MilesBuzz! - Getting from Europe to So Africa cheaply

Hi everyone-
I have a friend who is planning his sabbatical (a lovely bonus of our company...8 weeks paid off very 7 yrs)
He is going on a complicated itinerary & his travel agent is quoting him almost $5000 airfare for the trip.
There has got to be a better way, maybe a RTW fare?
His itinerary is this, and he's flexible on dates:

SFO---SVQ (Seville, Spain) 8/12---? approx 1 wk
SVQ---CPT (Capetown,S Africa) stay for 10 days
CPT---CIA (Rome, Italy) stay 2 weeks
LIN (Milan)---BCN (Barcelona)
BCN---SFO

I don't even know how to help him. Anyone have any ideas on best online travel companies to plan a complicated itinerary like this? And would a RTW fare of some sort help him???
I'm a good counsel on travel planning, but this one's out of my league so I leave it all in the expert hands....yours!
I know the S Africa piece of this trip is the most expensive so if anyone has any good ideas for connections to Capetown for lower prices that would be helpful too!
Thanks for your help in advance!
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rtw's would seem to make the most sense. but they must be in a continuous direction, so your friend would have to rearrange his stops. he would also have to fly across both oceans so the trip back from africa would be a doozy. he should also consider starting and ending his trip in canada, as rtw pricing from the us is usually the most expensive.

there are a couple of different forums which talk about most of the intricacies, as well as have pricing info.

try:

I have a friend who travels to South Africa every summer, he usually travels in Europe a bit on the way. He gets tickets from London to J'berg from consolidator shops in London, I believe that he usually pays around $600-$800 USD round trip.

A quick check on Travelocity was showing a number of airlines offering Rome to Capetown fares in the $600-$700 range, maybe you just have to be a little flexible with the itinerary.

[This message has been edited by Old Gold (edited 07-07-2000).]

With a rtw on oneworld you could go US-Europe-SA-Australia-US and you could probably get it in business class for not much different than his fare quote. Cheaper in econo of course.

He could do 3 RT tickets:

SFO - CIA
CIA - CPT
CIA - BCN

Basing out of Rome with train service, would
take just a little more time, save a ton of money, and let him experience train travel in Europe. Open jaws would also work in and around Italy, but would take some planning.
Sounds like a good trip!

sounds like a wonderful trip all around! My suggestion would be to fly europe-south africa round trip and use trains for the rest. they are so efficient city to city and then all you have to do is find a convenient city to/from africa. perhaps you could open jaw from one europe city back to another to cut out train travel somewhat. My experience makes me think you might get a very reasonable price on an SA return ticket, add the cost of the train and come out less than half, maybe even much less than half, of the quote you got. good luck!