Some routing advice on a DONE4 please.
 

Hi All,

I am going to be in Mauritius in December, following that I am visiting the family in South Africa. I thought I should look into starting a DONE4 in MRU but when I saw the base fare in USD being 50% more than in South Africa I thought NO WAY. However, it then struck me.

Can I buy my ticket in SA and start with a 'surface sector'. As in JNB-MRU (surface sector) and make my first flight BA MRU-JNB?

My routing would then be:

JNB-MRU(surface sector)-JNB-LHR-JFK-etc.

Can I do that?

Even if you could, which I very much doubt, The two sectors used seem a poor trade off for the about 14,000MUR cost of a one way ticket MUR-JNB.
Is there something unique that I am missing which makes this trade off attractive?

No, because SA would be the country of origin and you can't depart the country of origin twice -

https://www.oneworld.com/documents/1...9-d346ec820edf

One possible workaround would be to originate in Namibia, where prices are pretty similar to SA, for something like WDH-xJNB-MRU-JNB-LHR...

Probably, notation problem.

As 747-444 wrote
OP's intetion is probably,

JNB//MRU-JNB-LHR-...

Because of JNB//MRU isn't a flight sector, it doesn't DEPART.
So it may sutisfies one international depature from the country of origin.

If XXX//YYY can be treated as a flight segment,
can we do
NRT//HKG-JFK-LHR-HKG-NRT with ex-JPN fare ?
Whole positioning flight problem could be solved:)

ROUTING rule says
So, INTERMEDIATE surface sectors only. Maybe.

Thanks for the info.

I need some clarity on beginning a DONE4 with a surface sector. Because then I can begin in Windhoek with a surface sector to MRU.

I don't think the rules are clear on an international surface segment as the first one, and I doubt if anybody at one of the member airlines is going to be much help.

Why don't you plug it into the online tool and see what happens? Not that I have much faith in the tool, but at least it's a data point.

The OP asked a similar question regarding starting a DONEWC in WDH and doing a surface segment to MRU.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...mauritius.html

Nothing different regarding a DONEx. As I noted at that time, I have not seen a report of anyone successfully ticketing an oneworld rtw product in one country and then using an initial surface segment to actually begin flying from another (more expensive) country.

OP what did you find out last year? Did you ever get anyone to ticket your DONECW3 with an initial surface segment?

I bought a separate ticket to MRU as there was no availability on BA.

I tried the online booking feature and it won't let me start with a surface sector.

Time to call QF.

Just got off the phone to QF. The lady asked the fares desk who spent 25 minutes reading the rules and came back with a resounding NO. You may not start with a surface sector.

That is correct. You can never start with a surface sectors. You could have intermediate surface sectors (there are some rules like no surface sectors between continents etc - check the full fare rules for this.

Considering how inexpensive the RTW from SA is you could just buy a OW from MRU to JNB and then start the RTW from there.
Or try to change your first ticket from MRU to WDH.