After over 5 years as a *GOLD FF (AC Super Elite) I'm considering returning to Oneworld (I was Exec Platinum on CP before AC took it over). This is in part due to the dramatic increases in *Alliance RTW fares ex Asia making them uncompetitive with Oneworld. Anyway I'm trying to learn how the xONEx fares work. The Oneworld planner is quite good and I was able to get the route I wanted. The online tool stated that the routing was valid and available in D, however it would not show a price on the booking page - just a "database error". I called Cx booking and after reviewing it overnight they said it was an invalid routing due to "back-tracking".

The routing is
ICN xHKG PER, PER-SYD, SYD xHKG YVR, YVR x JFK YYZ, YYZ xJFK SJU, SJU xJFK YYZ, YYZ-LHR, LHR xHKG ICN

The part they had trouble with was SYD to YVR on CX connecting in HKG. While I agree this would appear to be backtracking the rules from expertflyer state

"E. ONLY ONE INTERCONTINENTAL DEPARTURE AND ONE INTERCONTINENTAL ARRIVAL PERMITTED IN EACH CONTINENT EXCEPT AS FOLLOWS -
1. TWO PERMITTED IN NORTH AMERICA WHEN ONE IS A TRANSFER WITHOUT STOPOVER.
2. TWO PERMITTED IN ASIA WHEN ONE IS A TRANSFER WITHOUT STOPOVER OR ON DIRECT SINGLE PLANE SERVICE BETWEEN SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AND EUROPE."

I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but since SYD xHKG YVR does not involve a stopover shouldn't this be allowed - also how accurate is the planner tool whenit comes to fare rules.

Thanks very much for any help you can offer

Generally it's interpreted by the important people as only useful when flying to/from Oz/Eur.

By important people, I mean those ticketing the flight.

The other problem is return to continent of origin is only allowed at the end of the ticket.

Rearranging your draft - something like

ICN-xHKG-PER-SYD-LHR-YYZ-xJFK-SJU-xJFK-YYZ-xJFK-YVR-HKG-ICN

would be okay, with some room to add more

Any rule changed ?
A few years ago, I got following routing and ticketed.

BKK-xHKG-NRT-xHKG-YVR-LHR-DXB-LHR-xHKG-MEL-HKG-BKK

As I understand it the second exception has in the past been interpreted to mean a transit of Asia is allowed - but only between SWP and Europe; and your transit is between SWP and Nth America.

However, the wording of the exception changed recently and it now seems to allow transits of Asia between any two continents (in practice the exception is only useful if transiting between SWP and another continent) - see this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...sfer-rule.html

I don't recall anyone reporting that they had successfully booked an itinerary making use of the new interpretation. Perhaps ProudWings can be the first

This issue was argued to the point of exhaustion a couple of years ago. Now all the OW airlines sing the same song - the 2x Asia entry is only allowed in connection with Europe < > SWP routings, not SWP < > N. America/Africa routings.

You could switch the stopover order, fly SYD-JFK, and then do SJU, YVR, etc.

Unfortunately not I called again to Cx reservations (not sure if YVR or California). An agent, who was very pleasant and trying to be helpful at first said "it didn't make sense that I would want to go back to Asia after having gone to Australia and ... of course it would be back-tracking" later she agreed to check with a supervisor.. but the response was the same. It just seemed that whatever the rules said there was no way they would allow a transfer. I still believe that as the rules are written a transfer from Australia through Asia to N. America without a stopover should be OK. However, there were only so many times I could read to the agent was was written. Their interpretation is that it is not allowed - whether they actually read the rules I don't know, but I think it would be hard to get them to rethink this one. The agent was pleasant but not going to budge

In the end I called AA RTW and an agent was very pleasant and booked me on the QF A380 from SYD to LA and I'll get a side trip to SEA which was my intended destination on this part of the trip (can be had for around C$220 at the moment. I must say that the agent at the AA RTW was very helpful (even told me about the 10% discount if booked by the 12th) and I didn't have to wait to get through.

Thanks for all your advice - this si my first Oneworld RTW (have been doing at least 2 *A per year for the past few years) we'll see how it works out.