<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Blueboy:
AIB, my routing is as follows: MEL-LAX-DFW-BJX (stop & own way) GDL-DFW-GUA (stop & own way) CUN-MIA-MGA (stop)-MIA-LPB (own way) CJC-SCL-UIO (stop)-EWR-LAX-MEL. Not quite the round the world trip as stated.
At no stage am I stopping in the USA and the departure taxes for Nicaragua and Ecuador have not been included in the taxes already paid up front.</font>
Yeah - ouch !! Well, your answer is right there as to the high cost - 5 entries/transits through the USA, regardless of whether or not stopping, will get you a heap of user fees/taxes all in USD of course. Good job you didn't do this a year ago when the aussie battler was under 50!
On a more serious note, it looks to me like you should prepare yourself for some possible grief. I don't think the yanks are going to take too kindly to someone popping in and out of their country, while all the while visiting such reputable places like Nicaragua and Ecaudor. They're twitchy enough just for HNL transits and Canada to USA entries and gave me grief last I went through a month or so ago. They're *very* jumpy at the moment.
Although you aren't entering the states per se, there may be cases where you do indeed have to (technically) for change of terminal etc.
I'd want to check all the connections with AA direct to see what will happen at DFW and MIA.
Cheers.