RTW transfer airport booking tip
 

As posted in the trip report section, my wife and I finished our first RTW our oneworld. If was a great experience, and we will do it again for sure. The one thing I wished I had figured out before hand is this.

Since we have a segment limit on a RTW ticket, and transfers count as segments, the normal transfer rules really don't apply to RTW tickets in a meaningful way. What I mean by that is that you can schedule your ticket to get you to your transfer airport as a separate leg, and avoid all the normal transfer rules.

For example, one of the sections of our trip was SIN-xHKG-CDG. The original booking was actually SIN-CDG with a transfer at HKG that had to obey the airline transfer rules, specifically time in HKG. Our connection at HKG was less than two hours and I was a bit worried about it the whole time (it turned out not to be an issue).

But I realized after the fact, that I could have booked it as SIN-HKG, and HKG-CDG as having nothing to do with each other (except being on the same RTW). Then I could have made the transfer time anything I liked, say 8 hours, and all RTW rules would still be satisfied. The reason I would have liked a much longer time is that the frequency of planes from HKG-CDG is low enough, I really didn't want to miss it.

Why didn't you just request a different, more convenient, connection in HKG? There was nothing in the rules that prevented it, right?

I wasn't worried about it when I booked it, and by the time I thought it all through and _was_ worried about it, all the earlier flights had filled up. Opps.

The connection went off without a hitch, but i learned a lesson there!

That's great.

The part I'm still a bit confused about is what you mean by "avoid all the normal transfer rules". What 'normal' transfer rules do you mean?

I get the impression, but I could be wrong, that you think the transfer rules applicable to the booking you made are somehow different to the rules applicable to SIN-xHKG-CDG.

I find HKG a very convenient airport to transfer through - especially if on CX short to long haul. I am usually successful in getting close to the maximum 24 hrs in HKG to make it a transfer as opposed to a stopover - great for those (A)RTWs originating in Asia which are stopover restricted in continent of origin.

horseguy, I was not sure what the point of your post was. Now on re-reading I get the impression that you wanted to go SIN-GCD and your travel arranger booked this via xHKG with a 2 hour connection. You tip is that you can get for a longer transit if desired.

Yes, it's quite a simple thing to ask your travel arranger to book a later flight (in your case HKG-CDG) to make things far less of a worry. Indeed, I have booked overnight transits in HGK - it's still a xONEx transfer as long as the total scheduled time betwixt your flights is less than 24 Hours. (Any more and it becomes a stopover.)

With very few exceptions (the ones that require you to get your BPs in HKG), transits in HKG are very efficient. Two hours is much more than enough.

Right, my point is the rules are different with a xONEx than a normal ticket (which presumably the vast majority of fliers are familiar with "normal" rules, not xONEx rules). For example, AA normally wants most connections done within 4 hours/6 hours international. But on a xONEx, that rule doesn't really matter, as the routing with the longer time will still be perfectly within the fare rules.

For example, say you are flying on a standard ticket (not a xONEx) and you buy a straight A class ticket from AA ONT-xDFW-JFK. On the day I picked, it cost $1297. If I price it as a multi-city trip forcing an 8 hour connection, it suddenly costs $2001 because both segments now get priced as if they were independent of each other because they violate the 4 hour rule.

With an xONEx ticket, the cost stays the same, regardless of how long the stop. That's my point.

Because of that is an AA's special ticket.
In terms of IATA's normal ticket rule,
24 hour stopover rule is applied.
Of course, xONEx is a special ticket, but it applies 'normal' stopover rule.

So, term 'standard' and 'normal' you use is a special view from AA's ticketing view.
That is a reason some posters (including me) could not understand your posting clearly.

The 6 hour transit rule is for award tickets; I don't know of any published fare which has a 6 hour stopover rule. I guess the OP presumed the FF award ticket rules applied to other fare products. They don't (both good and bad). So you have to research the rules carefully before buying, for things that matter to you, and don't assume that all are the same -- surprising amount of variance. Of course FT exists in part due to this.

I didn't presume anything. I actually priced tickets on aa.com (one click away from an actual purchase), and I reported the prices here that aa.com offered.

never mind.

I am a little confused. Is the above pricing for a xONEx or an AA ticket?

I think OP refers to an ONT-JFK ticket, as per post #8.