Originally Posted by
zoombee
I've just spotted and scanned your valuable contributions to the "recent experiences booking an ex-CPT DONE5" thread. If I understand your stance correctly, wrt to:
CPT-DOH-LHR-KEF-LHR-DOH-LAX-MIA-YYZ-JFK-DFW-SYD-BNE-MEL-DOH-CPT
3.2.1 does not apply because it touches South Africa (o.e. swapping CPT for NBO would lead to a valid routing: NBO-DOH-LHR-KEF-LHR-DOH-LAX-MIA-YYZ-JFK-DFW-SYD-BNE-MEL-DOH-NBO)
3.2.3 does not apply as you note because it excludes flights between the Europe Zone and the Middle East Zone (if touching the Middle East twice).
The crunch item:
3.2.2 AFRICA-MIDDLE EAST-RTW-MIDDLE EAST-AFRICA
You are saying it is valid because "RTW" can include Europe, whereas I read it as only including other novel continents (i.e. excluding touching the rest of Europe). The rules are IMHO ambiguous. I wonder what the intent was and I also am not surprised ticketing is at best tricky.
I think you are coming at this issue from the wrong angle
zoombee
IF you want a RTW itinerary that:
- starts and ends in Africa, and
- makes two visits to Europe/Middle East
THEN you must decide which of the three possible backtracks you want to use
From the fare rules:
4(e) Only one intercontinental departure and one intercontinental arrival permitted in each continent except as follows:
…
…
3. Special provisions for travel which includes Africa:
…
The first column in the table describes the three possible departures from/returns to Africa – either both through the Europe zone, both through the Middle East zone, or one of each. It does nothing else; there are no restrictions hidden in its words - this is how the on-line tool works and how BA now interprets it (AFAIK, AA still misinterprets it - so someone, maybe the OP of this thread, needs to persuade AA to change its view
).
The second column states the restrictions imposed for each possibility. These are the only restrictions imposed by having a second visit to Europe/Middle East.
So the OP to this thread decided he wanted to use the backtrack provisions of 3.2.2. My
guess is that this was chosen because:
- he wanted the inter-zone flights DOH-LHR-DOH and so could not choose 3.2.3
- he wanted to begin and end in South Africa and so could not choose 3.2.1