I just talked to the AA RTW desk and was told that they had some rule changes last week.

Here is a summary of the 'new' rules:

1. OK to visit 3 cities per continent using no more than 4 flight segments. Intercontinental flight segments do not count. A flight segment seems to be any flight number. So a Perth-Sydney-Auckland flight with the same flight number would be one segment but if the flight number changes in SYD then it is two segments, even if no stopover is made.

2. OK to fly through a third continent on your way between two continents. This is the only time you would be allowed through an already visited continent a second time. Stopovers are not allowed in the third continent. Example: You've already been to Asia and want to go from Australia to Europe. It is OK to make a connection in HKG but you cannot stop in HKG.

3. No limits on number of times you can go through a city.

4. Only 1 city that is not international arrival or departure city in home continent.

Does that mean you can no longer receive 5 segments in Asia and 6 in North America? That would be a big dissapointment and cut down on possible route combinations.

It also sounds as if they have eliminated the "1 flight number" rule for travel from Europe to Australia if you want to return to Asia later. This would be a big plus and allow you to use Cathay to get to Australia from London.

rich

[This message has been edited by RichLond (edited 08-30-2000).]

Rich:

The agent told me that they would not count a connection in a continent if you connected there on an international segment.

For example, flying from SYD to LAX on CX via HKG is OK, even if you have already been to Asia and used up all of your segments there. You cannot stop over in HKG though.

For your concern, I think you could fly QF from SYD-SIN-LHR and then return to Asia without the connection in SIN counting for anything. Again, it must be a connection not a stopover.

Of course nothing seems to be written in stone...

CX from LHR - SYD Awesome!

Rich - I think the one flight number rule between AUS and EUR got changed sometime between December and June. At one point it was there while I was planning mine and then it changed. Good news.

Now if the rule about entering ANY continent more than once is OK (as long as it is a connection) is true, then I will be a happy camper. That would mean you can now go LHR - SEZ - LHR - JNB legally. Or if you were a CX fan, you could fly SYD - PER via HKG ( if you really, really liked CX). But I will believe it when I have my ticket in hand.

Chris

AA still enforced the 1 flight number rule as of mid July. At least the 2 reps I spoke with.

rich

ps. I will be "upset" if it turns out we could have flown CX instead of the QF flight via SIN.

you and me both. i'm scheduled on it for monday night. the qf biz service is australia is no great shakes. reminds me of domestic aa service. the problem is that even in a 767, the seats are awful. oh, and the food...yuck!!!

Rich and Lonman --

You both seem to think that SYD-LHR should be on Cathay versus Quantas. My future wife and I will be flying this route in February (in 1st class) and are currently scheduled on Quantas. Do you think we should switch to Cathay (we are doing Cathay to Hong Kong from NY. I cant remember which airline we are using from Hong Kong to SYD).

Thanks for your thoughts.

--Jim

I have taken both Qantas and CX First Class. There is no comparison. CX new first class is extraordinary. Try to change to CX

CX first class on the 747 is far and away superior to the QF product. BA is also better than QF, so I would try and change to CX or at least BA.

One issue is that currently CX uses a A340 on some days to connect SYD to HKG for the late night London flights. Although they are supposed to get the new seats they currently do not have them. If that would be the case on the day you fly I would switch to BA. You should be able to ticket BA using a QF flight number thus avoiding a service charge if you have already been ticketed.

rich

It could be easier that this. As long as you don't require a ticket change, there is no change fee (aside from your first-one "free") charged. A change from "QF" to "BA" SYD-SIN-LHR should not incur this cost, but a change to "CX" SYD-HKG-LHR would.

I believe changing carriers would require a ticket re-issuance, however I doubt it would be enforced between BA and QF on a SYD-LHR flight where they code share on all flights. My guess however is booking the QF code share number for the BA flight or booking the BA flight itself when you hold a QF flight number ticket would result in the same outcome and not be any easier either way.

I would chose however to book the QF code share to avoid any problems at the airport.

rich

One of my tickets had "endorseable BA CX QF etc...." on it. From what I can tell about how people don't like working on these tickets, I would guess they would just take the ticket and not worry with it.

Rich and IonMan - I had AA print the fare rules for me three days before I left and I remember reading about the connection change. I have them at home and will reread them just in case I am wrong.

Jimboliguy - Change it to CX !!!!!!!

Didn't happened to me for a change from CX to BA on HKG-LHR.

I'm in the midst of finalising my OW ticket for Nov. travel. I tried to use the HKG - SYD-HKG - LAX routing. BA would only allow it under one condition that I took the early flight out of SYD so I could catch the same day flight out of HKG to LAX. I wanted to take the last flight out of SYD to HKG and catch the first flight out to LAX which is the next morning. They would not allow it saying I could make a same day connection by leaving earlier. It appears to me that this is a gray area and I need to get a more sympathetic agent. Has anyone tried this 'forced overnight' on a OW ticket and gotten it?

Chris:

No, you could not do PER-SYD with a connection in HKG because your trip would not be intercontinental.

The waiver only seems to apply when you are leaving a continent and going to a new one. You can never return except for a connection.