Darn, I should have bought that ex-NRT ticket last month. Bummer.
Another item I noticed was the inclusion of 'local service fees may apply' all throughout the document even where the terms for a refund in TC2/3 state full refund.
I did send a note to OW that this new rule is not good for the traveller.

I don't see the service fee being mentioned as an issue. Some airlines have been charging service fees already anyway

The OW ATW fares are still, imo, a good value ticket even with the latest changes and I suspect that most travellers will only be mildly affected by this modification.

Dave

I disagree. This is a discussion forum for One World; seems a perfect place to discuss the products and with a change happening today, surely the perfect time to discuss

Dave

This is going to be a particular nuisance for users of Eurail passes in Europe. I was planning for my DONE4 to fly a long leg or two around surface sectors to avoid several days on trains. For example. training DUS-HAM-CPH-OSL-ARN-BUD-VIE-MUC-DUS is vastly improved by flying ARN-HEL-BUD. Saves about 4 or 5 days on trains, one or two of which we can spend in HEL. I have family in DUS so DUS will be our home base.


Oh, well, I wonder if I'll get my miles for the surface sectors? (I won't hold my breath!)

Audrey

I suppose that this change makes the ONE3 ticket relatively more attractive. People here in the past have seemed to disregard 3 continent tickets because it allowed for a maximum of 17 flown segments. However, now the 3 segment shortfall can be used for surface segments to bring the total to 20 (if the intra-continent limits apply only to flown segments). So I�d predict that ONE3s (at roughly 10 to 15% less than ONE4s) would become more popular.

Exactly, I have several surface segments built into trips I'm working on. Same reason as you (not going to waste a segment on otherwise cheap flights) and a surface segment was the perfect solution to adding cruises and other one-way overland trips to an RTW vacation. I was planning on an Alaska-Seattle cruise and an NBO-JNB overland safari, but I don't want to waste a surface segment on either ANC-SEA or NBO-JNB.

This also kills my MRing in Europe in economy class (LHR-DXB-LHR is NOT useful in 'L' so I was using HEL-DXB-HEL-TFS-HEL but now I can't get there from LHR without wasting segments), since it further limits the airlines I can take for 100% mileage credit without taking an otherwise shorter routing.

x 1000!

There's also the issue about ending the trip on a city/country other than the origin, allowed by the rules in some cases (South America, Africa, etc.). Technically that is a surface segment, so it will probably be another point to argue about.

Very pleased I had my ex-ARN DONE4 ticketed on Friday!

As a note, the OW planner (http://www.trvlink.com/download/onew...rlddesktop.exe) has included surface segments in the total 20 since I downloaded it last month. I'd just thought it was a bug.....

The onewould planner always included surface segments in it's count. Until yesterday, it was a Bug!

Back to the drawing board for my SWP sectors (and possibly also the intercontinental flights to/from SWP).

PER now wastes at least one short segment.

Probably not - this whole thing is just a matter of making the fare comply with the eticket limitation, so I doubt anyone is going to be priggish about that last non-existent surface segment.

But isn't the e-ticket limitation 16 segments, not 20? That's the bit I don't follow.

We are not yet forced to e-ticket, but it is an IATA target. There are 2 obvious possibilities

1) future rule change down to 16 coupons
2) change the software to allow more

I'm afraid this move makes the first option much more likely than the second, IMO.

I don't think so. The fare rules allow origin and destination to be different (with some limitations), and furthermore there is no VOID coupon for this open-jaw. It is en-route surface segments that require a coupon.

Yes, but you could just have the *ONE* route through DUS, and do all of the rest of that on your own, picking up the *ONE* again in DUS. In many areas, it should be pretty easy to build a nested itinerary where you use the *ONE* to get the major distances, and then book independent segments/round-trips on local/regional airlines. For example, you can get ARN-BUD on either Sterling or Malev as non-stops or FinnAir or Blue1 through HEL. Then you don't use any segments against the RTW ticket and still get to make the routing you want.

If I was looking at one now, I'd be looking at the *ONE* ticket as the way to get from continent to continent and then local airlines for shorter distance tickets. You could end up better from the travel perspective when you start thinking about those 20 segments as your available balance for long-haul flights.