Syd - NRT (stopover) - Nagoya (stopover) - HND - JFK (stopover) - IAD (stopover) - DUB (stopover) - AUD (stopover) - Colombo (stopover) - Syd
We wish to fly business class, and little chance of getting BC from UAE unless, maybe if we fly Sri Lanka airlines via Colombo, which we would enjoy doing.
My wife has mobility issues and BC our only real option
I haven’t looked at any flights yet, but I notice a few issues with your itinerary. Firstly, the Qantas Oneworld Classic Reward only allows 5 stopovers of more than 24 hours in your itinerary i.e. you can only effectively stay in 5 different cities along your route, although you can have more ‘airport’ stopovers (of less than 24 hours). In your suggested itinerary, I count 7 stopovers - you’ll need to reduce that number, unfortunately.
Secondly, the reason you’re going to struggle to find flights from the UAE to Australia is because Emirates, nor Etihad, are members of the Oneworld Alliance - even though Emirates can be booked with Qantas points, they cannot be used as part of a Oneworld Classic Reward as they aren’t part of Oneworld. The only Middle Eastern Airline part of Oneworld is Qatar airways, so might be worth looking at flights from Doha?
Lastly, continent of arrival/departure doesn’t matter - only country does.
The above are booked – September 2023. Flights below yet to be booked
New York and train to Washingtoin DC-
IAD > DUB via LHR
British Airways
Stopover 3 - Dublin
DUB > AUH via Amman
British Airways and Royal Jordanian
Stopover 4 Abu Dhabi
AUH > Syd
Sri Lankan via Colombo
Maybe Stopover 5 Colombo
I have done trial itineraries on the oneworld site, using the above itinerary. The above error message is generated:
"Your itinerary is invalid for the following reasons:
Your itinerary exceeds the 1 arrival to Asia allowed by the trip rules. Please remove one of the following city ordering constraints"
I have also searched rules and found the following:
“(f) Only one intercontinental departure and one intercontinental arrival permitted in each continent except as follows: 1. Two permitted in North America. 2. Two permitted in Asia when one is for travel between the Southwest Pacific and Europe. 3. For travel to/from or via Africa (excluding South Africa and Mauritius), two permitted in Europe/Middle East.”
The rule appears in “Global Explorer” rules 4. FLIGHT APPLICATION/ROUTINGS (f) and an identical rule appears as 4. FLIGHT APPLICATION/ROUTINGS (e) in “oneworld Explorer” rules.
Therefore unless the Qantas oneworld RTW Classic Reward is not subject to this oneworld rule, I am worried that my Itinerary does not work.
We have no real option other than BC due to mobility issues. Chances of BC with Qatar seem bleak, so I was thinking Sri Lankan Airlines via Colombo might work, but the rule might frustrate. I can delete Colombo as a STOPOVER and trust transit via Colombo will be permissible.
The Oneworld site is for the Oneworld RTW ticket, which is paid - the Qantas Oneworld Classic Reward is for using points. The Oneworld RTW ticket is different, and thus has different rules (including the one stop per continent rule). The way to search your itinerary is by using the multi-search engine on Qantas’ website, and searching for the main flight segments.
