Detail on using the AA RTW Desk

[Dave Noble]

I had 4 segments to upgrade and it required 4 x 15K AA points to do so; this would require a re-route.

e.g. LGA-(AA)ORD-(AA)SEA,SEA-(AA)DFW-(AA)ORD-(BA)LHR to (say) ...,SEA-(AA)DFW-(AA)MIA-(BA)LGA.

Would I require both L class and A class availability if I re-routed so?

I am confused over why u needed 4 certificates

If you have no fare breaks, then LGA-ORD-SEA and SEA-DFW-ORD should only need 2 upgrades. If you wanted to upgrade SEA-DFW-ORD-LHR, this would require 1 x 25k upgrade plus $300 which might well be worthwhile

Dave

 

[serfty]

I am confused over why u needed 4 certificates ...

2 PAX ...

FWIW, We're currently booked to travel on a BA 772, flying a 7 hour red-eye from ORD-LHR - have nicely preallocated 26B/C exit seats.

Of course, if I make a LONEx booking again, I will certainly investigate taking an upgraded AA flight trans-Atlantic. :idea:

We depart in 3 weeks!

 

[serfty]

Hmmm, this recent Fog and industrial action has me thinking a bit.

In a couple of weeks, we are too start the travel referenced in this thread,

We are booked on QF400 (6:00am-7:30am) to connect with QF107 (10:25am). With boarding due to commence 9:55am, that's slightly tight for my liking.

The last 4 days in MEL have been very still and quite cold with plenty of fog; QF400 has been delayed between 23 and 45 minutes into SYD.

OK, 8:05 is no issue; with Express passes we should be in SYD T1 Flounge no later than 9am so that's fine.

My thinking was that it may be better to overnight in SYD the evening before; however this flight is normally the first segment for the day of the operating aircraft which reduces the impact of fog.

Flightstats rate this flight's OTP as "Very Good".

I'll leave it as it is for now; however, I will be keeping a close eye on this ...

 

[NM]

We are booked on QF400 (6:00am-7:30am) to connect with QF107 (10:25am). With boarding due to commence 9:55am, that's slightly tight for my liking.
...
I'll leave it as it is for now; however, I will be keeping a close eye on this ...

If these are the first flights of an xONEx fare, then you may not be able to change them easily. There are restrictions on changing the first international departure and any preceding flights that basically means a ticket must be cancelled and re-purchased. So do check the rules if you need/want to make such changes.

 

[serfty]

Thanks NM..

The rules are specific for TC3 origins and indicate Date/Time Carrier/Changes can be made without re-issue.

However, as posted recently on FT by Dave Noble, there seems to be a problem with this being followed - perhaps by AA ATW desk?

16. VOLUNTARY CHANGES/REROUTING/PENALTIES

(a) Rebooking/Rerouting

(1) Prior to departure

(a) Origin TC1
​

...

(b) Origin TC2/3

Unlimited changes permitted without charge.
Date/Time/oneworld carrier changes are permitted without reissue provided Origin/destination/connecting points and inventory remain the same.​

...

As posted I will be watching closely ... moreso on the engineers industrial action than the weather ...

 

[serfty]

The BA "Seat Shifters" struck while we were in NYC and we were tossed from our long time preselected exit row seats.

The 772 exit rows were gone, but was able to reselect 11B/C and 11D/E on the other (734) flights.

With the 777 we reselected 29A/C (with the B empty - the flight loads were light).

At T-72 I selected 4A/C for the LGW-DBV flight and 5A/C for the DBV-LGW flight (both front of Travller). In the end we travelled in 4A/C on both flights, the return in Club! (The flight was showing all 0's for two weeks beforehand)

FWIW, we were also upgraded to WT+ on the 772 out of ORD - traveller only ¾ full! (go figure ...)

 

[serfty]

Time to change some dates from October/November this year to Easter next year.

I tried to ring the AA Oz 'phone on Thursday; after being on hold for an Hours I gave up.

On Friday I tried the number of the AA office near SYD. I was told I would need to use the AA Oz 'phone for reservations changes. Upon being pressed I was told there had been a staff member doing reservations but "She had departed the company recently".

I called the AA OZ number again and after being on hold for 38 minutes I was answered. After being put on hold a few times with a bit of to-ing and fro-ing I was able to make the changes. It was obvious the guy I was talking to was being assisted by someone in the background.

Anyway; as there are less than 16 segments left it is being put on an e-ticket. I was asked to send my remaining paper tickets back to them - surprisingly, the mailing address given was that of the AA SYD office.

 

[serfty]

I sent the remaining Hybrid ATB2 computer generated / hand written paper ticket booklets back last week. Yesterday our online booking status has changed from

Status
Ticketed {nothing}

to

Status
Ticketed - Jul 09, 2008

So, I guess we now have an e-ticket.

 

[serfty]

As posted, I have now changed the flights to April/May '09. This is I originally envisaged - it was booked in March, these dates were not as yet bookable. I also asked for it to be redone as an e-ticket.

I sent the booklets with the remaining flight coupons back to the booking agency expecting never to see them again.

Much to my surprise, the booklets have been returned, sans coupons, along with the e-ticket receipt and a "post it" note advising us to keep the booklets in our possession when travelling.

I am not sure of the reasons for this; maybe it's for the detailed XT parts of the booklets.

 

[gwynne]

I am about to book an economy LONE3 this weekend originating out of London in February. I am based in Sydney. I have read the first 6 pages of this thread and am somewhat confident with the process. Can someone confirm I should call the US first to book the itinerary. After this they will give me a reference and I then have to call AA in London to price the fare and then pay for it in UK pounds (this should be possible with my Qantas AMEX correct?)

 

[serfty]

To summarize the process and include what I have learned in relation to booking L#ONEx's from Oz is to follow this process:

1. Prepare a list of each exact flight you wish to book, using seatcounter.com (or other tool) to ensure the availability of L class.
2. Veryify the booking using MileageMonkey (oneworld explorer validator)
3. Call AA Around the World (ATW) booking desk
4. Tell them you wish to book an economy class oneworld Explore fare starting from Australia and wish to pay for it and ticket it in Australia.
5. Advise your segments, they will book them, offer advice and otherwise assist.
6. When complete, they will send it to AA in Ireland for pricing, this may take a day.
7. In any case obtain the AA Sabre booking reference code.
8. Check this booking on AA.com for errors and if there are any, call thr ATW desk to advise and fix.
9. A day later call the ATW desk again, armed with your booking reference, they should by now have this priced in Australian Dollars.
10. Note the amount, thank them and advise you will call AA in Australia to arrange ticketing.
11. Call AA in Australia to arrange ticketing; you will be charged in Australian Dollars.
12. You will be emailed an cc authorization for, you fill this out and fax it to the number specified.
13. Your CC will be billed and the booking ticketed, E-ticket receipts will arrive in the mail soon after.

 

[NM]

Tell them you wish to book an exconomy class oneworld Explore fare starting from Australia

or starting London as is the case for gwynne

 

[serfty]

Oops, this thread was about booking from Oz; however ... substitute GBP for AUDs and England for Oz and off you go ...

 

[gwynne]

Cheers.

Quick question, does it have to be ticketed in London? Can I start out of London but get it ticketed in Australia and paid in AUD? If yes, would it be the same or similar price (adjusting for FX obviously).

 

[Evan]

Cheers.

Quick question, does it have to be ticketed in London? Can I start out of London but get it ticketed in Australia and paid in AUD? If yes, would it be the same or similar price (adjusting for FX obviously).

You can pay in AU, but you will be charged GBP at the price of the UK flights. This is my underatanding anyway. But thats no different that sending your CC details to the agents in London to debit your card.
CC fee's can be a bit in all cases.
(I know this is only a LONEx so costs not so much but i paid $240 AUD commisions etc on my recent $9k purchase of a first class ticket)

E

 

[serfty]

Since there are no specified xONE3 ex Oz, you would pay the UK price irrespective of where it's ticketed. If ticketed in OZ, you pay in AUD.

I find the conversion rates they use quite resonable.

 

[NM]

Cheers.

Quick question, does it have to be ticketed in London? Can I start out of London but get it ticketed in Australia and paid in AUD? If yes, would it be the same or similar price (adjusting for FX obviously).

Since there is no published price for a LONE3 ex-Australia, it will be based on the UK price. Since it will be an e-ticket, it does not really matter if its issued in Australia or the UK as the UK GBP price will be converted to AUD either by the airline or your credit card company. I suspect you may get a more favourable rate having it billed in GBP to your credit card.

 

[Keith009]

My experience sending in a DONE4 for reissuing with SYD CTO:

1) Set up the new itinerary with the ATW desk

Originally had MNL-xHKG-DPS-xHKG-MEL-CNS-MEL-xLHR-MCT-xLHR-IST-LHR-LAX-SJU-ORD-AUS-SEA-DFW-JFK-NRT-MNL. Flown the first 4 (MNL-xHKG-DPS-xHKG-MEL), AA shrunk its network in the US and because my US segments were open I was left unprotected. Yes yes, a case of do what i say not what i do. But the aagent I spoke to at ATW inserted a remark in the PNR "NO CHRG FOR REISSUE DUE SKED CHG", I'd assume this would be ignored when the PNR gets sent to tariffs though. Not that I'm complaining otherwise.

Had the new itin booked: MEL-CNS-MEL-AKL-xSYD-xLHR-MCT-xLHR-IST-LHR-LAX-AUS-xORD-SEA-JFK-xNRT-MNL, with dummy dates for the bits after LAX. Unfortunately as the original tkt was handwritten there was no record of it in the system - PNR cannot be queued to Dublin for reissue mask as they cannot "see" what i have flown.

2) Called BNE call centre, told the chick what I wanted, got the address of SYD CTO - record of convo placed in PNR.

3) Sent my ticket to SYD CTO last Weds via regoed mail, with an explanatory note so they don't go 'wtf?!' when a random paper ticket turns up.

4) Today I got a call from SYD CTO saying that they've got my ticket, with an exclaimation of how retro it was. As I've only got 16 segments left the aagent expressed her confidence that it'd be reissued as an electronic ticket. And that it should all be sorted out by tomorrow.

 

[serfty]

Cool; as posted earlier in this thread I had no trouble getting the remaining 7 segments of our LONE4's re-issued as e-tickets. Good luck on the reissue fee.

 

[Keith009]

Got another call today. There was some debate in the office as to whether they need to incorporate my flown segments into the reissue mask (proper procedure) or simply reissue the remaining segments (to ensure etkting). And that the "ticketing officer" will get back to it on Friday as she's currently snowed under from issuing itineraries with much tighter departure dates/tkt deadlines. Fair 'nuff.