Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
Originally Posted by
pandaperth
Well, for what it's worth, I disagree with Gardyloo
My reading of the rule is that the phrase "travel to/from Europe in both directions" is concerning how you are getting from/to the continent of Africa via the continent of Europe-Middle East
And in your proposed itinerary at the beginning you get from Africa to Middle East (MPM-DOH) and at the end you get back to Africa from Europe (LHR-JNB)
So you are NOT travelling to/from Europe in both directions, and so the restriction regarding having South Africa/Mauritius in the itinerary does not apply
Unfortunately the on-line tool has still not been updated to reflect this new rule (which came in in April) so we cannot test Oneworld's interpretation of the rule.
I read the route as being MPM - xDOH
- LHR – South America (x2) – US(x4) – AKL – MEL – NRT - HKG - DEL -
LHR - JNB, i.e. with a stopover at LHR between DOH and South America. That's routing via Europe both ways in my book.
Well yes it is
routing via Europe both ways, but the rule's wording is "if travel to/from Europe in both directions".
As you said it's like parsing the Talmud - but to me the words are clearly concerned with the single flight from Africa and the single flight back to Africa, not other flights.
But since the on-line tool doesn't handle the new rule at all, there is no guidance as to which interpretation is correct. I note that according those that have interacted with the AA RTW desk, AA is not saying that "travel to/from Europe means "routing via Europe" - instead AA is referring to the now non-existent clauses that were in the superseded rule.