Originally Posted by
Redheadpeter
Looking at using a Business Class Global Explorer <34k miles. Would plan to have it issued in South Africa, start in Dakar. (We are in London - Dakar seems to be closest place in Africa to start)
I don't think there is an online tool for Global Explorer like there is for OneWorld Explorer. So how do you work out what taxes, surcharges etc would be? Is it safe just to use, say, the AA website to get quotes for single flights (eg Dakar-New York via Madrid) and assume the taxes etc on the Global Explorer ticket will be the same as on an ordinary ticket?
Oneworld doesn't publish fares for RTWs originating in Senegal, so you wouldn't be able to start there. However you'd be able to end there, provided that if you start in South Africa you go first to Asia or Australia, and not Europe, from JNB. Here's an excerpt from the GlobEx rules (my bold):
Travel may originate at any point for which fares are published and must terminate at the same point, except that origin-destination surface segments are permitted as follows:
(a) within country of origin
(b) within the Middle East
(c) between USA and Canada
(d) between HKG and China
(e) between Malaysia and SIN
(f) within Africa
(g) between Maldives & Sri Lanka/India
Note Senegal is only served by Iberia and only from Madrid. Senegal is not included in the list of African cul-de-sac countries to/from which a second European entry is allowed, so it really only works as an end point.
As for the taxes and fees issue, I don't think there's really a way to compute them in advance - too many tariff rules, fuel surcharges that are airline-specific, taxes that vary according to stopover/transit rules, etc. It's hard enough for the various airline rates departments to manage it, even with their resources. As a rule of thumb I add 12% to the ticket price if the ticket is being issued by BA, 6-7% if by AA, but those are pretty rough.