I've looked at the OWE RTW rules (or at least one set of them -- looks like there might be several!), and can't find answers to the following:

1. Am I required to end the RTW trip in the same city from which I've started? For example, if I begin the trip in Vancouver, can my final stop be in Chicago? (I do believe that you need to start/end in the same country, but I also believe that US and Canada are considered the same for routing purposes.)

2. If I am not required to end the trip in the city where I started, can I end the trip in a city where I have previously made a stopover?

Anyone have experience/answers?

1. You need to finish your journey at the point of origin, this is not on the OWE rule, but recognized as a common rule for published excursion fares. Confirmed with AA. Maybe, on a rare case by case basis, some people possibly receive exceptions for ending in different cities (never have done it nor heard of it so don't know for sure). However, between Canada and the US, a quite definite no. They are not considered the same country (fare basis differential is quite substantial).

2. You are required to end the trip in the city where you started. Your routing must include a final flight back to your point of origin, and must be ticketed accordingly. However, unlike missing your first segment, airlines usually don't pay much attention to missed last segments. In other words, even if you miss your last ORD-YVR flight, you probably won't be penalized.

Thanks for the info, Silver.

My comment about US/Canada considered as the same country for routing purposes comes from Exception 1 to rule 6, as listed in www.geocities.com/osointer/ownotes.htm -- "Travel between the U.S. and Canada is not counted as an international arrival/departure." (Obviously, there is a huge distinction betwen the two when calculating ticket price.)

The US-Canada stuff is stated for cases like the following. I'll use examples to make it easy to understand.

Say you had an OWE ex-Japan. You can start your journey as NRT-HKG-LAX..., right? However, you can't do NRT-HKG-x/KIX-DFW..., because you're violating the "ONLY ONE INTERNATIONAL DEPARTURE AND ONE INTERNATIONAL ARRIVAL FROM/TO THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN IS PERMITTED" rule by comming back to Japan at KIX.

What if you had an ex-Canada OWE? Can you do YVR-DFW-x/YYZ-LHR...? With the "TRAVEL BETWEEN THE U.S. AND CANADA IS NOT COUNTED AS AN INTERNATIONAL ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE" exception, you can re-enter Canada, therefore, the routing is permitted.

Hope that clarifies.

Many RTW fares only require you to finish the routing in the country of origin, but not the city.

However, Canada and the USA are not the same country for RTW purposes. The RTW fares ex-Canada are cheaper, and airlines are on the lookout for people trying to pull a fast one.

What is perfectly permissible is to buy a one way USA-Cda to start your RTW here. Then within the next 12 months, you can use the last sector (conveniently USA-Cda) and start another RTW.

The country exception is also due to South America and the fact that many/most flights will go through the US. For example, if I went NA-SA-Europe, it would allow me to go NA-SA-NA-Europe if I had to.

As far as your departure question, as the others said, you need to end in the same country as departure.

Just purchased my first OWE. I am departing Toronto next month but the very last flight (4 continents, 19 segments) returns me to Montreal. So, it would appear that same country, different city is OK, at least for Canada.

Thanks all for the information & help; just got my 1st OWE ticket today.

Call me out of touch with reality, but I'm no longer necessarily into flying nutty distances & routings just to get status (though I do admit to used-to-doing stuff like BOS-ORD-LHR-GVA-LUG instead of BOS-MXP). So, for a 15-day trip in early spring, OWE in F, the itin is:

YYZ-(DFW)-(LAX)-HKG
HKG-DPS
DPS-(HKG)-CDG
CDG-DUB
DUB-(LHR)-BOS

then, after a real long stopover in BOS,

BOS-SFO
SFO-ORD-YYZ

Probable hotels: Kowloon Shangri-La; Four Seasons at Sayan; either Grand InterContinental or Meurice; Fitzwilliam; <private residence>; Campton Place

Yes, I am looking forward to this.

Wideman, out of curiosity, why the Kowloon Shangri-La? It doesn't seem up to the standards of the rest of your hotels.

Hi HKG_Flyer --

I'm staying at the Kowloon Shangri-La for one primary reason: the location overlooking the harbor toward HK island. It's a sight that takes my breath away, and enjoying that sight from my room is an extraordinary treat.

So why not the Regent? I wanted to save a few bucks to make up for the Bali splurge, or maybe because I kept getting vibes that the Regent was a bit stuffier than I wanted.

Wideman,

Point well taken... I've heard great things about the Four Seasons Sayan, but haven't had the chance to visit. With respect to the Regent, they do have an interesting club on the mezzanine level patronized by a lot of upscale local Chinese-- think it's called Shanghai Shanghai or something similar.