Oneworld RTW direct/nonstop routing question
 

Does a direct (multistop, same plane)
flight count as a single or multiple segment
if no stopovers are taken?

I'm contemplating the following 5-continent route, leaving from London. Is this a legal
RTW routing? The CAI-MAD, MAD-GYE and
SCL-MPN are direct flights, but have at least one stop.

( [xxx] are stopovers ):

Europe : LON-[CAI]-[MAD]-
S. America: [GYE]-SCL-[MPN]-SCL-[EZE]-
SWPacific : SYD-[NOU]-SYD-[PER]-[SYD]-
Asia : [BKK]-SIN-[BOM]-SIN-[DPS]-HKG-
Africa : JNB-[CPT]-JNB-overland-NBO-[MRU]-
Europe : LON

A segment is defined as a single flight number. Your trip obviously took a lot of research and does not appear to break any rules. The only issues you may have are:

SYD - NOU must be on QF metal. No codeshares allowed. I could not find a day where QF actually flies this route.

You may be charged for an extra segment depending on luck and which airline you choose for ticketing. This is because the DPS - HKG segment occurs following your third stop in Asia. It does not matter that you are simply connecting in HKG. I would book with AA as they are usually the least likely to charge for that segment.

Since you are starting from the UK I assume you are flying coach?

rich

QF 91 SYD-NOU on Sat/Sun appears to be on their own metal.

Yeah, I remembered the last stopover/segment rule after I had posted, I'd either pay the extra segment or reverse the trip direction, which would eliminate the stopover problem. Also thought of changing JNB-CPT-JNB-overland-NBO-MRU to [JNB-overland]-NBO-[SEZ]-NBO-[MRU] or vv. for more mileage.

Most likely flying coach, though I recently flew business class for the first time back from Milan and it certainly made a difference.

In my experience, AA will take a more lenient posture than CX on the segment following your last stopover (I had a dispute with CX on this issue last year-- AA said no problem, so I ticketed with them).

Another thing to note is that a land segment is counted as a stopover and a sector!

Count as a stop-over ? Definetly !! But in my experience it does NOT count as a sector.

The routing I'm planning is:
JNB-[CPT-surface-NBO]-[SEZ]-NBO-[MRU]

I'm counting the [CPT-NBO] sector as a stopover but the surface sectors don't count as a segment.

JNB-CPT Segment
CPT/NBO Stopover
NBO-SEZ Segment
SEZ Stopover
SEZ-NBO-MRU 2 segments
MRU Stopover

4 segments, 3 stopovers

Only problem might be if there is a flight from MRU-LON with one flight number. I am not at a computer that I can check. If so, then it should be fine.

Oh, and I got nailed on the no segments after last stopover rule. AA *will* charge you.


[This message has been edited by Darren (edited 03-26-2001).]