OWE rules change...AGAIN!!
 

Apart from the recent ridiculous price rise of the OWE fares, there seem to be a few rule changes which make the product look increasingly undesirable as far as I am concerned:

Regarding permitted stopovers in the continent of origin:

OLD RULE: "2 STOPOVERS PERMITTED IN CONTINENT OF ORIGIN. ONE MUST BE AT AN INTERCONTINENTAL ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE GATEWAY AND THE OTHER CAN BE ANYWHERE ELSE".

So I would have been permitted the following route (which I shall call PLAN A):
BUD-(LHR)-MCT.
MCT-LHR.
LHR-HKG.
HKG-JFK.
JFK-(LHR)-BUD.

In the above, MCT is my first 'European' stopover and LHR is my second. LHR is the intercontinental gateway.

I went to BA in London to plan the above route but they told me that the rule is now as follows:

"2 STOPOVERS PERMITTED IN THE CONTINENT OF ORIGIN. ONE MUST BE AT THE INTERCONTINENTAL DEPARTURE GATEWAY(i.e. ON LEAVING EUROPE) AND THE OTHER MUST BE AT THE INTERCONTINENTAL ARRIVAL GATEWAY (i.e. ON ARRIVING BACK IN EUROPE AT THE END OF THE TRIP)"

Under this new rule, my first stopover cannot be MCT, as there are no Oneworld intercontinental flights out of MCT. However, there is an intercontinental flight out of DXB- (CX to HKG) so I could have a stopover in DXBinstead of MCT. However, under the new rule, after visiting the middle east, I have to move on out of the continent as my stopover must be at the intercontinental depature gateway (i.e. I have to go straight to HKG). I cannot take my second stopover in Europe (i.e. LHR) immediately after my DXB stopover. I can apparently only take my LHR stopover at the very end of the trip.

i.e PLAN B is allowed:
BUD-(LHR)-DXB.
DXB-HKG.
HKG-JFK.
JFK-LHR.
LHR-BUD.

I refused to believe the agent at first but he checked with a Oneworld agent and the new stopover rule has indeed come into place from mid-Nov (along with the crazy price rise).

Also, there is now a rule stating that no point can be passed through more than twice on the entire trip. So PLAN A is not allowed for this reason as well (I would have passed through LHR 3 times). In PLAN B, I am only passing through LHR TWICE so it is allowed.

Just thought I'd let you all know about his rule change (please someone tell me that both the BA and Oneworld agents were wrong and that PLAN A is possible after all...).

All in all, I'm totally fed up with Oneworld.



[This message has been edited by salt (edited 12-05-2000).]

sigh-**

Sigh is right.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Disappointing development. Although I am surprised about the first change since they had just liberalized the originating continent stopover rule less than 5 months ago. I wonder what problem they were trying to solve, however, since these changes will still allow you to make 100,000 points on AA if that was your goal. You will still be able to fly to MCT for instance as long as you do not stay more than 24 hours.

The biggest impact I see with these rules are that Americans can no longer originate in Europe and fly all segments except the final USA to Europe segment and then just keep buying extra segments on an as needed basis. This has allowed me to fly last minute with no Saturday stay anywhere on AA round trip (except trans-con) for 200USD plus a 75-change fee.


rich

Another possible reason for the rule about passing no point more than twice might be to spread intra-Europe travel from BA to AY and IB.

Whooosh, I can only say that my road to EP will not be as easy and fun as I hoped it would be. But wonder why OW keeps such a fare with so many rules and regulations that are so difficult to swallow while raising their prices to the point of no return...

Apparently CX and BA weren't too happy about people passing through HKG and LHR as many times as they wanted to. Thus the rule that you can only pass through a given point on a maximum of 2 occasions.
For journeys originating in 'Europe':
Under the other new rule whereby the first stop must be taken at the 'European' intercontinental departure point and the last stop at the 'European' intercontinental arrival point, OW airline schedules mean that people originating in 'Europe' can effectively no longer get 2 segments to/ from the Middle East (unless of course they originate from the Middle East).



[This message has been edited by salt (edited 12-06-2000).]

well, based on this, how can you realistically travel throughout asia or south america, when 1w basically has only one hub there?

When travelling between points that only BA serves in Africa and Europe....when originating in Africa (assume SEZ), your itin must be something like the following if you needed a stop in EUR:

Assuming only BA serves MCT and SEZ

SEZ-LHR first LHR arrival
LHR-MCT
MCT-LHR second LHR arrival
LHR-HKG
HKG-JFK
JFK-LHR third LHR arrival
LHR-SEZ

Without going through London 3 times, you are limited to the cities that you can go to.