xONEx max 16 segments from 1 June 2008 (confirmed)
 

The .pdf file on the OW website with the Oneworld Explorer rules has been updated to indicate a maximum of 16 segments for tickets issued on or after 1 June 08.

http://www.oneworld.com/content/libr...rule_sheet.pdf

:(

BTW, same thing with GlobEx and the Circle products too.

ouch. A significant devaluation. I wonder if this will stave off price increases.

At least we have a date. Time for me to get off my butt and get a final 20-segment trip booked.

Not that significant....you can still keep the high-cost segments. For most routings it is under 10% devaluation. Oneworld claims fewer than 1% of issued OWE tickets had more than 16 segments in the past year, so it really only impacts the MR community.

For me it is a significant devaluation, and not just for MR purposes. Typically on a RTW I visit around 6 places (most of these somewhere I haven't been before). The loss of 4 segments will cut out 2 of them. To visit only 4 places there may be instances where it is not worth paying substantially more than a simple round trip to one of these, and just get side trips. Alternatively, where served also by *A the 24 sectors still allowed on xRWSTARx allows to visit much more.

Book 2009 Travel Before June 2008 16-Segment Max Change
 

Maybe I'll book my 2009 ex-CAI DONE04 before the 16-segment max kicks in (for departure 5/1/2009.....)

What's the earliest date for when I can ticket an itinerary that has start date of 03/31/2009 and return date of 06/12/2009?

If I go by the 330-day rule, I assume that the earliest date is 05/05/2008. Is this correct? Will I be able to ticket the itinerary on this date if all I can confirm is the first segment?

Yes (in that particular scenario), but the first segment must be international, because the dated requirement applies to the first international flight and all preceeding flights.

Not significant if you want to visit London, New York, Hong Kong and Los Angeles.

But the moment you want to go to other places which are one way routes from hubs you need a lot of segments.

The significance of the devaluation depends on the viewpoint; for OW and the airlines it is trivial, because it affects so few; but here, in this forum, where most have come to learn, and put in practice, how to take the fullest advantage possible of a 20-segment RTW, the suggestion that the devaluation is not that significant is just silly.

If you do a 6 continent fare you have a minimum of 6 intercontinental segments which limits you to an average of 1.67 flight segments within each continent - fine if you are going hub to hub but if you fly into LAX and want to go to Calgary,that's your 2 segments in North America done. Similarly, if you fly into JNB and want to go to Victoria Falls,JNB-VFA-JNB will use up your two African segments. When you remember that a couple of years ago a 6 continent fare allowed up to 34/35 segments using the two entries allowed into certain continents,things have sure changed a lot.

If I remember correctly, the old theoretical maximum was quite a bit higher than that:

2 = Europe-> SWP (via Asia)
4 = Free in SWP
2 = Additional Purchased in SWP
1 = SWP to Asia
4 = Free in Asia
2 = Additional Purchased in Asia
2 = Asia to South America (via North America)
4 = Free in South America
2 = Additional Purchased in South America
1 = South America to North America
6 = Free in North America
2 = Additional Purchased in North America
2 = North America to [certain countries] in Africa (via Europe)
4 = Free in Africa
2 = Additional Purchased in Africa
1 = Africa to Europe
4 = Free in Europe.

That's already 45 sectors, not counting surface sectors, which were also included free at the time...

I can't say I ever had a ticket this long myself (I think my longest was 28 flight sectors, on an MONE5 - back when RTW tickets had a respoectable booking class, even in economy), and with all the add-ons, it wouldn't have been cheap in any case... but nonethelss, the One World Explorer ticket has proved a wonderful, flexible product, which helped me see much of the world I wouldn't have otherwise, and which did more than anything else to build my loyalty to OneWorld, where the promise of status-benefits still cause me to pay slightly more (as we all do) to fly than I would if I were buying tickets just on price/schedule alone. In this sense, while perhaps a loss-leader, these old tickets can't have been a losing proposition... though now with only 16-sectors maximum and no free surface sectors, the 24-sector *A ticket (and the matching status *A carriers will offer) seems very enticing indeed. It's a pity, really, as I've enjoyed the OneWorld network expansion - but then again, *A is fairly expansive in its own right, and might be worth me giving a closer look.

Ah, the generous times that once were!

To think that I flew my first *ONE* with only 10 segments before finding the rules and then this site.

It's hard to think that it will ever go back to those times. I think that the whole 16 sector e-ticket limit is a bit of a smokescreen to the real reason of seeing how much more can be saved.

Of course it could always be that OW is giving more notice of the enhancements than *A.

Just wondering out loud, does anyone have any knowledge of how *A intends to cope with the IATA eticketing mandate? Or are they simply going to continue processing paper tickets outside the IATA infrastructure? Not only are they allowing 24 segments, from what I last read not all their members have completed IET links with each other.

Well I very much doubt that oneworld will be 100% etix from June. There are too many airports in the world which can't do etickets at all. So I think this is just a way to reduce benefits and conveniently use IATA as an excuse.