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Originally Posted by
JAXBA
I too expect we'll see Southern Hemisphere *ONE3s - what do we think might happen the Africa backtracking rules now that there would be a S. Atlantic 'escape route' - would we see the removal of the extra Europe-Middle East arrival/departure - or the addition of an extra S. America arrival/departure? (when one is a transfer without stopover).
To address your second point initially:
What are you suggesting? That a backtrack from Africa to South America be allowed? Since South America is in TC1 and Africa in TC2, that would go against:
4(a) Travel must be via the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and only one crossing of each ocean is permitted.
4(b) Travel must be in a continuous forward direction between TC1 - TC2 - TC3
So I’m both puzzled and intrigued by your words
OK, now to your first point
I do not think there will be any change to the backtrack rules for Africa (the backtracks being of course through Africa's northern neighbour Europe/Middle East).
Here's my thinking.
Africa has always been Oneworld's problem continent, because the alliance has so few intra-continental flights (only BA's subsidiary Comair with its small network in southern Africa) and poor connectivity to the continent from elsewhere.
In particular a swathe of countries in West, Central and East Africa only have Oneworld flights going North – to Europe/Middle East. They have no Oneworld connectivity going South to Southern Africa, or East or West out of Africa
JJ’s flights GRU-JNB will do nothing for this swathe of countries. They will still need backtracking.
(The alliance solved this problem for North Africa – by defining it to be part of Europe/Middle East! Maybe that’s the solution for West/Central/East Africa
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