We have just started a DONE5 and flying BOM-HKG-JFK. When we booked (almost a year ahead) Cathay would not let us book (through a travel agent) unless we had a stopover in HKG (one night). Like you we did not want the stop (has to be 24 hours as I understand) and there was availability.

That's odd, because in our case even though it's a long layover, it's still less than 24 hours (maybe about 20 hours), which is still a connection rather than a stopover. I'll try again later in the year when I'm calling about other date changes and hopefully it'll work!

Annoyingly I'm also running into issues with 2 Alaska segments, where there was originally D availability and I booked them. Then I was kicked off the flight to a different day for some reason (no one can answer why as the original flights are still going), but D availability was zero when I tried to change them back to the original dates. So I'm booked in economy in both for now with alerts in EF set up - hopefully D seats open again at some point (travel not until August and October, so loads of time).

Does anyone know if the stipulation: "A total of two stopovers within the continent of origin is permitted in order to get to or from an international gateway." applies only to Oneworld Explorer fares, but the Global Explorer fares allow up to 4 stopovers even in the originating continent? I noticed that for Global (as opposed to OW) Explorer: "For tier 1, the maximal number of stopovers is 5 with no more than 2 in any one region. For other tiers no more than 4 in any one region permitted."
Just wanted to confirm, had a DONE3 fare ticket from Cairo with 3 stopovers in Europe/M East, but I think they have changed it to DGLOB34 fare which would entitle me to up to 4 stopovers in Europe/M East.

This is not correct.

The Oneworld Explorer rule on stopovers is:
and the Global Explorer rule is:
So neither fare allows more than two stopovers in the continent of origin.
Also the words "in order to get to or from an international gateway" do not appear in the rules (although I do recall those words appearing somewhere on a Oneworld web page).

Thanks. I was referencing QR info page, The PDF files do have the correct into. Thanks for your help

There are many things wrong with that QR info page. But thankfully they are not the fare rules

In your earlier post you said "...had a DONE3 fare ticket from Cairo with 3 stopovers in Europe/M East"
Can you tell us more about that?

what would you like to know? had two stop-overs in Europe and one stopover in Middle East. That is one stopover less than allowed in Middle East "zone" (or is it "region"?)

Thank you LilZeppelin, this is interesting, to me at least.

A follow-up question - what were your initial segments (up to your first port outside of Europe/Middle East), and what are your final segments (from your last port outside of Europe/Middle East).

On my current DONE5 I flew CAI-LHR-BNA... at the start, and will fly NBO-LHR-AMM at the end. So I have two stopovers in the continent of origin (both at LHR) and I have an origin-destination surface segment between CAI and AMM, which is allowed by Rule 4(c), exception (b)
When you say you have a stopover in the Middle East, is it really the destination end of an origin/destination surface segment, like mine, or is it something different?
If it is something different then I am intrigued, because I can't see how the rules would allow it. The Oneworld Explorer rules definitely don't allow it. The Global Explorer rules are curious in this regard - they define the six continents and then never refer to them instead referring to 'Regions', which are undefined. I have always assumed this was sloppy drafting and that Region=Continent and in which case a third stopover is not allowed.

I was in a rush to purchase before the ex CAI prices being revised and did not spend the time analyzing or understanding all the rules back in March! As a result I may just have ended with a ticket that did not meet all the rules. Its important to understand that the airlines should have processes to ensure that all the rules, stopover limitations, mileage restrictions are met before they take our money and issue the tickets. With OW some have them and some don't, and with some it's almost impossible to communicate (looking at you QF!). My experience dealing with BA to change dates has been challenging, but eventually everything ends up being resolved before travel. Their fares department are familiar with the rules as the should be and in the end they figure everything out correctly! I wanted to buy a second ticket with them and their "sales lead" in India whose like a supervisor of phone agents, was giving all kinds of different nonsense (such as you cannot book an AT flight, you need to end up in same airport rather Middle East, etc). Dealing with American was much easier due to their in-house special team but I crafted a ticket that was just under 34k miles and now for the remainder I have no mileage left, even to end up in AMM rather than CAI! So I might need to get rid of the leg to Brazil in order to allow more freedom in Europe. I would love to take the QR JFK-DOH flight on the way back. Does anyone know about QR fuel surcharges in comparison to AY/BA?

So you have the distance based Global Explorer *GLOB* and not the more common/more popular continent based Oneword Explorer *ONE*?
They have different rules.
--> https://www.oneworld.com/round-the-world

I'm looking into my first DONE3 ticket, and I'll have a choice of a AA codeshare or JL prime of the same flight. I'm wondering if it makes any FARE(or YQ really) differences (besides RDM/EQS miles earn rate)

With these OW tickets the base fare and route dependant real taxes are fixed. YQ can vary based on the airline that issued the ticket.

My BOLD
Depends on your O-D and carriers (AA or AS). Some flights are seasonal (note October). I found that JFK-ANC on AS never offers any D fare (I am happy to be corrected)

I'm hoping that wont be the case for my 2 flights, as I can see D availability at other closer dates. Even for the seasonal SEA to CUN flight, when I originally booked a dummy date there was D availability, and now there is plenty over the next few months. It just seems they haven't opened any D fares for the next season yet.

Hi, first time posting, hopefully I'm in the right place!

I'm wondering if anyone knows what points redemption ranges look like for the Oneworld Explorer program?
I've seen some points conversion tiers for Global Explorer that's roughly 215K Avios points for Business class, travelling between 25K-35K miles in total (as an example). But I haven't found anyone who's booked the Oneworld Explorer program with points... also wondering if anyone has thoughts on when one program would be more cost effective (again, in terms of points) or flexible (e.g. number of open jaws) than the other?

thanks in advance!