Originally Posted by
eosphoros
I am looking to stop at all the US places and you do provide a good point regarding SCs. I'll amend my itinerary to fly LHR-LAX and work my way to JFK. The only places where I don't care all that much about are CBR, MEL and BNE. As for Asia, I would definitely like to go to at least HKG and BKK. MAD is also expendable.
Edit to Add: Is it better to book the first leg with BA or with AA? Which is easier to deal with? Putting those changes into Oneworld's planner, booking the first leg with AA saves 300GBP. But if they are hard to deal with, is it worth it?
AA has a dedicated RTW desk (phone number is 1-800-247-3247) which is widely regarded to be the best there is. Although occasional reports of spotty service or 'new' people, they know their stuff. I'm not even sure any of the other OW airlines have an equivalent, dedicated group. Booking with AA versus BA is a no-brainer - obviously as an "AA person" I'm biased but I think you'd find most people around here would suggest AA over BA.
I think you'd find having the ticket issued by AA will save quite a lot in terms of fuel surcharges tacked onto the ticket cost (look for "YQ" in the "taxes" breakout if booking online.) It's not really a tax but an additional payment to the operating carrier. BA and QF tend to levy much higher fuel surcharges than some other OW operators.
Since you indicate you'll be traveling around Europe prior to traveling to North America, you might also want to consider originating somewhere besides the UK. Depending on currency exchange rates, a DONE4 originating somewhere in the Euro zone won't carry a terribly different base rate than one originating in the UK. However, by originating someplace besides LHR you'll avoid the very high premium-cabin UK Airline Passenger Duty levied on departures from UK airports. In the case of a business class flight from, say, LHR to the USA or Canada, the APD is £120.
You could, for example, depart from Madrid on Iberia's new nonstop to LAX, use the AA codeshare designation on it, and end up paying roughly US$500 less in taxes and fees on just that one flight. It's definitely worth using Skype or some such to phone the AA RTW desk and have them put the ticket together rather than using the online tool, since they can book it using AA flight numbers, thereby avoiding Iberia's equally high fuel surcharges. But even if they pass IB's fuel fine through, it's still cheaper - net - than starting in the UK and paying the APD.