Q2 - No.
You are not making a transit without stopover or on direct single plane service between the Southwest Pacific and Europe. You are making a transit without stopover between the Southwest Pacific and North America. My reading of the rule is that under that routing you do not get a second intercontinental arrival and departure to Asia with a stopover. You can have your stopover in Asia on the way to North America, but on your way from Europe to Australia, you may only transit Asia.
As always,what the rules say and what you manage to get ticketed can be totally different things
- 2 PERMITTED IN ASIA. 1 MUST BE A
153N . TRANSIT WITHOUT STOPOVER -OR- ON
154N . DIRECT SINGLE PLANE SERVICE BETWEEN
155N . THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AND EUROPE.
I think that when you look at the rules you have to interpret them giving thought to the reason for which they are there.
In the case of this exception to the only one arrival to/departure from each continent, the exception is there not to allow you to maximise mileage (although most of us here would like to think so) or to encourage you to sample the delights of Cathay Pacific. It is there to allow you to travel from SWP to Asia to North America to Europe and then allow you to get back to Australia without having to cough up the money to pay for an extra continent,ie Africa, that you may not want to visit. If you are not wanting to stop in Asia on your way to North America but on your way back from Europe then there is no justifiable reason (in the airlines view) why you should be allowed an exception to the one arrival/departure rule. You should be flying direct from SWP to North America.
So while on the face of things there may be next to no real difference in the number of flights you take/cost to the airlines if you have your stopover in Asia on the outbound or return leg, there is a difference in the two routings that are permitted by the rules in your case- 1)SYD-JFK-LHR-HKG-SYD versus 2)SYD-HKG-JFK-LHR-SYD.
I don't think it is a case of CX/QF being picky
[This message has been edited by 3544quebec (edited 07-07-2002).]