Allow me to bow down to the wealth of knowledge on this board and ask what I hope are the only two questions I'd like to answer before finalising my itinerary for a DONE4 ex CAI.

Firstly, what is the definition of a stopover? For example, it would be nice if I could fit in a daytrip to a European city whilst on my stopover between Cairo and the US, but I assume that the first stopover will therefore be after the CAI-LHR leg, and the second stopover after the, say, CDG-LHR lef. Therefore the final leg of my trip should be a straight-through booking via LON eg. SIN-LHR-CAI. No time for another stopover in Europe. Does that make sense? IS that right?

Secondly, one line in the fare rules states that 'travel on any codeshare service operated by AA/AY/BA/CX/EI/IB/LA/LP/QF is permitted'. I'm not clear whether this means that I can travel on any codeshare operated within this group e.g. BA on QF metal, or any codeshare that operates under one of these designators, e.g. QF on Alaska Airlines. I imagine it's the former, although would be good if it's the latter.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Those are easy:

1) Stopover is any stay in a city of 24 hours or more. Providied that your flight out is scheduled no more than 23 hours 59 minutes after your flight in then it is a transit.

2) It means that the flight must be operated by one of the OneWorld airlines. You might want to book it under the code of a OW airline other than the one that is operating it because of the classes that might get you miles. You cannot use a OW Explorer ticket on an aircraft that is operated by a non-OW airline ("operated" means that it is owned and crewed by a OW airline - a QF code on an AS flight is operated by Alaska and marketed by Qantas, so not usable).

[This message has been edited by christep (edited 09-14-2003).]

BTW, in case it's not clear to you, there are a bunch of other airlines besides those listed that are eligible for use on OWE. These are generally smaller carriers that are owned by or somehow related to one of the main OW carriers. For instance, I believe that Australian Airlines has been given that status because of their relationship to Qantas.

The CX version of the rules shows the following "affiliates" for a OW Explorer:

AMERICAN AIRLINES - AMERICAN EAGLE (INCLUDING FLIGHTS OPERATED BY EXECUTIVE AIR),
TRANS WORLD AIRLINES, AMERICAN CONNECTION (INCLUDING FLIGHTS
OPERATED BY CHAUTAUQUA, TRANS STATES AND CORPORATE
AIRLINES)

BRITISH AIRWAYS - BRITISH MEDITERRANEAN, COMAIR, GB AIRWAYS,
LOGANAIR, MAERSK AIR LTD, SUN-AIR, ZAMBIAN AIRWAYS,
BRITISH AIRWAYS CITIEXPRESS, CITYFLYER EXPRESS ,
REGIONAL AIR (FLIGHTS OPERATED BY AIR KENYA).

QANTAS - QANTASLINK OPERATED BY IMPULSE/EASTERN AUSTRALIA/
NATIONAL JET SYSTEMS/SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA/SUNSTATE
AIRLINES/JETCONNECT AND AWOPS FLIGHTS OPERATED FOR QANTAS
*ALL FLIGHTS MUST HAVE QF DESIGNATORS

IBERIA AIRLINES - AIR NOSTRUM, BINTER MEDITERRANEAN.

LAN CHILE - LAN EXPRESS, LAN PERU


Note that Australian Airlines is NOT permitted on a OW Explorer. However, the rules for a Global Explorer (which has a wider range of airlines available) says:

"Valid on AUSTRALIAN AIRLINES (AO) provided that when AO participates on an itinerary,
QF ticket stock must be used."