This restriction is in the OW global explorer mileage based RTW, so I assume that it is standard feature of these type of fares.

87N . 7. INTERMEDIATE SURFACE SEGMENTS ARE PERMITTED AT
88N . PASSENGER*S EXPENSE. SURFACE SEGMENTS MUST BE
89N . INCLUDED IN THE TOTAL MILEAGE.

Given that that is a 2004 thread can I just be clear that you are advising that JohnNYC released this rumour in 2004 and has now confirmed that in fact it is likely to come to fruition?

I am not doubting JohnNYC just wondering why this is now more factual than it was in 2004.

Bingo.

I received an actual "enhancement" yesterday on a reissue by AA of a BA ticket-- ticketing an itinerary with 22 flight segments! Over the past month, only one of the 4 or 5 agents I talked with at both AA and BA seemed to know the rule about being able to end an Africa-originated ticket anywhere in Africa (I started in MRU but wanted to end in CPT). Yesterday when the ticket was finally reissued by AA, the agent had to check and confirm that it was possible. When I went to the airport to have the ticket reissued, I found that although the 20th segment does end in CPT, two more coupons were attached: CPT-JNB and JNB-MRU, both open dated but apparently valid flight coupons!

Some unpleasant unforeseen rule changes today - Intra-South America O/D O/J prohibited, and no transit through origin point. No DAC//SIN-BKK either, but not sure when that went away.

The topic of eligibility of Lan carriers seems answered by this: so no new problems there. No mention of the 16-segment rule but these jack-in-the-box rule changes do not inspire confidence.

Also fares ex-USA have gone up in some instances, AONEx by $1000 - $2200 depending on no. of continents, DONE3 and 4 unchanged (so far) and DONE5 and 6 up by $300 and $700 respectively.

< Sucking sound. >

"Thanks" for the update. Does this mean you can not add any domestic segments anymore after you have returned to your point of origin?

So no SYD-LHR-LAX-SYD stopover SYD-ADL-PER-SYD?
or even LHR-MAN-LHR-JFK..... ?

Must have happened once KA joined OW. Before all one could do is depart DAC on BA to LHR, but could never return. I had checked the rules about 3 weeks ago since a DONE4 was listed as $5920 US. Would be great if ex-CMB would be like DAC used to be.

I'd be interested in seeing the new starfile. Can someone with access please post it?

I posted it in the OWE FAQ sticky thread.

Edited to add - on the origin point stopover, the Star File rule disagrees with that posted on EF -

29N STOPOVERS
30N ----------
31N .
32N MAXIMUM 2
33N STOPOVERS PERMITTED IN THE CONTINENT OF ORIGIN.
34N .
35N NO RESTRICTION FOR STOPOVER AT POINT OF ORIGIN.

Just got off the phone with the AA RTW desk, and the agent is reading an email that discusses the changes to the ONE product, and apparently transits through point of origin are NOT permitted any longer (which I guess was the rule on the Global Explorer product). I guess that means the EF rules are more up to date than the Star File (stupid question: where exactly does the Star File come from)? She also said you could NOT originate out of EWR and pass through JFK on the back-end and then continue your trip in the U.S. Even though EWR and JFK are considered separate for purposes of the surface segment rules, they're lumped together from the perspective of the point-of-origin rules. Together with the price increases, all very sad.

It's internal to AA so I guess the answer is SABRE.

Yeah, that's the reason I was after the starfile (I missed the FAQ thread), thanks. Although I take it, after reading jgold's post, that the starfile is not current after all, even if it has a Dec date, so we can probably expect to see a revised version shortly.

It's published on Sabre but it doesn't come from there. AA contracts with Sabre (which it used to own) for GDS services. The relevant question is "where exactly does the rule come from?" This gets to the heart of OW mysteries - I have in my mind's eye reps from the major members' revenue desks sitting in a Starbucks in Vancouver tossing ideas back and forth.. "Hey, what if we make people go all the way to Mauritius to get cheap tickets?"

"Ha ha, that's rich. How about requiring a segment to go from JFK to La Guardia?"

"Ha ha, cool..."

Of course that's not really the way this works. I assume.

Is this definitely the case, or a mis-interpretation by one of the call centre agents? Very sad if true.

I still find it bizarre that the rules are such that if you arrive into say JFK, and your destination only gives the option of departing from LGA, or EWR that you have to use a surface segment.

Fairs fair, they must do what is commericially best for them but to say that EWR and JFK are considered to be seperate when it comes down to surface segments but are considered the same for P-o-O reasons is simply unfair.

<Is this definitely the case, or a mis-interpretation by one of the call centre agents? Very sad if true.

I still find it bizarre that the rules are such that if you arrive into say JFK, and your destination only gives the option of departing from LGA, or EWR that you have to use a surface segment. > I'm fairly certain that transiting LGA//JFK counts as a surface segment. The two AA RTW reps I spoke with today said that.

The more I think about the new rule re: not being able to transit through the point of origin, the more problematic (or at least annoying) it seems. This was the beginning of my planned routing: JFK-EZE//GRU-SCL-IPC-SCL-xJFK-HKG-BKK ... However, that is no longer permitted; instead I'd have to connect to Asia through, say, LAX. That's a pain, because I was going to try and force a 6-8 hr transit (without stopover) to drop off some stuff at home.

Here's a different question: If I want to terminate in the U.S. somewhere other than NY (which would require me to re-enter the U.S. at the end of my trip through a gateway OTHER THAN NY, because of the new rule), do I have to allow enough surface segments to get me back to my origination point (i.e., via surface)? To put it differently, let's say I reenter the U.S. at the end of the trip in BOS (coming from Europe), and then fly to SFO. If the last leg to SFO is my 20th segment (including all surface and flown segments to-date), does that work, or do I need to allow for a final surface segment to get back to my origin at JFK (i.e., would my final flown BOS-SFO flight have to be my 19th segment, rather than my 20th, if I'm going to end the trip in SFO)? The rules say that "origin-destination surface segments are permitted" for trips originating in the U.S., but I'm not clear whether that "origin-destination surface segment[]" counts against my 20. Thanks...(hope this question isn't too muddied).

Thanks also to Viajero and Gardyloo for clarifying the source of the Star File.