"I did not go straight to Anant (maybe I will now) but got a response from Circle of Asia that basically said we aren't interested and don't issue tickets..... I was suprised."
I think that maybe you ended up in the wrong part of the company. 1st time I called I was told that they don't do straight ticketing in that dept and gave me the number I posted
"What discount levels -- cash or credit card (Visa) were you able to negotiate. "
I didn't actually negotiate at all. I was just given ,without asking ,about an 8% discount which I was v impressed with and paid for it by Visa. There was obviously an additional charge for the courier. Alect will have a more up to date knowledge on what they are offering. Also, I did have the flights all held and priced up by AAs RTW desk. All Anant had to do was take it over and issue, so that may (or may have made no difference) have helped the discount
Dave