Originally Posted by
izzik
I think the problem was that you were originating in Asia, so you couldn't do Asia stopovers after leaving Asia unless you had returned for the end of your ticket.
Whereas if you had started your trip in another TC, I believe you could visit Asia, then Australia, then Asia again before proceeding to another TC.
Originally Posted by
dvs7310
That's how I've done it on both of the ex-Japan DONEx's I've had. But that was by my own planning. First time I went TYO-SYD-North America and beyond, the second one I did TYO-xHKG-AKL-North America and beyond. I did my Asia stopovers on both of them at the end of the ticket.
Thanks both for taking the time: Whilst I can't see this written down anywhere I now realise, or at least understand, it isn't allowed, and by coincidence my other trips didn't fall foul of it. In this particular case my "smart" plans were blown up by this "rule", as essentially I wanted a holiday in Australia, then to stopover (at home) in HKG for a few months, then attend a wedding in PEN before having my Christmas holiday in the USA, each of which is individually fairly pricey, so I prioritized the wedding over Uluru. Though there is a nuance as amusingly this would then enable a nested Asia-Oceania-Asia Easter holiday on a second DONE4, but ticketed out of OSL (much cheaper), that I will try and do in a few months when 360 days for the last flights arrives and report back.
As such, I changed my plans to drop Australia and go back to a DONE3 (quite a bit cheaper in Japan, even if it means less long flight legs) and replaced it with Malaysian Borneo (looking at far away places still starting from TYO and a first leg in JAL). That does mean an extra "surface segment" flight which is certainly pricey, but not as much as the DONE3 -> DONE4 cost. It was ticketed this morning (will share the appropriate insight in the booking & pricing leg when I can get a breakdown).
So the troublesome part changed from:
HND-SYD-AYQ//AYQ-SYD-PER//PER-HKG//HKG-PEN//PEN-HKG-LAX
To
NRT-KUL-BKI//HKG-PEN//PEN-HKG-LAX
(separate ticket back to HKG/surface segment to be booked). This went through without any comments of course - I added another leg in Europe, but didn't manage the full 16 segments in this case
.