The oneworld explorer ticket FAQs
 

The purpose of this thread is to collect some FAQs on the most popular oneworld ticket, the Explorer. This thread is not intended to be totally comprehensive, nor is it a substitute for using the search function for specific or obscure points (the search function is at the top right of your screen, in case you missed it!). It is an aid for planning your massive mileage-earning trip round the world on the airlines of the oneworld alliance. Once you have trawled through this thread you should be OK to start work on your itinerary. If you have any questions not covered here or in a search of old threads, don't be afraid to post and ask the experts here.

Please note that while we attempt to be as accurate as possible, the official rules do change. The airline who issues your ticket will have final say on what the rules are, and how they interpret them. Here goes:

Terminology:

Q: You people seem to like talking in code. Do you have a glossary?
A: Of course. Here are some basic terms:

ONE or OWE = oneworld Explorer ticket
DONE4 = D class (business class) oneworld Explorer ticket for 4 continents. The initial letter is A, D or L depending on whether it is First, Bus. or Economy, and the final number is the number of continents, 3-6 (sometimes a * is used to indicate a generic question/response, eg. *ONE4 or *ONE*)
Segment = a flight with a single flight number between two cities, whether or not it stops between the origin and destination, and whether or not there is a change of aircraft along the way. So for instance SYD-JFK is one segment even though it stops in LAX, but NRT-BKK is two segments (NRT-HKG, HKG-BKK) since there is no oneworld single flight number between NRT and BKK. Don't confuse "segment" with "sector," another term you often see. A sector is one take off and one landing, so SYD-JFK is two sectors but only one segment.

The Airlines:
AA = American Airlines
AY = Finnair
BA = British Airways
CX = Cathay Pacific (and KA for Dragon Air)
IB = Iberia
JL = Japan Airlines
LA = Lan Chile (and XL, 4M for the other Lan's)
MA = Malev
QF = Qantas (which DOES NOT HAVE A "U" IN IT !!!!!!!)
RJ = Royal Jordanian


Other Useful Terms:
F, J, Y = the full price booking classes for first, business and economy classes respectively. Being discount tickets, *ONE* tickets generally use A, D or L for the respective classes, but sometimes people like to use "J" as a generic way of describing business class, for instance.
RTW = round the world
SWP = South West Pacific (one of the continents)
WT+ = World Traveller Plus, the premium economy cabin on some BA flights

The Basics:

Q: What airlines can I fly with on a ONE ticket?
A: Any oneworld airline, which are currently American Airlines, British airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Lan, Lan Peru, Lan Argentina, Malev, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, or their affiliate airlines:

• AmericanConnection service is operated by one of the following independent carriers: Trans States Airlines, Inc., Chautauqua Airlines, Inc., and Corporate Airlines, Inc. American Eagle service includes flights operated by Executive Air.
• American Eagle

• British Mediterranean (only under BA code not BD)
• BA CitiExpress
• Comair (not to be confused with the Delta affiliate in the US with the same name)
• GB Airways
• Loganair
• Sun-Air
• Zambian Airways
• Regional Air

• Lan Express

• QantasLink
• AUSTRALIAN FOR QANTAS
• Jetconnect
• Jetstar (JQ) is allowed if a QF codeshare (but not as JQ code) if ticket is purchased outside Australia or New Zealand


Aer Lingus, Cathay Pacific Airways and Finnair do not have any affiliates.

NOTE: The ticket must have you flying on one of the above airlines; codeshare flights operated by other partner/affiliate airlines are not permitted on this ticket. So for example the QF flights that are codeshares operated by FJ (Air Pacific) are not eligible. However it is possible to fly on codeshares within the alliance. For example you can take an AA flight number that is actually operated by BA. The benefit of doing this is that it may help depending on which frequent flyer membership you are with, and what bonuses are given with these flights.

NOTE: If a ticket includes travel to/from/via Cuba it may not also include flight segments for travel on American Airlines/American Eagle/American Connection due to US Government restrictions.

Q: What are the basic rules of the fare?
A: It is a round the world ticket, so you must cross both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, but can only do so once for each ocean. The fare is calculated based on the number of continents you visit. The continents are counted even if you only change planes there (eg. stopping in Asia on a flight from Europe to Australia), and the continent count includes the continent of origin. See below for backtracking rules. You can fly up to 16 segments in total.

Q: Can I backtrack?
A: You can backtrack within countries and continents, but you cannot re-enter a continent after leaving it, except: (a) a transit without stopover in Asia on a flight between Europe and SWP or vice versa, (b) a transit without stopover in North America on a flight between South America and SWP, Asia or Europe or vice versa, (c) a transit without stopover in Europe on a flight between Europe and
GHANA/NIGERIA/KENYA/UGANDA/TANZANIA or vice versa. Any of these transit without stopover benefits can be taken in either direction (eg. Europe-SWP or SWP-Europe) and either before or after you wish to enter the continent for the second time to use your stopovers there. You can only leave and re-enter the continent of origin once, except for North America where you may have an additional transit without stopover.

Q: What are the continents on which the fare is calculated? Which countries are in which continent?
A: Forget all your geography lessons, and take a look at the map accessible by clicking this hyperlink and you should see the continents. For those who prefer the text, oneworld defines the continents as follows:

North America = United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean area, Central America and Panama
South America = all of South America other than Panama
Europe = all of Europe, including Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and all of the Middle East including Egypt and Sudan
Africa = all of Africa other than Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia
Asia = all of Asia excluding everything in the South West Pacific
South West Pacific = all of the South West Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand

Q: How many of those 16 segments can I use in each continent?
A: Generally you get four (4) segments in each of Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and South West Pacific, and six (6) segments in North America. None of the intercontinental flights, including those across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, count against any continent allowance, although obviously they do count against your 16 segment total allowance. There are, in addition, other restrictions you need to be aware of.

Q: What about surface segments (eg arrive at LGA and depart from JFK)?
A: These are counted towards the total of 16 segments.

Q: Are there any other restrictions that I have per region/continent?
A: Yes:

Europe - Not more than two Europe/Middle East segments may be used for journeys between the U.K. and the following: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Funchal, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Tunisia, Ukraine, and the Middle East. You get four segments in Europe, so if you go from Heathrow to, say, Dubai, you cannot then go from Heathrow to Greece and back.

Americas - Within North America, only one transcontinental flight is allowed between selected cities on the East and West Coasts. "Transcontinental" is defined as a flight between one of BWI/BOS/FLL/BDL/MIA/EWR/NYC/ORL/PHL/SJU/YYZ/WAS and one of LAS/LGB/LAX/OAK/SNA/PDX/SAN/SFO/SEA/SJC/YVR. Also, in North America only one segment is permitted between the continental US and Hawaii (so if you want to visit Hawaii, you must go to/from Australia), and only one flight to/from ANC (Anchorage, Alaska) is permitted.

South West Pacific - within Australia only one flight is permitted between:

* Perth, and Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne or Sydney
* Darwin, and Melbourne or Sydney
* Broome, and Melbourne or Sydney

Exceptions - there is no restriction between Sydney/Melbourne & Perth for passengers originating in:

* Perth, when in conjunction with travel to/from Jo'burg/Mumbai/Shanghai/Beijing
* New Zealand, when in conjunction with travel to/from Jo'burg

Asia - The CX HKG-HAN flight is not permitted

Q: Can I take the QF flight from LAX-JFK (or vice versa) even if I don't have an onward flight with QF?
A: No. The rules would appear to allow it, but in actual practice QF does not.

Q: Can I buy more segments?
A: Yes, you can buy up to two more segments per continent, other than the continent of origin, at varying prices depending on the class in which you are booked. You cannot, however, have more than 16 segments in total.

Q: What about stopovers? What are the rules? And benefits?
A: A stopover is break in your journey of more than 24 hours. You can have as many stopovers as you like (one per segment if you like), but you cannot have more than two stopovers in the continent of origin. The key thing here is the 24-hour rule, and there are two main benefits. First, at some airports (eg. LHR) not having a stopover can save significant taxes as you will be classed as a passenger in transit, and second, you can stop for dinner and a night with friends, even if you are out of stopovers in the country of origin.

Q: Where can I fly on a ONE ticket?
A: You can get an idea of available destinations from the maps on the AA website at this hyperlink; just select oneworld cities once the relevant area has loaded. There is also a pretty bad map on the oneworld website here.

Q: What tools are available for working out my itinerary and the airline timetables?
A) You can download the oneworld electronic timetable by clicking on http://www.oneworld.com/travel_planning/home.cfm which opens a .exe file, or from the AA website by clicking this link.

Q: Can I end my itinerary in a city other than the one where I started?
A: Yes. You can separate your origin and destination under any of the following circumstances: anywhere within the country of origin, between the US and Canada, anywhere within Africa, anywhere within the Middle East, between Hong Kong and China, between Bangladesh and Bangkok or Singapore, or between Malaysia and Singapore. So you could start in CAI and end in DXB, but could not start in JFK and end in MEX.

(Please see thread continued in next post.....)

Part 2
 

Booking Tickets:

Q: The booking classes are A (first), D (business) and L (economy). If I buy a first class ticket and there is no first class on my flight, what happens?
A: That depends on what you mean by "no first class." If the seat inventory (A in this case, but the same goes for D) is not available for the flight you want and you can't get a flight that does have available inventory, you get downgraded to the next available inventory class (A goes down to D, and D goes down to L) and no compensation or refund is payable. Except on two class US domestic flights, if the plane is only one class (all economy) or two class (economy and business), then you get downgraded and no compensation or refund is payable. On two class US domestic flights, if you hold a D class ticket you can book into the A (first) inventory, if it is available, at no extra charge. On domestic flights on AE (American Eagle), AY, EI and LA (which are one class), all A and D tickets book into the Y (full fare economy) inventory bucket which means it is economy seating, but there should be plenty of availability.

Q: Can I upgrade some of the segments to fly business/first class?
A: In limited circumstances. Your options are: (a) you can upgrade your entire itinerary - subject to availability - by paying the higher class fare but otherwise without penalty, (b) flights operated by AA may be upgraded with AA miles, (c) US/Canada domestic flights operated by AA may be upgraded with 500-mile "sticker" upgrades issued by AA, (d) flights on BA that offer World Traveler Plus (WT+) service can be upgraded for USD300/AUD600 except for service between LHR and SYD/MEL where the charge is USD450/AUD900, (e) flights operated by CX may be upgraded using CX miles, and (f) flights operated by QF may be upgraded using QF miles/upgrade credits. BA also offers "on board" upgrades for prices ranging from GBP200 up if there is a spare seat on board. Talk to the purser when you board, but these upgrades only qualify for the mileage/status you originally booked. For instance if you were in BA economy and upgraded on board to WT+ for GBP200 on LHR-SIN, you only get the discount economy miles, not the WT+ miles.

Q: What is an open segment and why would I book that?
A: An open segment is basically setting your itinerary in advance, but not confirming your seat on the plane. You do this by leaving the date on the flight coupon (eg. LHR-JFK) open, even though you have decided that you will at some point be flying that route. You might do this as it is easier to change your travel timing as you go. If you set all the flight dates and then needed to make a change at some point, you may have to change all the onward flights and not just the next one or two.

The downside is that you need the inventory to be available on the date you finally want to travel, and on some routes/carriers at certain times of the year, A and D inventory may have limited availability. Further, it gives you no protection should a route be discontinued. If a route between XXX and YYY is discontinued, you then will have to pay the reroute fee and use an additional segment to fly XXX-ZZZ-YYY.

Q: Can I change my mind?
A: Yes, you will find the *ONE* to be a reasonably flexible ticket. For tickets originating in North or South America, changes to the first international flight and all preceding flights must be completed no later than 7 days before departure. Date/time changes are permitted at no charge, and subject to availability you can change the oneworld carrier you want to use without charge as long as there is no change in origin/destination and intermediate points (eg. changing BA to QF for a flight SYD-LHR). Changes other than date/time (routing is the obvious change) incur a US$75 charge and the ticket is reissued, with some carriers charging you a service fee. For tickets originating elsewhere, changes to the first international flight and preceding flights are not permitted. Date/time changes are permitted at no charge, but routing changes incur a US$75 charge, and again some carriers charge you a service fee. The rules don't state that routing changes in this case are a reissue (see below about what happens if the rules change). The number of continents/extra flight segments may be increased or decreased and you will be charged/refunded accordingly. If you need to cancel before departure, tickets originating in North or South America incur a penalty of 10% of the ticket price, tickets originating elsewhere incur no penalty. If you need to cancel after departure, all tickets other than those originating in SWP (no penalty) or Japan (lower of 10% penalty or JPY50,000) incur a 10% penalty. You may get a refund of the unused portion of your ticket based on the cost of the flights used to date and the penalty due.

Q: What happens if the rules on my ticket change, or are about to change?
A: If the rules change before your ticket is issued, then the new rules will apply and you will have to change any existing reservations that are not permitted under the new rules. If the rules change after your ticket is issued, the rules that apply are those that were in force when your ticket was issued. But be aware - if after the rules change you want to cancel the ticket, or to do something not permitted under the old rules, then the ticket will be cancelled and reissued, and the new rules will apply. If you are worried about rule changes and want to maximize your flexibility, set your last flight to be 12 months after the date of your first flight (which is permitted). This gives you 12 months' worth of flexibility once you start travelling since date changes are currently free of charge. To give yourself even more flexibility, get your ticket issued up to 12 months in advance of your first flight (which is also permitted), which gives you an effective 2 year lock on the rules as long as you don't change that first flight.

Q: How much does the ticket cost?
A: The ticket is priced based on the number of continents you visit, a minimum of three and a maximum of six. The pricing varies depending on where in the world the ticket is issued. If you want to try to save some money by starting your *ONE* somewhere other than your home to take advantage of local pricing and currency rate differences, check the link to current pricing. Infants under 2 and not occupying a seat are charged 10% of the adult fare. Children 2-11 and occupying a seat are charged 75% of the adult fare, except for tickets originating in India where they pay 67% of the adult fare.

Q: If I pony up the money for an A ticket, which routes still have "real" first class?
A: This is a bit of a moving target, but essentially the following routes have traditional first class service on a three class plane (all include the reverse routes too):

AA - LHR to LAX, JFK, ORD, BOS and MIA; NRT to LAX, SJC and JFK; GRU to MIA and JFK; DFW to LGW and FRA; and some flights MIA to EZE
BA - LHR to MEL, SYD, HKG, BKK, NRT, JFK, BOS, LAX, IAD, PHX, SFO, SEA, MIA, JNB, CPT, DXB, AUH, TLV and CAI
CX - HKG to LHR, JFK, LAX, YVR, FRA, SFO, SYD, MEL and CDG; some flights HKG to NRT, SIN, BKK, MNL, KIX, DXB, SEL, TPE, and CGK; and seasonally HKG to JNB
QF - LAX to JFK, SYD and MEL; SYD-SFO + SFO-YVR (seasonal), LHR to SIN, BKK, HKG, SYD and MEL; some flights HKG to SYD and MEL, SYD-JNB (seasonal F Class offering?), although one weekly SYD-JNB (Fridays?) and SYD-SFO service is operated by Qantas' 2-class 747-400s (no First Class, only J/Y).
LA - SCL to MAD, FRA, AKL, and SYD

Q: Have there been any problems with handwritten tickets?
A: You need to confirm that each airline receives the ticket number for the flights that are booked on them. In particular, Cathay has been known to cancel space if it has not received the ticket number. Although the booking airline should send the ticket number to all airlines on the itinerary, it is best to call Cathay to assure they have received it.

Miles and Status:

This is a very difficult section, since what you will earn in terms of miles and elite status depends on which airline program you want to use. As a related point, you may find that a routing needs to be constructed using or avoiding certain oneworld airlines because of the mileage-earning implications. For instance, L class tickets on BA gets 25% miles when booked to the QF program, but the same L ticket on the QF codeshare earns 100% QF miles. All programs are geared off the booking class, so knowing the booking class and the flight number/operator are the key points. The best advice is to thoroughly check the earning rules for your preferred program(s), and if necessary, post questions on your local airline forum if you are unsure. That said, there a very general FAQ that the regulars on this forum thought should be posted.

Q: I know that the booking classes are A, D and L, but what happens to my miles if I am booked into another class?
A: Generally you will earn miles for the class in which you travel. If you are downgraded from A to D, you will earn D miles/status. Similarly, if you are on a domestic US flight and your D ticket is booked into the A inventory, you will earn A miles/status. If you upgrade individual flights, you receive the miles for the flight in which you were booked originally (ie. before the upgrade) except for pre-paid WT+ upgrades where you get the applicable WT+ miles/status. As said above, on board upgrades on BA earn miles/status for the class originally booked.

Q: Is there a consistent baggage limit, and if so, what is it?
A: The xONEx checked baggage allowance is 2 pieces. Each carrier can specify its own limit on the maximum weight allowed per piece. On some it is 32kg, on others it is 23kg, and there may be variations for some flights (eg QF domestic prop flights have a lower limit).

Further Information:

All the above information comes from the universal starfiles, which are the rules applicable to these (and other) tickets. Some very nice FTers have obtained copies of the rules and posted them on their websites. Note though that since the airlines do not routinely make the starfiles available to the public there may be a time lag in updated files becoming available to this community. That said, if you wish to read the starfiles themselves, you can access them by clicking this link.

christep has made available a current copy of the CX rules here: http://www.christen.demon.co.uk/CXRule/. This page includes link to the Cathay Pacific CircleTrip, CircleThePacific, Global Explorer & OneWorld Explorer rules.

The revised AA rules have been published by kanebear in conjunction with darren here: Rules: OneWorld Explorer Fare Update 01JUL06

Validity Tools to check your routing
This tool is great for doing initial validity checks on your routing.

If this location is inaccessible, see this thread for more information.

I have again updated my site at {outdated link - see post #2 for latest} with the latest version of the OneWorld ONE, GLOB, CircleTrip and CTP rules (and pricing) as published by CX on 23 January 2006 for ticketing in Hong Kong, in Excel format.

From CXAgents.com (essentially that Binter Mediterranean is no longer a OW Affiliate; BA Connect is just a rebranding of BA Citiexpress, although it there will be no J class on BA COnnect):

ONEWORLD FARES - BA/IB AFFILIATES AIRLINES REVISED

Please be advised that BA and IB Affiliates Airlines that applicable
to travel on ONEWORLD fares are revised as below with immediate effect:


BA - BA CONNECT, BMED, COMAIR, GB AIRWAYS, LOGANAIR,
SUN-AIR
IB - AIR NOSTRUM

DEL-ORD disambiguated
 

From cxagents.com:

I looked through this thread (not exhaustively) for the N. America RTW "desk" contact nos, and couldn't find them. Sorry if this is repeated info -

BA (800) 828-7797
AA (800) 247-3247

In general AA is far more on top of things than BA.

If you want to save money by originating in another country, the recommended approach (YMMV and how) is to formulate an itinerary, post it here to have it koshered, then phone it into one of the above RTW desks so that it can be given a locator/PNR.

Then communicate directly with a travel agent or airline office in the issuing/originating country in order for them to bring the PNR up and send it off to the tariff people to do that thing they do. AA gets it; however if you try to book a foreign-originating RTW with BA in N. America they will try to price it for N. America issuance, and when you tell them no, it's for (Gibraltar, Mauritius, etc.) you will hear gears clashing and smell smoke.

As requested, below is a table showing "L" class FFP earning rates by airline flown/FFP.


Booking Class L - Redeemable miles/km per mile/km flown
* No AA credit on BA US-LON, no BA credit on AA US-LON and v.v.
** Most plans exclude AY "Excursion" (Y-only) flt nos.
*Pts - FFP uses distance-based points; No./pct varies by class/distance

I make no warranties regarding the completeness or accuracy of this. If you find a mistake, go here.

Finnair is looking pretty good right about now.

I wonder how the rest of their FF scheme falls in line with the other OW airlines.

For once some good news
 

From cxagents.com

Weekly Timetable
 

This Amadeus tool will display all flights operating between two cities during a specified one-week period. The main menu can be found here.

[added to the FAQ by request]

I have again updated {outdated link - see post #2 for latest} with the files current today as issued by CX in Hong Kong (in Excel format) for the One World Explorer, Global Explorer, Circle Trip and Circle The Pacific fares (all dated 31 July 2006).

Some availability tools:

KVS (registration required, free and paid versions)
Expert Flyer (paid, trial available on request)
SeatCounter.com (free)

April 1st Changes
 

With the changes taking place April 1st, the FAQ will need to be revised. In that spirit, I'll start off with a few amendments:

Airline leaving:

• EI to leave oneworld

BA is selling (or has sold) some of its subsidiaries, notably British Mediterranean. The changes won't go into effect as of Apri 1st, but BA coded flights on BMed will end in at the end of the summer schedule.

Airlines joining:

• JL: JAL
• JO: JALways
• EG: Japan Asia Airlines
• JC: JAL Express
• NU: Japan Transocean Air
• ??: J-AIR
• MA: Malév
• RJ: Royal Jordanian
• 4M: LAN Argentina
• XL: LAN Ecuador

Of the new entrants, only JL has a real first class, operating from NRT to: SFO, LAX, ORD, JFK, GRU, HNL, LHR, FRA, CDG, SIN, BKK, HKG. From KIX: LHR, CDG and LAX. Much like AA's suites and coffins, there are two kinds of F on JL: the old SkySleeper and the newer and much better SkySleeper Solo. The difference between the two is similar to AA's coffins and suites, with suites being far preferable. Most of the premium routes get the Solo seat sometimes (JFK on JL 5/6, LHR on JL 401/402, ORD on JL 3/4/9/10, CDG on 405/406 and FRA on 407/408). The old Skysleeper seat operates from NRT to LAX on JL 61/62, NRT to SFO on 1/2, KIX to LHR on 421/422, KIX to CDG on 425/426 and KIX to LAX on 70/69. Note that for instance the NRT-JFK-GRU service has the old SkySleeper seat, but does have the "shell-flat" business class.

With JL joining it will now be possible to do an AOWE3 incorporating LAX-HNL-NRT-HKG. Do you happen to know whether HNL-NRT has the old SkySleeper seats or the newer and much better SkySleeper Solos?

Also worth noting that the existing rules of JL's Skywards scheme state that mileage accrual isn't permitted on services op by subsidiaries, unless booked under the JL designator; I suspect this rule will remain unchanged even after 1 Apr.

I have updated my site here: {outdated link - see post #2 for latest} with the full set of Oneworld fare rules and pricing effective 1 April 2007 as published by CX for origination in Hong Kong (including those for the new Circle Asia & S W Pacific). These are in Excel (.xls) format.

Just referenced this thread with a link for a poster on AFF. Had a look and reailised it needs some updating.

I will endeavor to provide some revisions over the next week or so ...

Can you use AAdvantage miles or OW partner miles to obtian an explorer ticket? If so, how many miles per category/continents?

TIA.

Hi b8b, A xONEx is a revenue based fare, not award.

So while it is possible to earn award miles when flying on of these, you cannot use miles to book them.

Each of the oneworld members have their own version of "oneworld" awards.

For information on the AAdvantage version see the other 'sticky' in this forum: oneworld awards using American Airlines miles

Bummer, I thought I might get a nice around-the-world ticket on miles/points :)

Thanks though, Serfty! :)

It was just pointed out on another forum, but I hvae not seen it here.

oneworld have upgraded their web pages with some good information.

Current/recent fare levels from differing counties and links to a .pdf of the xONEx rules can be now found here:

oneworld Explorer - Fare Estimate

This is worded wrongly. It should be "(c) a transit without stopover in Europe between GHANA/NIGERIA/KENYA/UGANDA/TANZANIA and another continent or vice versa". It means that you can, for example enter Europe in transit between North America and Africa. eg HKG-JFK-xLHR-ACC-LHR-HKG has two entries to Europe but is OK because of this exception.

IIRC number_6 is of the opinion AA would not ticket that itinerary, and I've always been curious about it, because if memory serves nobody here has challenged that opinion, other than to say that AA reads the rules wrong.

Link to mileage monkey

Small updates on cxagents. May affect people buying in Canada.

Have just spoken with the RTW desk at AA and BA and neither know of this change. I am in Toronto, Canada and to save the $2000 would gladly drive to Buffalo. Anyone know of a TA in the US who does OW RTW booking?

Have you tried a Canadian travel agent? If I understand the new rule correctly, buying it in Canada (flying ex-BUF) would cost U$6200 (for 26K, Business) converted to C$. At today's rate that's less than C$6200, vs. C$7900(!) for starting in Canada or booking in Canada under the general rules (as I understand them).

=aw

I have one question.
On a ticket starting in the Far East can one
travel to SWP and then travel to Europe or is
that counted as backtracking.

Thanks

Basically, with xONEx's, the "Far East" is referred to as "Asia" which is in TC3.

SWP is the other part of TC3 (TC1 being the Americas and TC2 is Europe and Africa.)

For xONEx, travel must be on of the following directions:

• TC1->TC2->TC3->TC1
• TC2->TC3->TC1->TC2
• TC3->TC1->TC2->TC3
• TC1->TC3->TC2->TC1
• TC3->TC2->TC1->TC3 or
• TC2->TC3->TC1->TC2

So you can do as you described: "The Far East" then SWP (as TC3) then travel to Europe (and/or Africa)(TC2) and the Americas (North and/or South) (TC1), Finishing back in Asia (TC3).

Revised Sabre Star File 1 Dec 2007
 

Here's the latest Sabre universal star file for the OWE with an effective date of 1 Dec 07. I'll try to clean up the messy format over the next couple of days.

I have now updated the CX version of the rules, as issued on 1 December, here:
{outdated link - see post #2 for latest}
Apologies for the delay.

Cheers christep. ^

Thanks, christep.

Obviously tailored for purchases in HKG only - the "no transit through origin" rule isn't there (never was for HKG IIRC) but also still has the intra-South America completion rule, and no mention of the ex-Canada booking rule.

Thanks, christep.

By the way, the oneworld pdf is out of date too. Two weeks after the rules were changed it is still showing the July PDF. :td:

Update: the new rules, dated 13 Dec 07, are now available for download. ^

Any updates for JL and RJ?

Does this mean that it is possible to fly
HKG-LHR-LAX-xHKG-SIN-HKG?

No, you'd fall foul of rule G:

Apologies if the answer is too obvious.

Could one travel from HKG to DXB then surface to Africa and then up
to Europe? I was assuming you couldnt.

Many Thanks

I think that would be disallowed as DXB is within the Europe/Middle East "region" so leaving Africa would be a second entry into Europe.

It would work comfortably in the other direction - HKG-JNB/overland/DXB - onward.