Again, thanks Cheetah. A couple of things:

Re your point on KA, presumably a simple change of flight (from CX service which is bookable now) to KA post whenever it joins fully is easy and at zero cost?

You say 3 spare sectors in Africa - yet I thought as this is treated as the continent of origin, that wasn't the case. You sure on this point?

With you on the ATH vs. IST thing, bizarre, but handy to know, eh? ;)

I'm just quoting the received wisdom (as I understand it) on the new carrier thing. Worth a try, of course - the worst that can happen is you have to fly CX's lousy times.

I can be more specific about continent of origin: you get 4 sectors but only 2 stopovers according to the rules. Unless you are planning to stop over in JNB that gives you lots of freedom for a stops in CPT, VFA or wherever.

Oh, and remember there is an exception Africa that allows you to end your trip anywhere - not necessarily in the country of origin.

This is the debate that has been going on for awhile. Technically, you are probably limited to the carriers that were eligible when you purchased your ticket but if you do a reissue or change carriers for a segment some are counting on ticket or reservation agent's not checking when the ticket was issued or closely checking the eligible carriers box.

You can use up to 4 segments in Africa but only 2 stopovers as it is your continent of origin. It is difficult to use all of the allotted segments in Africa though.

^ ^ ^ Now I get to cash in the free night I've been offered at the Mount Nelson in CPT, so I'm happy. Thanks.

Not if your country of origin is Mauritius. You can fly from JNB to CPT, VFA, LVI, HRE, WDH, PLZ and DUR and from CPT to JNB and DUR.

That's right, we're not allowed to fly through the city of origin, are we? Seems like that would put the pall on starting in places like HKG, too.

I think that restriction has been removed from *ONE* fares - the star file I have specifically says "NO RESTRICTION FOR STOPOVER AT POINT OF ORIGIN". But it is definitely there for *ONEWC* fares which is what virtualtroy is contemplating. Then again, MRU seems to be applying the rules for a *ONE* to all these types of tickets so who knows.

I also couldn't find the restriction on repeating the same city pairs in the same direction for *ONE* fares. Does it apply?

Looks like it, it's still stated in the fare rules at:

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-trave...-trip-explorer

(see note 5 down the bottom)

Ah, thanks. Funny that the pared-down version gives it but I still can't spot it in the star file or christep's ex-HKG file.

That link on the OneWorld is for theh Circle Trip, not the One World Explorer, which is this one: http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-trave...world-explorer (but that is also out of date since it says you can't go back through your point of origin, which restriction was removed some time ago).
There is absolutely no problem doing the same segment more than once on a OneWorld Explorer - I have done it many times.