<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JohnAx:
I still must be missing some suble nuance because I don't see what the tears are about. U.S. residents who want to start a trip ex-Canada merely have to do business with a Canadian TA instead of ticketing locally, but the worst that comes to is having to pay the exchange rate on the forex transaction and perhaps a couple days' extra planning ahead for the tix to be sent. And as has been mentioned for those with the f/f miles needed to get to a cheaper "starting point" like NZ, not having an advance purchase req'mt means pretty much showing up to pick up the tix.
What am I missing?</font>
I agree -- I think. I am currently in IST in the middle of a RTW that I originated from AKL. Used miles to get to AKL.
The only concern I have is the initial booking of the flights. It was a pleasure to work with the AA RTW desk to do this. As I originated on CX AKL-HKG-LHR, I assume I would have to deal with CX and have them ticket it in AKL, were I to do this again. Probably a bit more of a hassle but worth the savings in cost vs. a US origination.