Is it allowed on a oneworld global explorer ticket to omit segments? E.g. because I spontaneously prefer to travel overland. Or e.g. because I do not know at the time of ticketing whether I prefer one of the (unfortunately too..) limited stops in Brisbane or Nadi and therefore book e.g. Perth - Brisbane (transit) - Nadi (stop) - Brisbane (transit) - Auckland (the price can be the same). Of course this works only if I can choose that my luggage is delivered to me at a transit airport and if the validiy of the ticket is not affected on further sectors.

What I also ask myself: Is it not possible to have an additional stop by changing the date on a flight of a sector after a transit destination?

No and no (however airlines soemtimes make mistakes so some people have reported having done these things; but the rules are unambiguous, it is not allowed). If you "omit" a segment that is a no-show for the flight and any subsequent segment reservations are often cancelled automatically by the computer. The released seats may not go back into the same fare bucket, making it impossible to reinstate the reservation on high demand routes. As for changing a transit into a stopover, that is the reason that ticket agents look so closely at your ticket -- there is an x next to the airport code. Stopovers require paying different taxes than transits, so expect to be scrutinized closely and to pay the USD 125 reissue fee, plus any difference in taxes and other fees the airline will decide to so (also expect to have this take an hour or two, so best to be quite early for such flights). Sometimes the agents miss it, but 99.9% of the time it will be caught these days (the agent will be in big trouble, the back office will catch it later).

What happens to your reservation is not inherently linked to the ticket. If you have ticketed the segments open-dated, have a paper ticket, and have made separate reservations then you are less likely to have problems. The only tricky bit is if you have a transit coupon you may be asked at check-in to prove where you have transited from; if you can't then there may at least be a tax liability, and if turning a transit into a stopover would be against the rules of the ticket then you are likely to have much bigger problems..

Thanks a lot for the answer. "Omit" was probably the wrong word (I am german speaking...). What about if I cancel the sector(s) in advance? Is there a need of a reissue of the ticket (at 125$ plus ...) or is this free of charge, as logic tells me (to cancel sectors seems to me to be closer to the change of a date than to a ticket reissue)?

Yes, unless you manage to persuade the airline to give you an eticket in exchange for the relevant coupons. But, IMO, they would be well within their rights to refuse, and insist on a reissue+fee.

Did I get the following right:

- Limitations on oneworld explorer are never ever in sectors (one start, one landing) but always in segments (flight numbers). I ask because even on the official pdf-files explaining the rules it is often confusing (e.g. "Extra paying flight segments: Limited to 2 flight segments within each zone (except continent of origin). For fares see table above." - But there the price per sector is given - either a wrong header in the table or to make it seem cheaper...).

- Surface segments (or if you prefer sectors...) within a continent on oneworld explorer are not counted (neither for the limit of 4 segments per continent nor for that of 20 in total) and there is no limit to their number, neither per continent nor in total.

- Travelling on a global explorer ticket, surface sectors must be included in the milage. Whether they count for the limit in the number of segments seems not to be clear: According to the german version (official pdf-file by oneworld!) they count like a flight-segment, according to some english versions it is not clear as they don't mention anything about that. In my german version there is also a list where surface sectors are allowed - according to this it is not allowed in the South Pacific - very strange, I can't immagine that to be true... What do you think or better know about it???

For OWE it is indeed by flight number; the terms segment and sector are sometimes used interchangably, which is unfortunate, but the original limit was one flight coupon. There is no limit for surface segments.

For Global explorer tickets I don't know the current answer. In the past there was no limit in the number of segments or where they could be taken, except for the ban on trans-oceanic surface sectors (perhaps this is your South Pacific limitation). Mileage was always included for surface segments. Presently the trans-oceanic surface segment limitation has been removed for some points of origin (e.g. Australia) but not for others; I don't think there is a limit on surface segments, but not sure. Given the pricing this is not a very attractive fare type except for reaching a few specific destinations (most of which disappear in 2007 when JL/MA/RJ join OW and become eligible for OWE travel).