Hi, below are two excerpts from eamus's excellent stickie on OWE rules.

Q1
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, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Malta, Morocco, Funchal, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Tunisia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, 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.

Q2
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 20 segments in total.

My question is, can 2 extra purchased segments be the "long" ones referred to in Q1, if we have already used 2 such segments? Or is it limited to 2 only of these, regardless of extra segment purchases. I don't think there is a great price differential between purchasing extra segments within OWE ticket or buying separately. We are flying LHR-CAI-LHR, and later wish to fly LHR-ATH-LHR.

Thanks.

No. The extra segments purchased per continent are only to have more of your trip in europe or north america or ... You still have to abide by the total segment count, intercontinental and trans-continental (ie the "long" europe, north america and australia) limitations

Thanks Kiwi Flyer

I believe you can buy additional long segments in Europe, as long as you don't exceed the other limits (total segments, purchased segments in continent of origin, etc). The rules say that you are limited to 2 "free" long segments in Europe. Contrast that with the rules for 1 transcon in Australia/USA, which say that you are limited to one, period.

I must say that I tend to read the rules the same way as UserMark. It does seem to be quite explicitly the "free" segments where you are limited to two long ones, so as I read it you could purchase, say LHR-DXB-LHR in addition to LHR-CAI-LHR on a xONEn for US$1100/GBP700 in F, provided that you abide by all the other restrictions (which still limits stopovers to 2 if your continent of origin is Europe). On an AONE3 originating outside Europe there seems to be little downside to this when ba.com quotes GBP1634 (including taxes) for the same two segments.

LHR-DXB-LHR is already two long segments.

Er, I think we know that. The point is that the rules say you can have two "free" long segments, and it also says that you can purchase additional segments (and there is no apparent restriction that says that these must be "short" segments).

I read the recently posted star files and noticed the same thing, and of course since all these things are subject to constant interpretation, usually by the person with his/her fingers on the keyboard, I wanted to ask if anyone had had experience with this. Thanks to the OP for bringing it up.

Is the wording new?

You're most welcome JohnAx

The plot thickens! The posts above inspired me to search for and read those star file extracts, and as pointed out above, it certainly does refer to no more than two 'free' segments.

NOTE 1: NO MORE THAN 2 FREE SEGMENTS BETWEEN THE
48N . U.K. AND:
49N . .
50N . .
51N . ALGERIA ARMENIA AZERBAIJ BAHRAIN BULGARIA
52N . CYPRUS
etc. etc...

...which I would infer to mean extra paid segments could be taken to/from those destinations? Could just be poor wording of course.

Depending on what my companions end up deciding (I'm not doing the ATH part of the trip myself, but they are planning to) I may be able to report back how it goes. In fact, if I remember, I'll ask the question of whomever I book it with, regardless of whether we wish to utilise it.

Thanks to all for the responses.

It may be a moot point once EI starts flying DUB-DXB. One could buy a cheap return to DUB, then take those flights independent of the BA restriction on departures from LHR.