The online booking tools on the OneWorld and Star Alliance sites are quite good. Actually finalizing the booking with a ticketing airline is different. I'm going to write a book about my experiences trying to arrange payment for a Oneworld round-the-world ticket over the phone with American Airlines' UK office. It's going to be called 'Why I shot myself in the face'.
Why I shot myself in the face: An excerpt
- OK, sir, the fare is ready.
- Great.- Oh, that's odd.
- Hmm?
- The booking has been inactivated.
- How interesting.
- It looks like you changed the itinerary.
- No... no, I didn't change the itinerary.
- Oh. Oh, what happened is that your flight from Denpasar to Tokyo became unavailable.
- How curious. When did that happen?
- Yesterday.
- So, two days after I started trying to pay you, and well within the period you were supposed to hold all my bookings?
- Yes.
- Well, what should we do now?
- Well, sir, you can fly to Hong Kong that night, instead, and then go on to Tokyo early the next morning.
- That sounds awful. Is there any other way?
- No.
- Well, let's do that, then.
- We'll need to recalculate the fare again. Can you call back tomorrow?
- Just to be clear about this, I was quoted a fare online four days ago. When I called to give a credit card number, I was asked to call back the next day. That happened twice more. Tomorrow would be my fifth call. Is it possible for someone to just call me when the ticket is genuinely ready?
- No.
- Well, talk to you tomorrow, then.
- Thanks for choosing American Airlines.
I'm misrepresenting things slightly: It was actually a lot worse than this makes it seem. In all, 8 phone calls lasting a total of 3.5 hours spread over 10 days. $140 in long distance charges.
As a point of interest, it came out in the end that AA was the wrong airline entirely. The ticket should have been issued by British Airways. When I explained that I'd called BA first and that they had transferred me to AA, the rep on the phone said 'oh, did they,' and laughed in a bitter, oh-those-dirty-bastards sort of way.
This can't possibly be typical, though, so no one thinking about buying a round-the-world ticket should be discouraged.
