Given "simpler and fairer" nature of QFF rules have you considered
LHR-CAI-DOH-CAI-LHR

The DOH-CAI segment books into A and is (theoretically) worth 150SC each way...

Happy wandering

Fred

Update
 

Well I've just finished my 4th conversation with the rtw desk. I must say they have been very helpful. They agree that there are two conflicting versions of the rules about the number of return trips to the ME from LHR. They have sent in a query to their one world liaison person at OW headquarters to clarify this situation. So when they have the official clarification we will know more. In the meantime I'm just sitting and waiting...

...and have just been told that the answer is 'NO'. You cannot have two return trips to the ME from LHR, despite what the current version of the rules say on the OW website (and EF for that matter).

So there you go! At least I tried.

Thx for all the suggestions and feedback.

Medicus

Why did they say no? I mean, which rule informed their decision?

When I made the last call the agent just looked at my record locator and said 'they're not going to let you do what you wanted to. They said no to two trips.' I didn't argue. I think that they believe that the omission of that rule in the published fares was a mistake, as in their version of the rules it still stands.

To download the latest OW rules I used to choose Terms and Conditions at the bottom of
https://www.oneworld.com/flights/rou...world-explorer
and open the Explorer rule sheet.

But this only shows the Dec 2016 rules.

PandaPerth: Could you kindly post the URL for the latest rules. Thanks.

That's where I always go to get the latest rule sheet.

While the web page states "All information is up-to-date as of 1 December 2016", if you open the rule sheet in Acrobat Reader and view its properties, its Modification Date is 1-February-17 (right-click in the document and then select Document Properties). (so, sloppy web page maintenance IMHO.)

And this version is different from the 1-December-2016 version, as documented in this thread.

Thank you panda perth. Most helpful.

On a Mac using Acrobat Reader that would be File/Properties.../Description, and for anyone using PDFPen Pro: Window/Document Info.

Hi Pandaperth (and all)

Please excuse another simple question from on old newbie to this place. I had some posting more than a year ago about my buying a RTW ticket in to begin and end in NRT (I live in HKG) and found a friendly travel. agent who would work with me on this and take my Hong Kong credit card and sell the ticket.

I had to to do this because when I booked the ticket on line on the oneworld website for a ticket with a JPY everything worked until the end, when I got an indeterminate message that said "call AA RTW, you have a problem with your booking". AA RTW told me that I needed a credit card issued to a Japanese resident to make a booking for ticket with a JPY price, and that absent this credit card to use the online tool I needed to start my trip in HKG (and pay the HKG price).

Are you saying, or given these are rule changes and the real world may be different, both for on-line and agent purchases, that this is no longer the case? That if I work through the oneworld site and use my HKG credit card the RTW originating in NRT can be purchased? I could try it myself but perhaps someone has done it or not done it.Alternatively, does the rule mean that oneworld will now officially permit the practice my Japan travel agent has been doing to date.

Thoughts anyone? Thanks in advance.

There was a rule in place that required that the price of the country of departure be converted to the currency of the country of sale and if the resulting pricing was less then the equivalent RTW ticket departing the country of sale, the higher price would be charged.

eg I'm based in AU. I've been getting DONE3's from JP for the past several years. At the time, DONE3's were not possible from AU (and still aren't for the trips I take) so DONE4 prices here...
An ex JP DONE4 is 780400JPY (before tax), around 9500AUD.
An ex AU DONE is 11999AUD.
Before the rule change around a year ago, I would have been charged the higher AU price for the ex JP ticket. (I have no idea what they would have tried to charge for a ticket not available from AU)

After the rule change, I would now just pay the 9500.

After a large amount of people booked cheap ex Egypt tickets from outside Egypt, AA started requiring that the card used for payment was issued in the country of departure. This is extra to the rules. I'm not sure if they are still requiring that.

I don't believe that Himeno is correct, as it relates to Egypt. It was never a question of higher point of sale, country of residence for the card, etc. It was an unexpected devaluation of the Egyptian currency that caused the AA and OW to suspend or not file fares for trips originating in Egypt.
I had booked a DONE4 online that originated in JNB. Since LATAM issued the ticket, they had no problem converting the lower ZAR price to US $ and charging my US credit card. So, I would say to have your Japanese travel agent try again. There should be no issues with credit card residency. Forget the online booking tool. It was 'enhanced' as the BA FT'ers say.

There was never a question of residency, although some airlines inferred that. It was a question of where the ticketing agent was based.

Oneworld certainly could have put in a residency restriction but for whatever reason they did not. (Maybe it would be totally impractical to require all oneworld airlines to enforce a local proof of residency at check in; and plenty of airlines still accept cash/cheque/vouchers/etc so making a credit card verification would be difficult.)

However that rule has now been removed.

The new wording about converting the resultant fare is redundant; it simply restates how buying air tickets in a different sales city to the origin city normally works. The fare is converted to the local currency at the rate specified in the daily IATA Consolidated Exchange Rate file.

Yes.

Since the rule change last April, I do not recall anyone reporting that AA was still requiring the credit used for payment have a country of origin billing address. (IIRC it was only AA that did this, and it was only for ex-South Africa and ex-Japan itineraries.)

So, you should be able to use the on-line tool to book an ex-Japan itinerary and pay for it with your Hong Kong credit card - even when the ticketing carrier is AA. However I don't think anyone has reported successfully doing that.

I personally have purchased direct from AA an ex-Mozambique ticket, paying for it in Australia. The all-in price was converted from the country of origin currency to AUD. The telephone agents I worked with made no mention at all of credit card billing address or the like.
(I flew in to JNB yesterday, to spend a few weeks in Africa before I start this journey in early June :D)

Just read through a bunch of this thread and the AA issue for Europe / Middle East where itinerary includes South Africa.

I'm in the middle of DONE4 booked BEFORE on BA in Sept 2016 but taken over by AA RTW after first flight (Jan 2017):

JNB-xDOH-NorthAmerica-Asia-HEL-MAD-JNB

And I'm considering a change to:

JNB-xDOH-NorthAmerica-Asia-AMM-FCO-LHR-JNB

The tool won't price a new itinerary like that, with error 2622: Your itinerary cannot include any flow or surface sector between Europe and Middle East.

My read of the old rules is this would be 3.2.2 (Middle East twice but one less than 24 hour) - so no restriction on Europe-Middle East flights?

My read on the NEW rules is that it should simply be allowed without issue.

BUT... I'm ticketed with AA, so who knows. Has anyone actually been able to get AA to allow Europe - Middle East segments with leaving via ME (<24hr) and returning via ME - under old rules 3.2.2 OR under the new rules?

The online booking tool is out of date with regard to the backtracking rules - don't trust what it says.

What matters for you is what the rules in place when you purchased back in Sept 2016 had to say regarding backtracking. And by that time the restrictions on flights between the Europe Zone and the Middle East Zone had been removed (they were removed in April 2016).

So AA should therefore allow your AMM-FCO flight without any issues.

However, I do not recall anyone on FT reporting success doing this.

(I will be trying to do it with my next DONE, which I start in a few weeks and will want to make the changes after I take the first couple of flights.)