Originally Posted by
calduffys
New to the OneWorld RTW forum. Very interested in a DONE5 trip and I am happy to pre-position out of the US (Las Vegas) to achieve significant savings. I am a retired airline employee and the idea of positive space business class seats on this adventure is interesting. When checking various starting locations, both Japan and Cairo Egypt seem to have the cheapest costs, with Cairo being significantly less. I know there was a currency devaluation on Egypt and wonder if the costs associated with a ex-CAI are to be believed. Pre-positioning to Cairo would not be an issue for me as we are hoping to travel to both JNB and CPT this year. We would likely break the trip into three pieces wit non-rev flights home and back to pick up the trip after several months at home. Appreciate any insight on my cost question as well as any other advice. The wiki is extremely informative but seems to have little in the way of what is happening in the last 2 years. Cheers and Happy Travels
Yup, unfortunately ex-CAI is gone, at least in the form that we knew it. But never know it could creep back up if the EGP continues to devalue further.
I think for your questions, the
Pricing and Booking experiences thread is going to have more of the information you're looking for. For the time being the best prices are currently ex-OSL and ex-Japan, though there's been some talk around ex-South Africa again. I haven't priced one yet to compare but the base fare seems a bit high to be competitive, the one advantage is that you would get all allotted stopovers in Asia and Europe / ME regions vs the limitations you have on ex-OSL and ex-Japan.
Not sure which airline(s) you have non-rev benefits on, but imagine it's pretty easy to position to Japan from the west coast on any of the majors, or their partners if you get benefits on alliance partners.