Originally Posted by
JohnAx
Rumor has it that MRU isn't worth the trouble except for A-class, but I haven't checked. There's that $300 fee, cases where they quoted incredibly high taxes, BA's fuel taxes in any case, availability issues, routing restrictions, and the time and cost of getting there and back. If you want, I'll PM you the contact, but I think there are better choices for D. Meanwhile, if you haven't already looked at the cost and schedule for getting there (and back, after your trip) I suggest you do that - I was all thrilled with the cheap A fare until I did that.
Even with the $300 surcharge a DONE4 is still a thousand bucks cheaper than ex-NRT for instance. I just set up a DONE4 ex-MRU for my wife and consciously avoided putting any BA longhauls in the itinerary (MRU-JNB-SYD-LAX, ORD-MAD-JNB etc) and the taxes/fees came in pretty comparably to a similar DONE4 itinerary I started with AA in Japan in March. But of course it's the getting there... And on those lines, one should remember that the 75K AA J award from Europe to Africa is still one of the best deals in the Aadvantage program.