What about routing rules? If you fly LAX-NRT on one RTW ticket and then NRT-LAX on another you are (at least in some sense) using the two tickets to get around the "one Pacific crossing only" rule.

If anyone has a problem with all this, simply purchase your RTWs from different airlines. The systems don't talk to each other in a methodical manner, so no one airline will pick up the fact that you have another RTW on the go. Having said that, in 20 years of using AONEs I've occasionally had as many as six in use at the same time - never a problem.

Given that oneworld celebrates their 10th anniversary this year it is quite interesting that you have been using their RTW tickets for 20 years...

The "one pacific crossing" relates to each ticket - if I have 2 tickets, then I'm allowed 2 crossings. No rule is being broken.

The only 'rule' I can think of that someone might be trying to get around by having 2 (or more) tickets at the same time is the "minimum days away" rule. Some tickets (depending on class and origin) require you to be away for at least 10 days. Other than that, what rules are being broken if someone has more than 1 ticket active at a time? Why would any oneworld airline care - I assume they would appreciate the business, particular as the 'alternative' is presumably to buy a *A ticket? As RTW tickets have unlimited stopovers, many people "go home" part way through and then pick up the ticket again, either using a paid ticket home, an award ticket - or in some cases, by having multiple RTW tickets at the same time.

Re-read the OP. It says that one ticket was issued by AA, and the other by CX, and that AA figured it out.

That's exactly what I was thinking, on all counts. In that narrow example, the nested RTW tickets would violate a fare rule. Based on the OP, we don't have enough information to determine if this is the case here or not. He doesn't say where "home" is, and he doesn't give the timings of the first int'l/inter-continental flight with respect to his current situation.

I don't get it how is AA or its partners losing out if someone books a RTW in the middle of another RTW? I can understand buying a one-way ticket on Monday and then buying RT for every weekend. Airlines lose by cheap fares due to Sat requirement.

Also I have never seen any airline really stress this to the general public, how is an not so frequent flyer to know all these hidden rules?

Take what you think is a representative sample of a OW *ONE* RTW itinerary, and price out what it would cost to by the individual segments. You'll see that the RTW fares offer a substantial discount off the "regular" fares. Most of the *ONE* rules relate to placing limits on how far you can go with the RTW fares, but a few of them are designed to prevent too much cannibalization of the regular full fares, such as:

- 7 day advance purchase for 1st int'l segment
- 10 day minimum stay away from home
- must actually circumnavigate all the way around the world

Without the above rules, it would be too easy for, say, a businessperson to take what was essentially a point-to-point business from from their home base to one remote destination and call it a "RTW" trip just for the sake of not paying full price.

So, I can see how attempts to use multiple nested RTW bookings to circumvent the "minimum 10 days away from home" rule could be considered abuse. After all, by doing so, you could turn what is in reality two separate short-duration int'l trips to a single remote destination into two RTW trips for a substantial discount off of full fare.

But short of that, I really don't see why an airline would have a problem with nested (or otherwise concurrent) RTW trips.

I agree that some of the ticketing rules that people get caught up in are arcane. But, at least for the OW *ONE* RTW tickets, it's hard to believe that anyone would purchase one without knowing that it involves a substantial set of detailed rules. Even if you didn't learn them all by rote, I find it hard to believe that someone would buy such a ticket without knowing that they are buying into a product with very specific rules.

That would be me back in 2003 - bought a ticket from PER to LON for a wedding then on to LAS for a conference (really) then home via SYD. Had no idea what I was buying and no idea of the rules - left it all to the travel agent. With hindsight it must have been a GLOBx because I flew the QF codeshare on FJ LAX-NAN-SYD.

I know a LOT more about these tickets now - mostly thanks to this forum^

Post deleted. I'm closing this thread.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Unless OW adds a line saying "Having multiple xONEx itineraries at the same time is not allowed." I have yet to see how this would be illegal.

It's not like people are buying a 2nd RTW to return home and never come back. All segments are flown in a timely manner...for all itineraries.