Actually. I would like to maximize miles as well (i.e. I'm thinking the 34K plan).

I have to visit friends in Cairo and just got to wondering if it would be worth a scream around the world in F to make 1K on ual this year. I'm based out of GVA this summer, so I could do most of the rtw asap, then hang out in gva until the rules allow me to complete the final leg. I need to nest the trip inside GVA-CAI Y fare.

If I had to do some 24 hour stopovers, would want Manila (business) and rochester, NY (wife).

On the LH egypt website it mentions the 10 day inter-con rule.

Thanks for the helpful replies!

You still could - * RTW's allow you to travel further than round the world, provided you don't pass through city of origin and you still end your trip in country of origin. You'd have to be creative with the rest of the trip given the other rules as you would have crossed the Atlantic and Pacific and done Area 2 to Area 3 not to mention stopovers in the same area. You could theoretically start in say Chicago, head west through Asia to Europe and back over the Atlantic to say LAX, then zig zag up and down between Canada/US to ORD getting your 3 minimum stopovers in before ending back in ORD. Your ORD-LAX without stops is certainly RTW !!

You are absolutely right. I forgot about the rule too.

It's only been in the past year or so that the * carriers have actually enforced the 24 hour stopover rule. For example, I used to be able to get into a city 8pm one night and leave 9am the next morning and count it as a valid stopover. Now they will not issue the ticket unless there is a 24hour stopover - at least 3 of them I mean. It was so rigid that they wouldn't allow a 1050 arrival and 1025+1 departure on one stopover!

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RichardMEL, UA 1K
A Star Alliance Member.

anyone have any idea why they enforce this rule? The only reason I can figure is to stop mileage runners.

But would they really go to all that trouble?

Originally you would get away with what Richard described, more so if there were at least 3 other clear stopovers on the ticket, but then several grey areas were opening up on ticket re-issues, sidestepping the intent of the rule etc. It was made clear that a stopover on *RTW's would follow IATA general rules, clearing up many issues immediately. One major concern was the increasing use of *RTW's to do quick business trips with several world destinations. Being corps, time is money and time is valuable, so they were wanting to do it in the quickest time possible. Many of the 3 minimum stopovers were becoming overnight only without 24 hour stays. (True also in some cases for mileage runners, although these aren't considered much of a problem). In keeping with the time honoured tradition of gouging Corporate travellers as much as possible, by enforcing the 24 hour stopover the Corps were faced with either lengthening their journey, with the consequent penalties to their valuable time, or get a normal mileage or excursion fare that allowed minimal time to be spent in cities. Of course mileage fares are a tad more in cost than *RTW's and are what the carriers live on.
There were also issues with interpretation of the rule by carriers, agents and customers themselves for ticketing and re-issuing, so it was clarified to a uniform standard by enforcing the IATA general rule on stopovers, allowing no confusion.
Cheers.