I don't really have a question, although any comments are always appreciated. We're planning on ticketing our DONE5 in Toronto this Saturday.

The current itinerary is: CJC-xSCL-IPC-SCL//EZE-JFK//EWR-xDFW-OGG//HNL-NRT//KIX-BKK//DPS-HKG-LHR-MRU//NBO-xLHR-xJFK-SCL (49,651 miles).

We'll be using a one-way BA award on American Airlines to get from NYC to SCL (20,000 miles/pp.). This avoids the problem of waiting for capacity to open up on the return from SCL-NYC in late 2009, since we can then just book another one-way award to get home (all for less than the round-trip award if we had used AA miles).

I've also holding a reservation for the Visit South America Pass in order get us around South America, although there seems to be some uncertainty within AA as to whether it needs to be linked to the DONE5 ticket (which takes us out of South America) or to the earlier BA ticketed flight on AA into South America. Right now it's linked to the DONE5, but I guess we'll see what happens when I try to ticket the VSAPASS in a few weeks.

On the Canadian exception angle, we will be purchasing it in Toronto, and the currently quoted price (including taxes) is 9,081 CDS (with a base fare of $8,400 USD). My electronic reservation doesn't display these taxes, so it's hard to validate, but they do appear in line with other tax totals I've seen in various FT posts for similar itineraries. The tickets will be open-dated after the KIX-BKK leg, but I'm assuming that the transfer at the end through LHR is correctly coded as a transit rather than a stopover (since a stopover would violate the rules). So, presumably the taxes are correct.

The AA RTW desk has also indicated that they've given a heads up to the Toronto desk that I'm coming Saturday morning, so theoretically I won't have to waste a lot of time at the airport waiting around for the ticket to be printed. Obviously that's a bit of a wild card.

One other thing I decided to do--which may be useful for others--is to split our two reservations into separate PNRs (although maybe this would have happened anyway?) in order to pay for each ticket separately, since I get better travel protection that way through my credit card (the limits for lost luggage, etc., are per reservation, not per person).

Oh, one other thing the AA RTW desk did that I appreciated (even though I have no status with AA or OneWorld) is to get me on a direct Feb. 2009 flight from EZE-JFK in D, even though it was D0 every time I checked. I was waitlisted for several weeks with no movement, but they cleared me off the waitlist today. This mattered a bit, because it's my first international leg on the DONE5, so it couldn't be changed once ticketed. Also, just adding to what's been said before, the Canadian exception is not well understood by some at the AA RTW desk (for example, a number of people incorrectly told me that I needed a Canadian credit card to pay for this, even when I was physically going to be in Canada when I made the purchase). Ditto for the various exceptions to reentering a continent on a transit without stopover (e.g., Europe and North America) after one has previously left it. However, I should also note that some of the people at the desk are very helpful and really do go above and beyond (e.g., calling me back to clarify aspects about the reservation).