Originally Posted by
HighLife
I wonder if you good people on the Oneworld board could help me. I have a non-FTer friend who is only BAEC blue and wants to move up the ranks. I said I would help by asking a question here so he can watch and learn before he joins FT!
Since I told him about RTWs etc he has been hassling me for information
He has a budget of 4-5K UKP for a RTW which would purely be for leisure and so he doesn't have any obligatory destinations. He would do it over a month or so.
He needs the 4-5K UKP to include taxes and charges to the ticket and he's happy to use his large pot of VS Flying Club miles to get him anywhere he needs to be to start the itinerary.
I haven't done a RTW for a while now (not since the end of the 20 segment days) and also am not on top of the current best place to start etc... although it looks like South Africa?
He would like to maximise BA miles and TPs out of it and if possible, travel in F.
So my questions are:
Can he do an F(A)-class itinerary, or would a J(D)-class one yield more points / miles on that budget?
I have read about using AA to ticket to keep taxes and charges down, but is this possible ex-the cheaper start locations?
MANY THANKS!
HL
His budget really doesn't cover an AONEx from anywhere, especially after taxes and fuel fines are added. Israel and Jordan come the closest, but he'd still probably be the better part of £1000 over budget.
Does your friend live in the UK or by any chance does he live on the continent of Europe? As you may know, BA's elite tiers are much easier to attain with European addresses compared to UK or N. America residents.
If the access cost is ignored, the cheapest DONE3 start points (measured in USD or GBP) at the moment are Israel, Jordan and Sri Lanka. South Africa and especially Namibia are the leaders for DONE4s. All of these locations are in the £4000-£4300 range before taxes.
AA will generally provide the best prices owing to their exclusion of some fuel surcharges levied by certain carriers, notably BA and QF. However AA prefers that at least one over-water flight be on AA metal, so if he chooses to go that route it would have to be the Pacific oceanic crossing, otherwise he'd get no BA points on any AA transatlantic flight. AA also issues the tickets on RJ-ticketed RTWs, so starting a DONE3 in AMM might be beneficial.
Many of us have also had good experiences dealing with AA's GSA in South Africa, if a JNB/CPT/WDH start is contemplated.