Looking at FewMiles site the best value OW Explorer fares seem to be ex-South Africa. Living in the UK I can get there quite easily and using KLM FD points I will be able to upgrade a cheap one-way to Biz.

On reading the rules I became very confused. One option I looked as was flying JNB-LHR-EDI(Stopover)-LGW-UVF (then onto US, Australia, etc,) SIN-LHR-GLA (Stopver)-LHR-JNB. This would mean I would have two Intercontinental (from JNB and SIN) arrivals and two Intercontinental departures (to UVF and JNB). The rule below states that 2 are permitted in Europe but one must be a transit. However, the rule also says "Except South Africa". Anyone shed any light on this?? Would my routing be legal??

The second question I have regards Australia.

I'm very confused by this rule. Does this mean that following a SYD arrival I cannot do a milegae run SYD-PER-SYD or SYD-PER-BNE?

No, and yes.

If you start in JNB, you could only go to or from Asia or Oz on one of your African IC segments. In other words you could go JNB-SYD-....LHR-JNB or JNB-HKG-...LHR-JNB or reverse.

You would have to go SYD-PER-MEL-SYD or something similar.

Thanks Darren (again!)

I thought that was the case but I was hoping I was wrong. The rules on the OW Explorer fares are bl00dy annoying at times!

Also, there is an exception to the transcon restriction if you need to return to SYD to connect to the SYD-JNB flight. So you could do for example SYD-AKL-SYD-PER-SYD-JNB.

Interesting!

Does this mean it would be possible to do JNB - SYD (Transit only) - AKL - Surface - CHC - SYD - PER - MEL - LAX - ......... - JNB

or indeed..

JNB - SYD (Transit only) - AKL - Surface - CHC - SYD - PER - SYD (Transit only) - LAX - ......... - JNB

[This message has been edited by Gaza (edited 10-30-2001).]

My interpretation of the rule is you could do JNB-SYD(transit)-PER-SYD-AKL-MEL-LAX.
ie the two transcon flights which would otherwise not be permitted are permitted if you are flying from JNB to PER with a transfer in SYD. Doing JNB-SYD(transfer)-AKL-SYD-PER-SYD would not be permitted as you are not flying JNB-PER with a transfer in SYD.
The exact wording of the exception is listed in the current fare rules on www.travel.com.au

Thanks for the link but I can't find the fare rules. What section of the site are they on?

Input Syd-LHR in the fare enquiry area and in the drop down box it lists ONeway, Return and RTW. That will lead you to the fares and a link to fare rules

Are you sure? travel.com.au's rules state:

You could read conjunction to be transfer without stopover (transit) quite easily. But that's not actually what it says exactly so one could interpret it to mean travel to/from africa, then do syd-per as many times as you want. Further, now that I think about it, that doesn't even say you have to fly JNB-SYD to do it.

I wouldn't be suprised if they meant "transfer without stopover" (like the 2 Asia-SW Pacific segments rule, when 1 is a transfer without stopover to Europe) but it would be too obvious if they actually said that!

"Are you sure? travel.com.au's rules state...."


Yes, I'm 100% sure that that is my interpretation of the rule, which is all that I stated.

What anyone else's (QF included) interpretation of the rule could very well be different although I think my interpretation is the logical one. And I know that's dangerous given that we are talking about Oneworld Explorer rules here.

I should be able to give a definitive answer on the Australia rule soon. The TA in Joburg has submitted it to BA for checking.

Agreeing with the premise 3544quebec's post, anything you get back from BA is unlikely to be "definitive". Even other BA tarriff people will interpret it in a slightly different way.

Besides, should you not get a favourable go, get them to try again. I was organising a RTW for my boss PER-CGK.....LAX-MEL-ADL-MEL-SYD-PER

He lived in Adelaide so was going to long term stop there (he's actually yet to fly ADL-MEL-SYD-PER I think) so I was just adding on the extra stuff to use up the extra segments should he want to take advantage of them later. QF refused indicating that it would not be allowed. I told our travel agent that the refusal made no sense on the routing and that she should try again. She eventually agreed with me and convinced QF that they too were wrong.

Bers 1, QF 0.

Admittedly they did make him stopover in MEL as part of LAX-MEL-ADL because it was the int'l gateway and he HAD to stopover there (stay >24 hours). That made no sense but it was easily gotten around by going to the airport and standbying for an earlier flight which he was easily moved onto.

No doubt we can all try a similar routing and get different answer from each of our local carriers.