Round The World Question
 

I am currently holding a RTW ticket with the following legs:

ORD-PVG (UA)-Stopover
SHA-PEK-NKG (CA)- Stopover
NKG-FRA (LH)
FRA-IAD-DEN (UA)- Stopover
DEN-ORD

My question is if I decided not to take the Air China flights (SHA-PEK-NKG), would it cause any issues with the other flights. I scheduled these flights to get the second stopover in NKG, and I would prefer to just take the train from Shanghai rather than spend 7-8 hours flying.

Thanks!

I don't know but what did your ticket cost and and you use United SWU on it?

Thanks!

It is a business class ticket and the cost is ~$11,000. I typically take 4-6 RTW trips per year and utilize the SWUs for the really long legs, such as ORD-SYD.

Welcome to FT, bbslinger!

I would assume that as with any ticket, if you are a no-show for a segment, all remaining segments are canceled. I don't know if you retain any residual value - that would probably depend on whether it's a full-fare ticket or not.

Thanks, mahasamatman. So, even though the other segments are on a different airline, they would still know that I'm a no-show? I wasn't certain that the Star Alliance partners are so coordinated, especially CA, since they rarely get the mileage credit into my account!

You could get lucky, but I wouldn't bet on it. They all have access to the e-ticket.

That's a little vague, I'm afraid. Is it a *A RTW, such as a CRWSTARx? If so, then, yes, you can easily take the train (i.e., surface) instead of flying those two segments. (Don't you have a copy of the Rules?!? You should have.) BUT you need change your ticket beforehand (routing change / reissue = $125) or, as others have noted, you will have trouble with the subsequent flights.

cheers,

Henry

Yes, they will know. There is no chance that this will work. However, for a fee of USD 125 you can always change the routing and re-issue so you can still do this if you want.

One of the rules of RTW's is I believe minimum 3 stop-overs, if you eliminate one
of yours your itinerary is no longer eligible.

Just to clarify, I'm not interested in re-routing. I would just be a no-show. Air China still gets the revenue as though I took the flight. I just didn't want it to affect the next flight segment on LH if I don't take the CA flights.

A change from a flight to a surface segment is a re-routing.

cheers,

Henry

If you don't take a flight, the airline does not get any revenue.

If you are a no show, the balance of the flights are cancelled.
The ticket would still have residual value, and can be used, with the
change fees, within the validity of the original ticket.

OK, thanks for the clarification.

At this price, I would certainly invest in the $125 to change routing. Not sure if the land leg counts for a stopover.

In a case such as this

AAA-bbb-CCC//DDD-eee-FFF

not only does the surface segment from CCC to DDD count as one of the 16 allowed sectors on the ticket, with the distance between them included in the total allowance (i.e., 29K, 34K or 39K), but both CCC and DDD are considered stops for purposes of the 'only one stop per city' rule.

cheers,

Henry