Transit vs Stopover
 

Dear OW experts,

As you all possibly know, I am in the midst of planning a OW Explorer RTW ex-New ZEaland. I have a question --
1. As I understand, I can fly from NZ to Europe without counting Asia as a continental that I have traveled, if I only use it as a transit stop. What is the definiion of a transit stop? A stopover is another stop that is more than 24 hours, so am I correct to assume that a transit stop is a city that I do not stay more than 24 hours?

2. Therefore, if I fly from SYD to NRT on a daylight flight (arriving at 8pm), and fly out from NRT the next afternoon at 12pm, NRT will only be considered a transit stop. AM I right? Because I spend less than 24 hours there...

Thanks for any comments!

Carfield

Yes that is correct.

A transit is any "stop" less than 24 hours so you will be able to arrive in the evening and depart the next morning and have it still considered a transit. On my OWE last year I flew into SIN in the evening and flew out the next morning. No trouble at all.

There is the caveat that a "stop" maybe considered a transit even though it is longer than 24 hours if it is the next available flight to your destination. However I'm not sure of the specifics of that; I'm sure there are others on this forum who would be much better qualified to discuss it and it doesn't apply in your case anyway.

Regards

but

when traveling from country to country, the transit stop is usually 24 hrs. within the borders of a country, use are usually limited to last flight in, first flight out. it is possible to even have that transit stop in you country of departure, i.e. nyc-mia-lhr.

RTW is an international ticket. Thus, stopover rule is <24h for all segments.

Does anyone know if there is a reissue fee if you change a transit stop to a stopover? Could you just pay the tax at the airport?

I wonder how they control that? Usually it will be a free schedule change (no rerouting, no charge) but other times changing a transit to a stop will violate a rule, and the airport or res can't be expected to know which.

I've (theoretically - haven't seen the tix yet) planned a transit that cannot be turned into a stopover because I will already have used the two I'm allowed. Will they have printed "no stopover permitted" on the coupon or something?

They print either "X" or "O" beside (to the left of) the departure and arrival cities of each flight coupon. "X" means "connection" and "O" means stopover.



[This message has been edited by daniellam (edited 06-25-2002).]

Not necessarily. As the only limitation on stopovers vs. transit is in the continent of origin not all tickets will have the x/o indicator. I just finished a RTW, hand written by AA, without any indications on connections vs. stopovers.

So long as you are not exceeding the limitation on stopovers in the originating continent, I don't see why there should be a charge, as you are only doing a date/time change.

The other instance where stopovers are limited is the transit-through-a-continent rule.