Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
By using BA for your initial flight, using the online tool for booking will virtually guarantee you that the total fuel surcharges for the ticket will be as high as possible. Anecdotal, but even when using an AA GSA, if the first flight is on BA metal you'll likely see a very big and unpleasant YQ/YR total
OP here. I have heard that anecdotally. But I've also heard that AA won't ticket a RTW that begins with a BA flight, and I've had no problem there. (I'd rather book by phone, as the online tool has consistently yielded weird fares.) I asked a GSA about the surcharge implications of starting on BA. He didn't know, but the quote I got from my original dummy booking wasn't outrageous: about a grand.
Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
Granted, going CAI-AMM-JFK or CAI-AMM-ORD potentially reduces the total miles by a thousand or two, but if the overall savings are on the order of $700 or $800 (and could be more) - then you could allocate the same dollars to travel outside the RTW that could generate equal or more miles.
The mileage difference is 4,188 miles or 6,282 EQPs (CAI-LHR-LAX-JFK vs CAI-AMM-ORD - and I was kinda looking forward to my first AA 777-300 flight in J!) RJ's AMM-JFK flight doesn't operate on the day I need to fly, so the only option is CAI-AMM-ORD plus an add-on to NYC. If it saved me $800 I'd consider it but I don't know how to get a reliable fee comparison: I used the online tool to test a bunch of very different dummy bookings, and it yielded similar taxes and fees. The simplest tactic might be to make several similar bookings in different names by phone, and pick whichever one is cheapest. Can I change the name on a booking after it's on hold?