Originally Posted by
747-444
Hi All,
Have OneWorld closed the Australia - Europe stopover issue?
Previously if one flew Australia - (Asia) - Europe that was considered a stop over even though the stop in Asia/Middle East was considered transit to say it is two continents as opposed to three?
The actual wording of the rule is
Travel between South West Pacific and Europe/Middle East on a single flight number/or by surface eg LON-SYD/MELvv, DXB-SYD/MELvv, DOH-PER/MELvv, is considered travelling via Asia. Continents South West Pacific, Asia and Europe/Middle East must each be counted.
So flying BA's LHR-SYD flight (which stops in SIN on the way) or flying any of the non-stop Middle East-Australia flights means Asia is included.
IMHO this is a rip-off (except for the BA flight which does actually 'touch' Asia - and there has been a long-standing paradigm of "if you touch it you pay for it" for example when JL flew NRT-GRU via JFK). It's especially a rip-off of you were taking a surface segment between Europe/Middle East and SQP - fly NO flights but pay for an extra continent!
Things
might change when JJ starts its GRU-JNB flights sometime this year. That will make possible all-southern hemisphere itineraries, for example GRU-JNB-SYD-SCL-GRU. This might result in 3-continent fares being made available for itineraries originating in the southern hemisphere and that in turn might result in a re-think of this rule.
However I won't be holding my breath.