RTW: Backtracking Question
 

greetings all,

on the qf/ly/fj rtw, would the following be considered backtracking:

according to great circle, the answer is maybe yes? any idea to what qf would say?

many thanks,
bhd87

[mod hat]
While this isn't necessarily a OneWorld question, you'll probably have more luck with the friendly posters there.
[/mod hat]

Thanks. I hear bad things of QF posters ;) . Although I don't see how this shouldn't be in the QF forum....

Backtracking doesn't mean you can only travel only east or west, it's refering to returning to a previously visited continent (though travel from one continent to another needs to be in a genrally easterly or westerly direction). When you're in a continent you can "backtrack" as much as you want (with certain limitations on trans US, trans Aus and long Europe flights) so I can't see an issue with your routing.

That really depends on the specific ticket - many tickets do indeed restrict you to travel only east or west. Your comment referred (I think) to OneWorld Explorers, but that is not the type of ticket which the OP is referring to.

As far as I can se, if the ticket rules say strictly East or West and no backtracking then your proposed route would breach those rules. Whether there is any leeway applied in practice I'm afraid I really don't know.

The backtracking rules are the same for the global explorer as well (ie can backtrack intra continent), what other RTW fares are offered by qantas/oneworld?

It's not OW but a mod (for reasons best known to themselves and that we are not allowed to question) decided that this should be moved from the QF forum to the OneWorld one, despite the fact that 2 of the 3 airlines involved are nothing to do with Oneworld.

Agreed it isn't OW - however there's more familiarity with fare rules especially in regard to "explorer" type tickets in this forum.

Correct, this is not a OW RTW. I'm asking how "lenient" Qantas is in defining backtracking as the routing from CXI to HNL is almost a perfect line.

I assume CXI is in Region III and as your next stop would be HNL (Region I) it ought to be construed as being part of a continuous W > E route. It would probably be FJ, not QF, who makes the call as they operate the NAN-CXI-HNL route.

Really not a OW question, but not certain where it should go, forum-wise.

I would think the proper place for this thread would be the QF forum(or the LY/FJ fora). Airline specific rtw products have traditionally been dealt with in their respective airline forums. See, e.g., the CX/UA rtw product discussed in the CX forum and the EK/UA rtw product discussed in the EK (and UA) forum. The rules for these airline specific rtw products are often quite dissimilar to any of the explorer products offered by OW.

IIRC FJ has a through flight (single flight number). If you take that without a stopover at CXI then you should be fine (as ticket coupon would be NAN-HNL).

But then I wouldn't be able to enjoy Kirimati :(.

What about doing CXI-LAX, only transiting through HNL?

Based on my recent ticketin experience with QF (admittedly on a DONE4) anything that isnt continuous onward travel is BAD - they recently refused to ticket a perfrectly valid DONE4 (that was ticketed by CX) becuase I was "just using it to get cheap domestic business class flights"

So my expectation of QF booking anything on the margin would be low...

:eek:. As far as the QF/EL/FJ RTW, there is no mileage/stopover limit. I would, at minimum, look into 8 or 9 domestic flights.