To answer some of your initial questions…
Viajero asked whether a change is planned to oneworld Explorer fare’s 20 sector limit. The simple answer to that is yes – and we believe all other RTW fares face the same issue. The reason is that the technological standard adopted by the airline industry (through IATA) for electronic tickets cannot handle tickets for more than 16 sectors. The industry moves fully into an era of electronic tickets only from June. Tickets already sold by then for journeys of 16 to 20 sectors would of course remain valid. We are working on a formal announcement now, and this should be posted soon. While Viajero and a number of other FTers may use Explorer for journeys of between 16 to 20 sectors, you are in a very very small minority. The new restriction will impact on a tiny percentage of customers. Even so, it’s a shame anyone should be impacted. Over time, as technology advances, we hope this industry-wide restriction will be eased.