I must admit, Xs and Os always confuse me .... so the stops are in MEL and BNE? If so, why fly MEL-CNS-MEL-BNE? Or is it the other way round and the stops are CNS and MEL?

If it's the latter, to avoid BNE being a stopover, it may have to be last flight in/first flight out. We had that recently on a OW Circle SWP/Asia ticket where we were going MEL-SYD-NRT. Would have much preferred to take a late afternoon flight to Sydney, taken the train into town, had a nice dinner, train back to the airport etc and then out the next morning to NRT - couldn't do it because we weren't allowed a stopover in SYD and so it had to be last flight of the day in/out the next morning (on the first available flight).

As for AA or QF SYD-SFO, not sure it makes a difference - if she's going to be in the QF program, might as well pick the QF flight number.

As for who to get to ticket it, not sure you can get AA to do it as they no longer have an Oz ticket office, since they closed North Sydney. If you find a way to get AA to ticket it in Oz, let me know as I have that problem. You may have to get QF to do it ...

.... though now that I think about it, I guess any AA office (well, almost any) could do it. The ticket has to be issued in the country of origin (Oz) to get the Oz price; if ticketed elsewhere, that country's price applies, but only if it's higher. A and D tickets are more expensive out of the U.S., the U.K. and Oz than they are out of say Japan. We start our DONE4s in Japan and have AA Tokyo issue them. I guess there's nothing to stop AA Tokyo issuing the ticket and charging you the higher of the Japan/Oz price (which will be Oz), which is what she would be paying anyway. If it's electronic (=< 16 segments), they should be able to do it by phone/email. I had them do 3 tickets for me last week, so can provide details, if needed.

xONEx rules apply - ie takes 24 hours to be a stopover.

Some random thoughts on your friend's itinerary. Obviously, some are mutually exclusive but with nine spare segments, there is great potential :)

1. Is there the possibility of spreading the trip over two Qantas FF years to get Platinum status and then make a good start to retaining it?

2. With forthcoming changes mooted and a number here saying that WP status may be harder to obtain, maintain flexibility to adjust the itinerary (or migrate to AA!) when the changes are announced.

3. Why not QF First Syd-JFK and then back to the West Coast?

4. She seems to have dropped Vancouver but there is the genuine First on CX to/from JFK and interesting diversions such as YVR-MEX on JL a couple of times a week albeit not in First.

5. What about a side trip from JFK to BGI?

6. In Europe she had no trips - what about something a bit more exotic than the standard such as Funchal or Amman to see Petra?

Anyway, I see she has booked but maybe these suggestions give you more thoughts.

It is the latter, X's represent a Transfer.

The X/ appears to be the industry standard, a hangover from the old 64 bit days with no lower case.

I'd prefer it was notated like this: -HKG-xMEL-CNS-MEL-xBNE-SYD or possibly -HKG-mel-CNS-MEL-bne-SYD.

All comments passed on, some of which I had already made to her. I'll get back to you.

Dave

Kiwi Flyer - is that in the *file somewhere (or written somewhere else) do you know? It's normally a moot point for a xONEx as - other than the continent of origin - you can have as many stopovers as you like, so doesn't come into play very often. As mentioned earlier, we had the stopover problem on a DAS17 (Circle Asia SWP) where the number of stopovers is limited. We couldn't get the direct MEL-NRT flight so had to go MEL-SYD-NRT ... and couldn't get to SYD same day in time, so had to go the day before ... and AA enforced the last flight in/first flight out rule. Obviously, the xASx rules on stopovers may be different from the xONEX rules, though I don't know why they would be.

The xASxx rules published on the oneworld site don't define stopovers (neither do the xONEx rules).

I guess that leaves it up to the booking agent somewhat.

Edited to add: The OWE starfiles contained this line for years

until 18 April 2006 when, for some perverse reason, it was removed from the rules.

You're right. The older version of xONEx rules defined stopover and now they don't. Very odd.

So if you book via Qantas you get their 24 hours stopover definition and horrendous fuel fines; book via AA you skip most of the fuel fines but possibly some other definition of a stopover.

I've been trying to find an IATA definition of a stopover (which would be the default) - with little success.

Book and ticket via AA, and then amend bookin with QF to match their definition perhaps?

Dave

Before this stopover 'problem' gets a life of its own, why are we even suggesting AA, or any other airline, takes a view that differs in any way from the 24hr limit it has always been for the OWE? Yes, the definition is no longer in the starfile, and one wishes it was reinstated, just to be safe, but what evidence is there that anything has changed for the worse?

For a OWE, none that I know of - but on a DAS17 (Circle Asia SWP) ticket, AA enforced the last flight in/first flight out rule on me on a MEL-SYD-NRT connection. Those tickets have a maximum of 5 stopovers and we'd used our 5 so weren't allowed a stopover in SYD. We had to overnight in SYD (as we couldn't get there in time in the morning for the NRT flight) so would have left MEL around 5pm, had a nice dinner in SYD and then left the next morning - couldn't do it - had to take the last MEL-SYD flight of the day.

There's no reason to suppose the OWE stopover rules have changed .... but then why would it be different on a DASx vs. a xONEx? Also, 'interesting' that the definition is no longer in the *file. Obviously, whatever rule is enforced by whichever airline is issuing the ticket is what counts .... YMMV.

Simply tt7's post here in this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...9&postcount=21

The experience mentioned in that post is about DAS17, not the Oneworld Explorer I refer to.