i intend on embarking on a rtw ex syd. after travelling around the world i will arrive back in mel (which is where i live) from HK, having used none of my sw pacific segments.

I am allowed two stopovers in the country of origin. Suppose i want to fly mel - bme - cbr, which is possible using four segments. Now mel and bme would both count as stopovers, but does cbr count as a stopover, or is it simply the "termination" point of the journey?

I remember calling qantas about a month ago and they said that mel - cns - mel (which is in principle similar) was allowable, but my ta says that qantas informed them that mel - bme - cbr was not allowed?

Does anyone have any ideas on this? I want to ticket soon because of impending price increases, and it is quite difficult to call qantas at the moment..

You are allowed two plus your termination. The reasoning is two-fold. First, it goes back to when it only allowed 3 stopovers. The termination point was considered your third. It is also to prevent people from buying a lot of extra segments in their home continent.

Thanks for your advice Darren.
I have contacted qf myself and they now say that hkg - mel - bme - cbr is only possible if I transit mel and not stop.

They couldn't really give me a reason other than "the rtw is for travel rtw not within australia"; they certainly did not say that there was such and such a rule against it; i have a set of rules for the owe and as far as I can tell it should be allowable if what you say regarding stops is correct ie: two stops plus a termination point. Maybe there are additional rules to those published..??

If anyone else has any experience regarding this i would love to hear from them...I really want to ticket before Oct 1 and am getting tired of being told different things by qf!!

Thanks in advance