Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
All of the Middle East is regarded as Europe.
I thought only Egypt was regarded as Europe, with Israel (and Jordan) considered Africa, from the link just above:
oneworld Explorer regions are defined as:
Europe and Middle East, including Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Russia both east and west of the Urals, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Yemen
Africa (excluding countries named above)
I thought that since Israel wasn't in the list for "Europe and Middle East" that it was considered to be in Africa.
If starting in the Middle East counts as Europe, and we wanted to stop off in Nice and Stockholm, is this possible? Does the rule
You are allowed to take two stopovers in total within your continent of origin in order to get to or from a gateway to begin or return from your international travel of which a maximum of 1 stopover is permitted in each direction in the country of origin.
mean that stopoffs in the continent of origin have to be on the way to or from the gateway, so both Nice and Stockholm would be out?
Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
Due to currency fluctuations, in USD terms at the moment Egypt is a little cheaper ($100 - $150) than either Jordan or Israel for DONE3 and DONE4s.
One negative note, however, is that you'll probably have to have BA issue any RTW beginning in Egypt, unless your first flight is on RJ to AMM. Recently (say the past 3-4 years) BA-issued xONEx tickets have ended up carrying significantly higher taxes and fees - due to fuel surcharges - than those issued by AA. (Iberia also serves CAI but people have not had good luck trying to get IB to issue RTW tickets.) AA does the issuing on behalf of RJ when using AMM as a starting point, or you can use AA's GSA in Israel, Tal Aviation, to get AA-plated tickets out of TLV. On a typical DONEx, the additional cost due to BA's fuel surcharges can amount to another 5-7%+ of the face cost of the ticket, which is serious money with tickets costing $6000 or $7000 (or more.) Using AA as the issuer (or AA as RJ's proxy) tends to avoid those fees.
I'd want to book via the AA RTW desk and ticket via an in-country GSA, which we did last year for our ex-JNB trip this year. Sounds like this won't be possible for Egypt but would for Israel.
Thanks very much for your help. We've done a few xONEx trips, but realize there is a lot we don't know.