly hefty charge is worth it.

Thanks christep for explaining it. I more or less reached the point you describe already. I have a reward ticket in place for NBO-AMS but why burn the miles if I don't have to? It is rainy season in Kenya in May, so I am not really sure I want to be there...

Thanks Kiwi Flyer for clearing up the confusing article 16-B-3.