Originally Posted by
anabolism
I thought only Egypt was regarded as Europe, with Israel (and Jordan) considered Africa, from the link just above:
oneworld Explorer regions are defined as:
Europe and Middle East, including Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Russia both east and west of the Urals, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Yemen
Africa (excluding countries named above)
I thought that since Israel wasn't in the list for "Europe and Middle East" that it was considered to be in Africa.
If starting in the Middle East counts as Europe, and we wanted to stop off in Nice and Stockholm, is this possible? Does the rule
You are allowed to take two stopovers in total within your continent of origin in order to get to or from a gateway to begin or return from your international travel of which a maximum of 1 stopover is permitted in each direction in the country of origin.
mean that stopoffs in the continent of origin have to be on the way to or from the gateway, so both Nice and Stockholm would be out?
I'd want to book via the AA RTW desk and ticket via an in-country GSA, which we did last year for our ex-JNB trip this year. Sounds like this won't be possible for Egypt but would for Israel.
Thanks very much for your help. We've done a few xONEx trips, but realize there is a lot we don't know.
The countries listed (Egypt, Morocco et al) are there because they're either on the African continent or traditionally regarded as central/western Asia (ex-USSR countries). Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf states are all treated as Europe. Iran comprises the first "Asian" country one encounters heading east.
The quote from the OW website has been goofed up and is not reflective of the rules. You're allowed a max of 2 stopovers in the continent of origin, full stop. You can make one of those stopovers within the
country of origin before departing internationally, and/or one after arriving internationally at the end of the trip, e.g. for trips starting in the US you could fly LAX-oJFK-LHR... and/or ...NRT-oORD-JFK at the end, but not LAX-oJFK-oMIA-LHR on the way out. (Hope that makes sense.) I'd recommend ignoring the bumph on the website and just download (and print) the PDF file with the official rules.
I checked and AA lists a ticket office in Cairo - see
http://www.aa.com/i18n/aboutUs/where...kets/egypt.jsp No idea if they're equipped to take credit card/wire transfers for RTW tickets, but they ought to be.
Using the online tool, tickets using RJ for initial flights ex AMM are actually issued by AA on RJ's behalf, and are automatically priced at the Jordanian price. You should play with the booking tool to see if it makes sense for your plans.
Stopping in both NCE and ARN would be difficult (but not impossible) because both require transfers someplace (e.g. LHR) and you'd run out of segments in Europe. If you decide to start in someplace like Cairo, I'd probably recommend hitting Nice or Sweden before you start the trip, i.e. en route to wherever your origin point is.