Originally Posted by
DeathSlam
No backtracking would apply to a paid round the world ticket. That's not what a multi-carrier reward flight is, so I don't think going to DOH twice will be an issue.
You are correct that all we have is rumour and speculation. And the earlier poster was undoubtedly also correct in saying it depends who you get on the phone and who you get in the ticketing dept.
I am hoping to book a complex multi-carrier award at some point so I have been following the discussion on here closely, but I don't have any great inside knowledge or recent personal experience.
I've seen it said that to book an award itinerary, a similar cash fare has to be available - but I can't remember if that's true at BA,
or if it applies to multi-carrier rewards. I've done a couple of these, but I've always planned around the no backtracking rumour so haven't tested the Fares Department on that one. I did manage to confirm the one open-jaw limit though. I get the impression that there's less scope for YMMV with the Fares people than with the phone agent who pieces things together. Since basically everything goes to the Fares team to get a quote on the TFCs the rules are probably less squishy than we'd hope - they're just entirely unknown even to the considerable knowledge base on FT.
Just realised that OP was hoping to backtrack through both HKG and DOH - so the phone advice might comport with that, albeit not being as clear as it could be. I'm guessing TFU doesn't give other partner options to take an alternate route home? Maybe an open jaw to somewhere served by JAL and home via Japan...?