Apart from the recent ridiculous price rise of the OWE fares, there seem to be a few rule changes which make the product look increasingly undesirable as far as I am concerned:

Regarding permitted stopovers in the continent of origin:

OLD RULE: "2 STOPOVERS PERMITTED IN CONTINENT OF ORIGIN. ONE MUST BE AT AN INTERCONTINENTAL ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE GATEWAY AND THE OTHER CAN BE ANYWHERE ELSE".

So I would have been permitted the following route (which I shall call PLAN A):
BUD-(LHR)-MCT.
MCT-LHR.
LHR-HKG.
HKG-JFK.
JFK-(LHR)-BUD.

In the above, MCT is my first 'European' stopover and LHR is my second. LHR is the intercontinental gateway.

I went to BA in London to plan the above route but they told me that the rule is now as follows:

"2 STOPOVERS PERMITTED IN THE CONTINENT OF ORIGIN. ONE MUST BE AT THE INTERCONTINENTAL DEPARTURE GATEWAY(i.e. ON LEAVING EUROPE) AND THE OTHER MUST BE AT THE INTERCONTINENTAL ARRIVAL GATEWAY (i.e. ON ARRIVING BACK IN EUROPE AT THE END OF THE TRIP)"

Under this new rule, my first stopover cannot be MCT, as there are no Oneworld intercontinental flights out of MCT. However, there is an intercontinental flight out of DXB- (CX to HKG) so I could have a stopover in DXBinstead of MCT. However, under the new rule, after visiting the middle east, I have to move on out of the continent as my stopover must be at the intercontinental depature gateway (i.e. I have to go straight to HKG). I cannot take my second stopover in Europe (i.e. LHR) immediately after my DXB stopover. I can apparently only take my LHR stopover at the very end of the trip.

i.e PLAN B is allowed:
BUD-(LHR)-DXB.
DXB-HKG.
HKG-JFK.
JFK-LHR.
LHR-BUD.

I refused to believe the agent at first but he checked with a Oneworld agent and the new stopover rule has indeed come into place from mid-Nov (along with the crazy price rise).

Also, there is now a rule stating that no point can be passed through more than twice on the entire trip. So PLAN A is not allowed for this reason as well (I would have passed through LHR 3 times). In PLAN B, I am only passing through LHR TWICE so it is allowed.

Just thought I'd let you all know about his rule change (please someone tell me that both the BA and Oneworld agents were wrong and that PLAN A is possible after all...).

All in all, I'm totally fed up with Oneworld.



[This message has been edited by salt (edited 12-05-2000).]