RTW ticketing and TAs

[Keith009]

This post from FT in relation to extending the AA 21 day TTL may be of interest:

Yes you can extend the ticketing deadline. Get a Sabre equipped TA (not Abacus) who can take over the existing AA booking and then change the ticketing deadline on it.

I learn something new everyday.

Generally I believe all carriers can and will take back any seats that aren't ticketed if flights are extremely busy.

 

[littl_flier]

Thanks QF009, I'm hoping to use the segment for the AA Lack of Challenge so I'll definitely be booked onto the AA flight number. Like you'd mentioned, I'd heard about the CX rule and if I wasn't going to ticket until April/May (or before the next round of enhancements) then there wasn't much point holding availability to have it "taken away" again.

I learn so many new things every day!

 

[Keith009]

Thanks QF009, I'm hoping to use the segment for the AA Lack of Challenge so I'll definitely be booked onto the AA flight number. Like you'd mentioned, I'd heard about the CX rule and if I wasn't going to ticket until April/May (or before the next round of enhancements) then there wasn't much point holding availability to have it "taken away" again.

I learn so many new things every day!

A TA might be able to hold your seats for longer.

But good luck trying to find a TA in Australia who'd issue via AA, or anything other than the 'first outbound carrier.' Even the trailfinders people who I thought were good at these ticketing intricacies initially found fault with plating on AA when my first outbound carrier was QF even though it's MEL-SYD (duh), but all good now as I've swapped myself to the AA codeshare for the domestic segment.

 

[Keith009]

Finally! They've got it right this time after pricing up the taxes with AA. Phew. Now they're bogged down with trying to work out where they went wrong in their own calculations.

Taxes and fines are now A$201 less at A$446.

Moral of the story - always get your TA to contact the plating carrier when in doubt!

 

[Shano]

Good that there was a positive outcome for you. Another $200 spending money now

 

[NM]

Moral of the story - always get your TA to contact the plating carrier when in doubt!

Except if that plating carrier is QF where they may try to apply their own rule mis-interpretation or inclusion of rules that don't exist .

 

[wandering_fred]

Had no problem with our local TA issuing a LONE4 on 001 stock last January for #1 son - though the routing was PER-SIN-BKK-HKG-NRT(AA)-USA-(AA)- Europe and AY back to SIN so QF only picked up SIN-BNE-MEL-PER

OTOH don't ask about open segments and VIP upgrades. Fortunately a very nice EXP desk lady worked it out................ But if you stay dated with no upgrades - should be a piece of cake.

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[littl_flier]

Had no problem with our local TA issuing a LONE4 on 001 stock last January for #1 son - though the routing was PER-SIN-BKK-HKG-NRT(AA)-USA-(AA)- Europe and AY back to SIN so QF only picked up SIN-BNE-MEL-PER

OTOH don't ask about open segments and VIP upgrades. Fortunately a very nice EXP desk lady worked it out................ But if you stay dated with no upgrades - should be a piece of cake.

Thanks Fred, my TA had told me that she can ticket with whoever I like but it'll be interesting to see whether this is really the case. Sadly I won't be worrying about VIP upgrades but I do intend on open dating.

In reponse to QF009, my first segment will be MEL-HKG so I'm not sure how this will fair with QF.

Actually, I'm taking things a little of thread here so I think it's time to start a littl_flier's DONE4 planning thread. Availability on the HKG-JFK segment is down to D4 so I think I'll have to start planning a lot earlier than planned. :-|

 

[dragonman]

Just a further word on ticketing deadlines. When I arranged a DONE4 2 weeks ago through AA ex NRT the ticketing deadline was DEC22 (my date of arrival at NRT. The AA agent even arranged for CX to extend that long - so it can be done.

In the end I paid by cc when the dollar was strongest (last week) instead of waiting till I got there.

 

[Reggie]

All my flights are booked by a local TA. They can have the tickets plated by whomever is cheapest or they prefer. All my done4's have been plated on AA even though all my first departures are QF. I can hold my tickets anytime up til 21 days before depature. They do however charge a $110.00 booking fee.

 

[NM]

They do however charge a $110.00 booking fee.

Which for a OneWorld Explorer and good service is quite an acceptable fee for the service involved in my opinion.

Our corporate TA charges $99 service fee for all international fares, I always feel guilty when presenting them with a optimised DONE4!

Though my DAS13 booked this week was not too difficult for them. The TA said I was going to put her out of a job. Finding availability was very hard and I had done all the hard work. She was amazed that my first request of flights actually had availability and it complied with the fare rules. Made her job easy, but still good value at $99 in my view.

 

[Keith009]

Trailfinders is charging a $100 service fee for my LGLOB26.

My TA's supervisor quipped that they might send me an application form when they next have vacancies.

 

[Reggie]

Which for a OneWorld Explorer and good service is quite an acceptable fee for the service involved in my opinion.

We pay this fee on all J bookings both dom and int. It is good for our company as we only pay for dom flights the day before, and international a couple of days, and a done4 21 dyas before. At times we modify flights, and cancel with no problems or fees.

The TA is reviewing their fees as they think they are too high for the J Dom bookings (which I agree with). They are also looking at charging us less for the Done4's as we pretty do most of it for them.

 

[Reggie]

My TA's supervisor quipped that they might send me an application form when they next have vacancies.

It has got to the point where my TA doesn't question my requests, she just puts them through and see's waht happens. My upcoming involves PER-ADL-SYD-MEL-SIN, and she admitted later she thought it was not allowed, but put it through because I generally always have it right.

Big thanks to JohnK, NM, Dave, Lindsay, KiwiFlyer and sorry to the others I cant remember there names at present.

 

[Keith009]

Come to think of it I don;'t remember being charged the service fee when I did J or F bookings (not even when I ticketed a maxed out CRWSTAR2). Only whY bookings. According to my TA they don't get much commissions on whY tickets.