Originally Posted by spotwelder
Remember that some of Africa is in Europe/Middle East for fares purposes so it depends where you want to go on the continent.
Try route BOS-Australia-SYD-JNB and Africa-Europe home for a 4 continent NA/SWP/Africa/Europe. What about buying a NBO-LHR-BOS return ticket as these could all be day flights if you try and economy with a stop in London might not be too bad a fare to give you all the routes you need.
Do you have to do the continents in that order on those dates?
I have to be in Sydney in late May/early June and in Kenya in mid-August for FT-related events. (My original post has links to their threads for the curious.) Other than that, and a general desire to be home for as much of the time in between as possible, no constraints.
It seemed that a DONE* would let me fly in comfort and earn enough AA Q-points to requalify for EXP for not much more than the two round trips would otherwise cost in economy.
Africa is the sticky part. The problem with the SYD-JNB idea is that I'd nominally be in Africa for two months. Getting home from there is more expensive than from London; the longer trip makes an economy seat less attractive; and with AA not flying that route I can't upgrade, or at least can't upgrade all of it. The restrictions on transiting Europe en route from Africa make it hard to get back, especially since no oneWorld airline (as far as I can tell) can get me to either Ghana or Nigeria from anywhere else on the continent. All the BA and IB flights are to their home countries, none within Africa itself. The African BA affiliates just have local networks within their home areas. Am I missing a basic point?
Thanks for everyone's help!!!!