I was one of the guys reporting the CC problem with Mindpearl. I am now exploring the possibility of booking with BA. For this purpose, I slighty changed my itinerary in a way where I was expecting the surcharges to skyrocket (2 BA longhaul instead of QR), but to my surprise, I ended up with a quote that is lower than what AA quoted me.

This is likely not a general rule, but the point is that you might still be able to build a reasonably priced RTW even if you have to ticket it through BA. I actually find more of an issue all the bugs in the online booking tool which prevent you from selecting many valid flights. As I have not yet been able to find a similar resource like the AA RTW desk for other OW airlines, this is at the moment what makes the OW explorer out of SA a no go for me.