Dear Dave N and Pandap, Thanks for this. Africa obviously seems to be sub-Sahara, with the northern bit split between Europe and the Middle-East depending on how far west they are. I'm sure they must have debates over in the Star Alliance about Istanbul, and its two airports in different continents!

Oh! I've got JNB-MRU-LGW-[USA-ASIA]-DOHx-JNB about to be ticketed. I don't have any Europe-Middle east sectors. Based on the above I don't actually have to make Doha a transit connection?

Neat: that would give me a cheap option to nest an award ticket back to Europe after being in Asia. Time to go see if the AA RTW desk see it that way too.

Do you need to go back to JNB? QR is/will run 787 to CPT.

Yes - you can stopover in Doha

The rule 3.2.3 does not have the words "transfer without stopover", which is what the rules 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 have

So in fact, if you have the spare segments, in addition to stopping over in DOH you can stopover elsewhere in the Middle East zone - for example AMM, CAI, KRT
Same thing in the Europe zone
You are just restricted by the allowed 4 flight segments in the continent of Europe/Middle East and the 3.2.3 rule that you cannot have a segment between the two zones

The xONEx and xGLOBnn Terms and Conditions note "up-to-date as of 1 February 2014". Anyone spot any changes?

xONEx: http://www.oneworld.com/documents/10...9-d346ec820edf
xGLOBnn: http://www.oneworld.com/documents/10...3-c4ded5070702

Both document "Modified Dates" are 30/11/2013, so I don't expect there are any changes

I cannot make sense of the rules since QR joined. It appears that the Europe/Middle East continent has been divided into 2 zones and you can't go between them if starting in South Africa. Is the following route valid?

JNB-LHR-DOH-MAD-DOH-CDG-JFK-(US & Asia) -HKG-LHR-NBO (transit in LHR)

1. Yes - Europe/Middle East has been divided into two zone (which only matter if you wish to visit the continent twice)
2. No - you CAN go between them if starting in South Africa - but NOT if you also wish to visit the continent twice)
3. No - your itinerary is not valid

If you don't visit Europe/Middle East twice, then the new rules do not apply.

Since you start in Africa and you wish to visit Europe/Middle twice, your itinerary must satisfy one of the rules quoted below.

Your itinerary does not satisfy:

3.2.1 - because the itinerary includes Sth Africa
3.2.2 - because the itinerary does not transit via the Middle East zone both ways
3.2.3 - because the itinerary does not transit via the Middle East zone for one of the ways

Suggestions:

Start from LAD instead of JNB (satisfies rule 3.2.1)
Oops redacted - does not comply because of the inter-zone flightsFinal segments HKG-DOH-NBO (satisfies 3.2.3 note that you can stopover in DOH if you wish)

If you want those cities I think you would need to do something like:
JNB-DOH-MAD-LHR-CDG-DOH-JFK-(US & Asia) -HKG-DOH(transit)-NBO (or with the new rules you could also go back to JNB

What about JNB-DOH-MAD-DOH-CDG-JFK-(US & Asia) -HKG-LHR-NBO (transit in LHR)?
or
JNB-LHR-DOH-MAD-DOH-CDG-JFK-(US & Asia) -HKG-JNB ?

In general, for the 2 visits to Europe/Middle East, 1 entry in Eur/ME continent must be in the Middle East.

Not allowed, because if you enter via Europe and return via Middle East the rules state "travel may not include any flown or surface sector between Europe and Middle East"

This applies to entering via Middle East and returning via Europe

CPT-DOH-MAD-DOH-CDG-JFK-(US & Asia) -HKG-JNB should be OK since there is only 1 entry to Europe/Middle East. Or ...HKG-DOHx-JNB? Right?

Both seem good IMHO

No one has mentioned this, just spotted it.
They added clarification about the SWP-EU flights counting Asia.
and have at some point resplit Russia into Europe and Asia. For a period after S7 joined (though at least mid last year), Russia both east and west of the Urals counted as Europe. It's now been returned to Russia, west of the Urals - Europe, Russia, east of the Urals - Asia.

This is the middle east restrictions for flights to/from London. (Rule 2h)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...europe_map.gif

Each Zone and continent according to current rules
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...pse11ae355.gif
Have included South East Asia as defined in xASnn rules as it is referenced in the xONEx rules.

All the 'stans have been moved from Europe to Asia along with Russia East of the Urals

I struggled to find find where Sth East Asia is mentioned, but finally found it in Rule 9 - Surcharges:D

BTW these surcharges are unchanged from the 30-Oct-2013 version of the rules - none of us noticed that SE Asia was there!

The Global Explorer rule sheet has also changed
Russia East of the Urals and the stand have been moved into Asia

Great map Himeno

One error: Turkey is not part of the Middle East, at least as far as the xONEx rules are concerned

• Rule 2(h) lists Turkey separately from the Middle East
• The online tool will not let you start in Turkey and end in the Middle East

When I tried to test whether Iran was in the Middle East I got the error message:Tried it with THR, SYS and MHD - the three cities in Iran that QR flies to (Tehran, Shiraz and Mashad)
I thought there were no UN, or other, restrictions on individuals travelling to/from Iran:confused:

Fixed
I had been trying to just make up a map to show the Europe/Mideast zones, but I couldn't find a blank map showing the required area, so ended up just doing everything.

There aren't even any cities in Iran showing up on the xonex booking map. :confused: Thought it was odd, considering that Iran was one of the 'new' countries listed to join the oneworld map when QR joined.
I listed it as middle east since nothing in the rules mentions it isn't and it is traditionally part of the mideast.

Grandfathering?
 

Do any of the changes include words like "applicable to tickets purchased after xx/xx/xx"?

I don't think I've ever taken advantage of grandfathering but was under the impression that the rules in effect the day the ticket was sold remain in effect until it is used, the exceptions being that carriers that leave OW can no longer be used (despite being named in the valid-on line) while new members also can not be used.

Rules in place when ticketed remain in force until that ticket is used.

New Version - 1-April-2014 JJ and US joining
 

There is a new version of the rule sheet - because of JJ and US joining the alliance
No other changes that I can see.

In rule 3:
JJ's booking classes are A, J and H (instead of the usual A, D and L)

Business Class passengers can travel in First on US flights in TC1
(compare to AA flights, where the exception is allowed only for services within the USA)

This has no impact: US AIrways does not have any first class service within TC1, but, like AA, it has loads of flights where business class is mis-sold as first.

New Version - 1-May-2014 - UL joining
 

There is a new version of the rule sheet dated 1-May-2014 - because of UL joining the alliance

The only other change that I can see is a minor change to the list of AA affiliate airlines in sub-clause 2(j)

Given the changes QF has/is doing, I would have expected them to try to get QF coded/EK operated flights included (just as QF coded JQ flights are in many oneworld products).

Being Perth-based, that could be a really good addition
especially given that Sydney International Airlines (aka Qantas international) will shortly no longer fly from Perth at all
(except for twice weekly summer season PER-AKL flights)

Though to be honest, if I was flying to the Middle East/Europe from Perth, I think I will fly QR - if only because it is Qantas that insists on SWP-Europe/Middle East being "via Asia", so why should I reward them.

Is it QF insisting on that?
BA still flies SWP-Europe/Middle East via Asia.
If BA pulls out of Australia and they still have that "via Asia" rule, without QF restoring any Asia-EU flights, then... ;)

A few years ago someone in oneworld told me it was at QF's insistence.
At the time I was querying why the on-line tool was charging for Asia even when I was trying to have a surface segment from SWP to Europe/Middle East. This was a few years before QF changed its flights to Europe to be via DXB. (the end result of my query was that the words "or by surface" got added to the rule:td::()

To address your point - my understanding is that the rule has been "if you touch it you pay for it". So BA's Europe-SWP (i.e LHR-SYD) flights do touch Asia and so you pay for Asia. But QR's DOH-PER is non-stop (as are its DOH-MEL flight and QF's DXB-SYD/MEL flights). IMHO, there is no justification for being charged for Asia on those flights.

Maybe it's time to bring it up with oneworld again.

What about ORD-DEL? Another case of being charged for a continent not touched (in that case Europe).

Not quite right
See the first post in this old thread
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...ly-better.html

The ORD-DEL flight allowed for a 2 continent trip (or 3 including southern hemisphere), fares for which don't exist. That rule was to make clear that NA-Asia-NA was allowed using that flight, but had to be charged at the nearest existing valid fare.

New Version 1-July-2014
 

Changes I can see are:

• they have screwed up the numbering of the rules - instead of 1, 2, 3... the numbering goes 0, 4, 5, 6... :rolleyes:

• in addition to the usual DONE3, there is now something called an IONE3
• it uses different booking codes to the regular DONE3 (see Rule 5); but I cannot see anything else different about it

• some additional affiliated airlines are listed against US Airways in Rule 4(j) - but those airlines are already listed against AA
• in Rule 4(k), which concerns only one trans-continental flight in Nth America, new East Coast cities added to the list are Charlotte, Cleveland and Pittsburgh; new West Coast city is Phoenix

I have noticed that all the cities that are being added to the 1 transcon list within the USA are always more than 2000 miles. BA conspiracy? It does seem a bit silly, since one can only fly 1 round trip between city pairs. I could understand AA limiting travel on its 3-class service to 1.

I have found a city which, given other cities on this list, would also be on the list, and isn't. This city has a limited number of 2 sector, same flight number, flights to the other coast.
Is it likely that such a city would be added to the list in the short term?

If they've added Cleveland, how long before they add DTW and other cities to the west of CLE?
US has an ANC(-xPHX)-BOS flight (at least during northern summer). Would that count as the one transcon, or just under the "one flight to/from ANC" rule?

Any possibility these changes are causing the disappearance of DONE3, DONE4, and DONE5 fares from expertflyer. I've just joined and those fares aren't showing from most locations in Asia, Africa and Europe. Only DONE6's for some reason.

Just checked expertflyer
I'm seeing DONE3s-DONE6s out of LON, HKG and JNB (no DONE3 out of J'burg)

Is it possible to construct a xONE3 itinerary ex-JNB/CPT? I'm having difficulty conceptualizing it.

Not unless oneworld starts a trans Atlantic route to/from Africa.

Is it possible?
In a word No
And in fact the oneworld explorer rules explicitly state
Conceptualize it?
As Himeno said - not until a oneworld airline flies Africa-Americas (North or South)
Or, if they allowed a trans-Atlantic surface segment on ex-Africa itineraries (like they do on ex-South West Pacific itineraries)

As an aside - it IS possible to construct an ex-South West Pacific 3-continent itinerary (a trivial example is SYD-SCL,JNB-SYD)
But there is no fare for such an itinerary, so presumably one would be charged the 4-continent fare