First, thank you SO much for all your help!
Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
Your itinerary is fine; however have you looked at the all-in costs starting in Jordan instead of SA? At today's exchange rates, an AONE4 starting in Jordan looks to be around US$700 cheaper than one starting in South Africa, and I expect your positioning costs would be lower, too.
Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
In addition, by starting in SA you'd have to ticket with BA (if you use the online tool) which would subject you to very big fuel surcharges in addition to ordinary taxes. By starting in Jordan you could have AA issue the ticket (as the RJ issuer of record) which would reduce those charges to some degree (from some to a lot, depending on detailed itinerary and stopover points.
You're quite correct when it comes to price differences! ex-JNB prices out at 72,940.00 + 9,808.00 (tax) = 82,748.00 ZAR or approx 12,072 USD while ex-AMM is 10,028.00 + 549.28 = 10,577.28 USD, so about a
$1500 difference! Positioning to AMM is also about $1100 less in J. I don't love the routing options out of AMM but the whole trip is a lot cheaper than starting out of JNB. The overall cost with the J ticket is more than just starting in Seattle but only by a few hundred dollars so probably worth the extra miles and the stop home on the way IMO.
Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
The one hitch that would result from starting in Jordan would be that you couldn't transit Amman after ISU (no transiting the point of issuance) so your Iraq trip would probably need to be made prior to the actual start of the RTW. On the other hand that would save you a couple of segments you could use elsewhere. Oneworld doesn't seem to have a published RTW fare for Iraq, so starting in ISU is off the table for now.
I'll probably throw this at the end of the trip to break the whole thing up a bit more, not a huge problem really. And though I knew you were right I was curious what the xONEx planner would say to an ex-ISU RTW and it validated but failed at booking.
Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
(Although I'd be tempted to use your N. America transcon to do JFK-YVR or v.v. rather than JFK-LAX, but it's your call.)
I didn't even think of YVR for some reason, gotta love that CX F!
Thank you again for your help, I've got some thinking to do.