Gardyloo, thanks very much for this update. I have entered these new figures into my fare spreadsheet and reach the following conclusions.

Maritius is still by far the best A starting point for AONEs. The 4 continent fare is only 73% of the next best AONE4 and the 5 continent fare is 77% of the next best (South Africa in both cases). Even if one assumes that starting in Mauritius (also South Africa) requires an extra continent (one has to pay for Africa but there is not much you can do with intra-Africa flights), comparing the ex-MRU 4 continent to the best AONE3 (which is now Japan), AONE4 ex-MRU is still about 72% of an AONE3 ex-Japan. MRU is also better for a DONE4 than anywhere else, although the DONE3 ex-CMB seems slightly ($50) cheaper than the DONE4 ex-MRU. Note that I have not included Malawi in the above comparisons because it is more expensive that MRU (but not South Africa) and does not seem to be a starting point that anyone is likely to consider.

Putting my money where my mouth is, today I’ve just returned to the US from flying the first four segments (more than 18,000 miles all in First) of a AONE5 started in MRU a week ago. (It would be nice if it could be extrapolated to 20 segments totaling 90,000 miles all in First but the law of averages is about to catch up). Before starting out, I posted some thoughts on RTWs ex-MRU and I’ll add some further thoughts in the next few days.