Totally confused by RTW rules
 

Is anyone surprised? I am traveling BOS-LHR-SIN-HKG-JFK-BOS in F next week, and have a ticket that priced out at over US$13,000. In response to an inquiry on the BA board, a poster suggested I purchase a RTW ticket (ticket #1) ex-BOS, traveling BOS-LHR-SIN-BKK, and a second RTW ticket (ticket #2) ex-BKK, traveling BKK-HKG-JFK-BOS. The poster suggested that, because RTW tix ex-BKK are relatively cheep, I could purchase these two RTW tix for less than US$15,000 total. Does this sound right? Am I correct that I could then use ticket #2 to take four additional North American segments and then fly North America to Europe and Europe to Asia and end in BKK, where ticket #2 would terminate, and then use ticket #1 to travel BKK-HKG-JFK-BOS, where ticket #1 would terminate? If this is all correct, I could get two rountrips in F for a total of US$15,000, compared to my one roundtrip for which I paid over US$13,000. Is there anything else I should be aware of?

The ticket you are being referred to is the OneWorldExplorer. You can find the rules and pricing from each country here:
http://www.hardlink.com/~markdu/OWFiles/
In principle what is being suggested would work - not sure of the exact price comparison - use the link above to work it out.

Using today's currency conversion rates, the AONE3 (3 continent first class) RTW fare ex-USA is $8,400 and ex-BKK is $5,856. Both fares exclude the various airport taxes that you will have to pay with any ticket you buy.

As christep noted, your proposed itinerary would work. You actually get a total of six segments in NA, four in Asia and four in Europe on each ticket. The intercontinental segments (i.e. NA-Europe-Asia-NA) do not count against these limits. There are some limits on how you can use these segments (e.g. only one transcon in NA, limited segments to certain countries in Europe when traveling to/from LHR, only two stopovers >24 hours in the continent of origin) but your proposed itineraries are not a problem.

[This message has been edited by ExMo (edited Dec 30, 2003).]

Thanks, everyone, for your help. My travel agent is working with the AA RTW desk, and everything seems to be working out. I have purchased, for US$8519 (including taxes), a RTW ticket with the following itinerary:

BOS-LHR
LHR-SIN
SIN-BKK
BKK-HKG
HKG-JFK
JFK-LAX
LAX-ORD
ORD-BOS

Next week, I'll just use the BOS-LHR-SIN-BKK portion, and will purchase a second RTW ticket in BKK with the following itinerary:

BKK-HKG
HKG-JFK
JFK-BOS
JFK-SFO
SFO-BOS
BOS-PBI
PBI-BOS
BOS-LHR
LHR-MAD
MAD-LHR
LHR-BKK

This prices out to just a little more than I already was paying to travel in F from BOS-LHR-SIN-HKG-JFK-BOS, and I get a second trip to Asia, as well as a number of extra U.S. trips to the West Coast.

Your second itinerary is not valid. Note the limitation mentioned in my previous message - only one transcon in NA. You have two (JFK-SFO and SFO-BOS). As you have only used five segments in NA, you need to break one of these transcons up, e.g. go via a change in ORD or DFW.

I hate that restriction! I'll have to go through ORD on the SFO-BOS segment.