No way to do S.A.-SWP-Asia-N.A.-Europe-S.A.?
 

It's not possible to start in JNB and go to Australia, then Asia, then North America, then Europe, then end back in JNB, because both the JNB-SYD and Asia-U.S. flights would cross the Pacific? I was hoping to find a way to use AA over the water for two flights (Europe and Asia) rather than just one, so I can upgrade. Also, it would allow visiting both South Africa and Australia during their summer, and with a suitably long stop-off in the U.S., visiting Europe in its summer or fall.

JNB-SYD flights on QF are permitted. (It crosses the Indian Ocean)

So there should be nothing incorrect about JNB-SYD-HKG-LAX-JFK-LHR-JNB.
Equally JNB-HKG-SYD-LAX-JFK-LHR-JNB should also work.
However you will need to purchase an xONE5 ticket in both cases.

Happy wandering.

Fred

Africa-SWP-Asia-NorthAmerica-Eu-Africa is OK by Mileage Monkey:- JNB-SYD-HKG-LAX-LHR-JNB
JNB-SYD is over the Indian Ocean, not the Pacific
I have done SWP-EU-SAmerica-NAmerica-Asia-SWP

That's been around for years. I make use of it on most of my xONEx's.

We have done JNB-HKG-SYD-LAX-LHR-JNB, but I thought we couldn't do JNB-SYD-NRT-DFW-LHR-JNB. My recollection when we tried is that it ran afoul of:

I think it was the online tool that rejected it. I thought it was the (a) clause but maybe it was the (b) clause. Either way, now I think the rejection was itself an error, since as wandering_fred and Mwenenzi point out, JNB-SYD doesn't cross the Pacific, and since both routes are the same TC2-TC3-TC1.

I wish I'd realized this before booking our 2013 and 2014 RTWs! (The 2013 is flown, and if we changed the 2014 we'd have to pay the extra $1k fare increase.) Maybe we'll do this for 2015. Especially with the AA 777-300 flight HKG-DFW.

I agree that the rejection itself must have been an error.
There was nothing wrong with your itinerary

As for your 2014 itinerary - after the flying the first flight you can make routing changes; you will have to pay the USD125 change fee but not the fare increase. See rule 11(a)(2)

Sure, but since the first flight is JNB-HKG, it doesn't help. (The only way to switch JNB-HKG-SYD-LAX to JNB-SYD-HKG-DFW would be before taking JNB-HKG, which means paying the fare increase.)

Yes - looks like you're stuck with either flying JNB-HKG or paying the fare increase

But JNB-HKG-SYD-HKG-DFW is valid

One of the visits to Asia has to be a transfer without stopover

This makes use of the second visit to Asia provision - rule 2(e)(2)This rule has sometimes been interpreted as requiring the transfer without stopover to be only between SWP and Europe. BUT the online tool allows other transits and so has the AA RTW desk - for instance earlier this year we transited Asia between YVR and PER and later returned there for stopovers.

Presume you're wanting to try AA's soon to be HKG-DFW flight?

New rules posted Dec 1. The biggest difference I can see:
Looks like my email worked. :D

The rule may have changed, but the execution hasn't. Still booking in L in the tool.

Wow. Could this finally be a change that works in the passenger's favour?

Kudos^

The only other change I can spot is that West Palm Beach has been added to the Column A places from/to which a single transcon is allowed

darn, just missed this by a couple days :(

[QUOTE=pandaperth;21717669]Yes - looks like you're stuck with either flying JNB-HKG or paying the fare increase

"One of the visits to Asia has to be a transfer without stopover

This makes use of the second visit to Asia provision - rule 2(e)(2)
This rule has sometimes been interpreted as requiring the transfer without stopover to be only between SWP and Europe. BUT the online tool allows other transits and so has the AA RTW desk - for instance earlier this year we transited Asia between YVR and PER and later returned there for stopovers."

So does this mean that you can transit US to Europe via Qatar without it being counted as an Asian stop? Or is Qatar considered to be in Europe?

[QUOTE=ieuan1;22003223]Qatar is in Middle East/Europe

( Since when were Egypt/Libya/Sudan anywhere near the Middle East )

This was a question asked by ieuan1, not me;)

As you said Dave - Qatar is in Middle East/Europe
but to answer ieuan1's question more fully - yes you can fly from US to Qatar and then on to Europe. But it is not considered to be a transit of some other continent. Qatar is part of the continent defined in the ticket rules to be Europe/Middle East and you're just deciding to arrive in that continent at Qatar and then later move on to some other parts of the continent (and by the way you can of course stopover in Qatar, no need for it to be a transit)



Since always - have they been near the Middle East that is

However for the purposes of the Oneworld Explorer (and other Oneworld tickets too such as the Global Explorer) they are actually considered to be part of the Middle East.
Which is nice - because you can take advantage of the rule allowing itineraries that commence in a Middle Eastern country to end in any other Middle Eastern country (for example this year we commenced our DONE4 in Sudan and ended it in Dubai)