Woa! A lot of questions. I will answer the ones I can take a stab at in turn, to the best of my ability and post it up - then come back to answer some more once I have taken on some subsistence!

I will kick off with the point that at the moment Cathay have suspended all flights between CMB and Bkk/Sin/Hkg
and it does not too good about them coming back. There is a flight between CMB and Amman twice a week but it would mean immediately leaving Asia to go to Europe on not the most attractive routing between the continents.


* I've seen references to xONE3s only permitting 17 sectors instead of 20 but I see no reference to that in the QF fare rules. Is it true?

The limit comes about because of the maximum number of flights that you can do per continent (without adding paid segments). Therefore N/A 6 + Asia 4 + Europe 4 = 14 plus Asia to N/A to Europe to Asia (or vv) = 3 = 17.

Almost certainly surface segments can be added up to a total of 20 sectors without losing flown segments (eg CMB - BKK // NRT - HKG - SIN // HKG - CMB = 4 flown segments + 2 surface segment). As the rule is new I cannot be 100% sure that is how it will be put into practice, but when I spoke to AA this is how that agent viewed it.

Therefore, with a XONE4 or above and the new rules, you would now actually lose one possible flight for any surface sector that you choose to use

You can add on paid segments (but not the continent of origin) again up to a total of 20 inc surface sectors (Therefore you could have 17 flights plus 3 paid segments - but usually it is not worth the cost.

* Within Asia I'd obviously prefer flights with proper long-haul J class seating, rather than regional aircraft. On which intra-asian sectors do CX and JL offer long-haul business class configurations?

It depends what you consider "proper" long haul. There are many on this board who know Cathay inside out, but from my limited knowledge Cathay has regional business class on nearly all routes within Asia - both old/comfortable style seats and new style seats.The most preferable out of these is to get upper deck on the 744's and avoid lower deck middle seat!. For the relatively short flights the leg room and seats are comfortable enough, the crews are usually fantastic, although they can have their off-days (or off-crews) and imho superior to various american airlines inter-con business class on all points.

JAL I have never flown business class with, so cannot comment.

* In europe I'm very flexible with my destinations. I'm looking for interesting routings that aren't just to or from a OW hub (lon, hel, mad/bcn, bud & amm). Are there any OW flights which stop over in non-hub cities, so I could see somewhere interesting without always flying via finland, spain, hungary, jordan or the UK?

I always find the best flights in Europe are the longest - a part from anything you get decent business class - LHR-Dubai/Muscat/Cairo etc. Jordanian has probably meant there is much more interesting routings that can be done in the region but I have yet to purchase a new RTW since they formally joined. Remember in Europe club class is going to be crap and always consider that many of these short flights can be purchased for very little money to fly in economy - which in many ways is the same product in the region but a few rows back and not worth wasting segments on.

* I don't understand what it means to be permitted 2 stopovers max within my continent of origin "in order to get to or from a gateway". How circuitous may my route to my gateway be? Is there no maximum number of sectors at all, or must I exit the continent as soon as I reach a city which has flights to my next destination? e.g. Can I fly from CMB to BKK, stay for less than 24 hours, fly from BKK to HKG, stay for less than 24 hours, and then fly to NRT for a few days (using my first "stopover"), before leaving the continent via SIN on my way out? (Obviously, I understand that each of these sectors contributes to my overall limit -- the question is simply whether there are sector limits or other routing restrictions on how I choose to "get to my gateway".)

In reality, it means you are allowed four flights in (this instance) Asia - two of which allow a stopover, two of which have to be a transit. Eg ICN-HKGx-BKK-Europe-NA - NRT - TPEx - ICN would be ok. Usually, the choice of the flights is up to you and it will pass ok.

I seem to remember doing CMB-BKKx - HKG - LHR but with OW you never know if it is a lucky fluke or not. As equally they have been a bit funny about including an extra transit (especially on the way back) if it encourages extra miles - but I never forced the issue at the time.


* Regarding the Nth American one-transcontinental-sector limit: does it only apply to non-stop flights? I need to fly between the east and west coasts of the US a lot. Could I just fly NYC-DEN-LAX back and forth three times so as to avoid the transcon restriction? (Sure, I'd burn through twice as many sectors, but I have no interest in going anywhere but the coasts anyway.) Are there any other intermediary airports instead of DEN which would work just as well? (If this isn't permitted, is NYC-MEX-LAX?)

It applies to flights with one flight number (as this counts as one sector) sometimes these flights do stop but the number remains the same. If you take two flights with two different numbers then you can cross North America as much as you want, as long as it is not between two points as listed in the rules.

NYC-DEN/DFW etc - LAX/SFO etc no problem as often as you want to a maximum of six sectors. NYC-MEX-LAX no problem

* Regarding the new surface sector rule, does anyone yet know for sure whether surface sectors count towards the intra-continental limits too, or only towards the total tally?

I am presuming they won't count to the 4 or 6 limit per continent and as I mentioned above an AA RTW desk agent (FWIW!!) told me they won't but each one will count to the total but it is still in the realm of the unknown.