nomoreiphone

I seem to recall there has been a revision on the rules and it now enables pax to transit in asia on the way to US as well from SWP?

Would the following work:

ICN-HKGx-LHR-JFK-HKGx-SYD-HKG-ICN

x denotes transit points

Gardyloo

I don't have any such recollection; my understanding is that the "second Asia entry" rule ONLY applies to Europe < > SWP and no other continents.

In the past there were evidently some tickets issued (perhaps erroneously) which allowed transiting Asia to/from N. America < > SWP, but the interpretation above is, I believe, the current hard-and-fast position.

If you find it otherwise in trying to get an itinerary booked, be sure to share your experience here.

christep

It was always a matter of interpretation of a comma, but unfortunately you've remembered the wrong way round. There were cases several years ago where people got tickets issued that way, but I have not seen any recent examples here of it being allowed and a number of refusals by various issuing airlines (including AA RTW desk and CX, if I recall correctly).

Dr. HFH

See section 4(e)2 of the Rules.

christep

Well yes, but the point is that this text remains ambiguous:
It can be interpreted as:

2. Two permitted in Asia when one is either (a transfer without stopover) or (a direct single plane service between SWP and Europe)

or as

2. Two permitted in Asia when one is either (a transfer without stopover) or (a direct single plane service) between SWP and Europe.

Recently only the latter interpretation seems to have been allowed.

It would saving us having this discussion on a regular basis if OW would simply insert another comma into the rules, thus:

2. Two permitted in Asia when one is a transfer without stopover, or on direct single plane service, between the Southwest Pacific and Europe.

which makes it far less ambiguous.

Keith009

I recall a thread on here recently in which the OP successfully booked several routings online involving a 2nd transit in Asia that's not SWP <> Europe.

christep

Yes - now you mention it that's true. Feedback on whether the ticket was actually issued (and used) like that would be very welcome because that certainly puts some value back into the tickets.

nomoreiphone

I've just tested this on the online booking site and they ok it

christep

Yes, but has anyone actually got it issued (that's where the real people and the real ticketing desk gets involved)?

nomoreiphone

I basically got to the page to insert my credit card. so I assume it is ok to be issued.

Gardyloo

I would just use caution with this. In the recent past the airlines have been quite explicit about this, even when tickets had actually been issued (by another airline, a TA etc.) and the real problem arose when the ticket holder tried to re-schedule or re-issue the ticket, i.e. any time a major airline tariff department got hold of it downstream. So the online tool may well allow for the ticket to be issued, in which case, lucky you.

You might just want to speak to a human at, say, the AA RTW desk to see if they'd validate the routing, however, just as a data point.

christep

That isn't issuing it. That just collects all the information to pass to a person in the relevant OW airline ticketing desk to go through the same manual process as they would otherwise. All the website does is attempt to pre-validate the itinerary and make the reservations. Ticketing is still done the same way as it always was. I'll believe it when I hear of someone actually having a ticket issued, with a ticket number.

nomoreiphone

That is not what I heard before. Basically once you enter the CR card # and that is validated, you will get a ticket no (or soon after it) with minimal human/manual intervention. And even then I don't think they will check the rules again.

But anyway will see what happens for my friend.

pandaperth

Any news?

I was the one that noticed the additon of the comma to the relevant rule, and played with the (then) new booking tool to see if transits other than SWP-EUR vv were allowed - see this thread

JayPee

I think you may fall foul of the continuous forward direction rule when you come to HKG-SYD-HKG-ICN.

I tried a year ago to get JFK-LHR-JNB-LHR before getting back to HKG and it was bombed on the grounds that I was re-entering an intermediate continent, notwithstanding the fact that at least one of the LHR transits was less than 24hrs.