That then means you always have to return to the airport you started the RTW trip.

Thanks, Jamiel and hsilbiger.

I was thinking of a RTW starting in JNB in ZAR - good prices! - with a one-way LON-JNB beforehand. This would leave a non-used LON-JNB at the end of the RTW.

I could use that as part of the next trip, assuming the next trip is within 12 months. Or get a cheapo LON-JNB-LON to use at either end of the RTW. This would mean a lot of extra travelling plus the extra cost of the LON-JNB-LON, so would probably not be worth it in the end.

Pity!

hsilbiger: That then means you always have to return to the airport you started the RTW trip. No: same country, not same airport (yes for Luxembourg, they only have one airport ... if any?).

A couple of questions more:
1) Does the 15 city limit apply to stopovers of over 24hs? Or a does a connection city count also? (this would mean only 15 flights).
2) Assuming a London-(via Frankfurt)-Asia-(transpacific)-USA-(transatlantic)-Frankfurt trip, then stopping for over 6 months (Actually going back home in South America) and finally resuming: FRA-Cairo-FRA(no stopover) - Moskow- Copenhagen(with SAS)-London, ending the RTW ticket:
Asuming less than 39K and less that 15 stops:
a) will airlines deny this because of a 6 month stopover? (they shouldn't, but...)
b) Are Cairo and Moskow valid cities after having already flown in that direction, from Frankfurt or London?

mh: no stopover problem for you but the last segments will not be allowed, as you do this after arriving back in your original originating continent.

Example: they wouldn't let me add, at the end of a former rtw (starting ZRH-FRA-USA heading West) after having come back to FRA (from Asia, without stopover planned in FRA) a FRA-LHR-MUC-ZRH trip

Rudi, thanks for a quick answer...
Does this mean that when ending your RTW trip you must go straigth back to your origin/end city, without touching any other city in that continent?
What is exactly the reason?
As far as I know the restriction are ending in the same country. There is also something about no stopover more than once in the same city.
Is it because of just connecting through and already used city (eg Frankfurt)? If this is the reason, they I can probably workaround be flying through other cities.
Another example: Starting in London, heading west to USA, then Asia, and coming back to Europe on Singapore Airlines to Madrid. If you are right then this last leg should'nt be valid, since I'm already in Europe.
If your are right, then I will need to completely rethink my holidays.

no - you can have one, two more segments (a total of 5 from the start) in Europe but you can't make more than 360�. So when I start ZRH-FRA and than going West, when coming back I could stop in Helsinki, than Copenhague, than Munich and end in Switzerland (Zurich or Basel or Geneva or Lugano, but not going to Paris-Madrid, etc).

but, that's 'living' strictly to all the rules - exceptions happen ...

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 08-02-2000).]

The first posting in this thread claims that the US and Canada are considered one country. I checked with both AC and UA and they say it is not true. Start in Canda, end in Canada.

the first posting was correct at posting time (Rudi posted 03-31-1999 05:47 AM). I did, just 2 days ago, post the new rules. ok?

I tried to book a rtwstar3 (39K) ticket with UA starting/ending in London (about 2300us$). But since I was trying to buy it in Buenos Aires, they wanted to charge the local fee (About us$3400).
They told my travel agent the higher fee of both applies.
Is that fair? Has anybody had a similar experience?

yes - officially the higher fee applies. But there are 'ways' around this as discussed several times already on different threads und this 'Star'-forum.

I think this thread is too good to be buried under, so I post this to bring to top.

Is there any significant update in RTW rules?
I noticed recent posts in another thread saying exclusion list of eligible flight numbers is updated. (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum82/HTML/000393.html)
Any other updates?