I had to change the date of my NRT-SFO-DEN flights on a RTW that I've already started. The airline and flight number are the same, only the date is changed. My TA was able to change the date, but when he called TG in Rome (which issued the ticket), they said I needed to contact TG in Sydney (where I am at present). TG in Sydney said they couldn't do anything because their portion of the flight is already finished and they can no longer access the record. They suggested I contact UA. I called UA in Sydney and they said to talk to my TA or to TG. Then she told me I'll have to go to UA's ticket office at the Sydney airport to get the ticket re-issued.

If a RTW allows changing the dates of flights without a penalty, why do I need to revalidate and get the ticket re-issued? Who is responsible for doing it? Is there a way to make the process less painful?

I would personally just show up at the airport, act like everything is fine, and let the check-in agent worry about it.

That is what a Thai Airlines agent at the Sydney Airport office told me to do. It makes me a little nervous, but I am so fed up with the run-around that I think I'll take your advice.

If you haven't done so already, you might also want to go to checkmytrip and reassure yourself that the date change is reflected there.

cheers,

Henry

Thanks for the tip. That's another useful tool I can add to my traveling toolbox. My itinerary doesn't show the PNR so I'll have to get that before I can check with checkmytrip. The date change does show up on UA's website so I suppose everything is okay. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I always imagine the worst in these situations.

Hi Roamin Roman,

I was encountering a similar issue with my RTW ticket. After one of the segments was canceled by AC I was told to go to the next LH (who issued the ticket) ticket desk in Salzburg to have it re-issued (in needed an additional coupon due to the fact that they had to add an additional stop on the involuntary rerouting). It took me 3 counters on 3 airports, 4 calls to the SEN Line, LH Ticket Line etc and finally the great agent at Beijing and Shanghai reissued the ticket.

I recommend you use www.checkmytrip.com to see if the changes worked out.
David

To answer my own question, I took the advice of Always Flyin and the Thai Airlines agent at SYD and just showed up for the flight. The agent issued my boarding pass with no trouble whatsoever. She never mentioned revalidation or re-issuing the ticket. It appears, therefore, that simply changing the date of a flight on a RTW ticket does not require getting the ticket revalidated in advance of the flight.

One caveat, however. I tried to use Online Check-in the night before the flight, but I could not complete the process. Although the system found my itinerary when I gave it my Mileage Plus number or my record locator, it said that it could not locate my ticket. That was a little scary. So, although it seems that you do not NEED to revalidate your ticket in advance of the flight, you may want to do so in you intend to use online check-in.

No you don't. When you change the dates on an e-ticket, the record updates itself but the revalidation can be done by the check-in agent. You therefore cannot check in on line in advance. For date changes, go through your TA. But for route changes, then you need to revalidate and reissue your ticket.

Welcome to the world of e-ticketing and alliance 'pass the buck'. In theory, every single *A can access the e-ticket, but would they is another matter! Doesn't matter if TG segment has been flown already, the ticket is on their document and they CAN still access it.

i just came back on RTW with star aliance in D.(mxp/christchurch/wellington/auckland/nadi/lax/mxp) and had the worst experience only because I asked air new zealand to change a flight from wellington to auckland in the morning instead of the afternoon. After that I don't know why, they had to reissue the entire ticket and it took them 2 days as they couldn't get in touch with Lufthansa. ie we had to go back to their office at least 4 times and they said that they are not used to this kind of tickets.........The flights on Lufthansa were lost and when we received the new ticket it was all wrong with a different date for my companion. We decided to show up at the LAX airport anyway and it took them more than 1 hour to sort out all the mess as they couldn't even find my ticket number that air new zealand had reissued. Finally we were able to leave but it was a pain.
additional consideration: business class in Lufthansa sucks compared to Singapore and Air New Zealand. We asked to be upgraded to 1st using miles and more miles but were refused.....

There are so many stories like this. My last *A RTW required a reissue that took, no kidding, 5 hours of my time on the phone and the United counter at SEA. And the thing is, it was not that complicated of a reissue - or at least, it shouldn't have been.

For the final part of the drama, the United agent at SEA was on the phone with the rate desk for 1 hour 45 minutes. She said she had worked for UA for 17 years and never had a phone call that long... but then again, she had never reissued a RTW before.

Anyway, now I fly over on OneWorld 70% of the time because changes and reissues are so much easier. I'll have to go back to *A for certain destinations, and some of the carriers are nice, but it's hard to deal with the incredible difficulty of making changes.

YMMV, of course...