<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mad_atta:
Can the first sector be domestic, i.e. can I start my RTW in Melbourne and stopover in Sydney for a few months before carrying on with the international sectors?</font>
G'day atta.
Yeah - you can do that, but it's not as good as it used to be for two reasons. Until this rules version, travel originating here in SWP region was exempt from the no changes to outbound international segment rule. Now we're the same as the rest - if your "stay" in SYD is a "few months" as per your question, you'd need to be pretty spot on with your sector out of SYD as you cannot change that in any way.
The other problem may be with United - they're the only ones that connect MEL to SYD and their traffic rights on the route are limited to "connecting International and online stopover traffic". We all know UA sometimes run their own interpretation of rules against IATA accepted interpretations, so they may not like/permit such a lengthy stop in SYD. Revoking the international connecting traffic clause, (you're not connecting) all that's left is the online stopover - if they do allow the stop, your next segment would more than likely have to be on them.
I keep finding more reasons to hate NZ for letting AN go to God.
Cheers.