I have tried to do a second Asia stopover at HKG twice, with opposing success. I tried to route back LHR-MEL after having already stopped in Asia, on an AONE4 issued by BA, and no matter how hard I tried with BA, it was absolutely refused. But I tried to have a second connection through Asia at HKG routing JFK-NRT on AA, then CX NRT-HKG-SYD on a DONE4 issued by CX, and asked QF to re-issue the ticket in SYD with that routing, and they did so. In general, I have found that BA is the least flexible in interpreting the rules, AA is somewhat flexible, and QF depends entirely upon the agent you get; most of the QF agents aren't that familiar with the RTW rules, and you can often bend them a bit. But if you get a really seasoned agent, you're likely out of luck.
Originally Posted by GibSpmuh
From my count of it there looks to be exactly 20 segments required for the flights listed (counting BKK-PEK as 2 segments, PEK-KIX as 2 segments and MEL-JFK as 2 segments).
Something that will be an issue though is this rule:
J)WITHIN AUSTRALIA - ONLY O N E NONSTOP/SINGLE
PLANE SERVICE IS PERMITTED BETWEEN THE FOLLOWING
POINTS:
BNE/CNS/SYD-PER;
MEL/SYD-DRW.
So you can fly from MEL-DRW, but can't come directly back unfortunately (though no exclusions have been added for BME......yet).
There has also been some debate in the past about the exact wording with the transit rule on Asia:
2)TWO PERMITTED IN ASIA WHEN ONE IS A TRANSFER
WITHOUT STOPOVER OR ON DIRECT SINGLE PLANE
SERVICES BETWEEN THE SOUTH WEST PACIFIC AND
EUROPE;
I haven't tried personally, but the consensus seemed to be that the transfer without stopover could only be used between SWP and EUR - but I'd say give it a try anyway for MEL-HKG-JFK - the rule is written in such a way that you could argue it, but you might have to settle for going MEL-LAX or MEL-HNL instead (but be sure to let us know if they allow MEL-HKG-JFK
).
Looks like you've done some great planning for the trip overall though, you're really maximising the miles and SC's, that's for sure!
