Circle Atlantic Questions
 

I have a couple of questions as I try to put a Circle Atlantic business class itinerary together for our travel agent to price/book.

First, I notice that there is a price difference between ex-US and ex-CA departure:

I am in SEA and wanted to fly YVR-JFK (well, it beats the heck out of flying an AA 757 and gets me to MIA in time to take a flight to BOG on Monday), but there is no OW flight between SEA and YVR. Can I "start" my trip in SEA but do the first (and last) segment as a surface sector? I seem to recall something in the RTW rules about this. If not, how in the heck can I get the US price but take the CX flight?

Second, I have worked up the itinerary (see below) and according to KVS numbers, it looks like I came out at roughly 21509 miles... Ouch! Am I really going to waste 4500 miles worth of travel and have to buy the 25k version? Any ideas how to drop 500 miles? Here is my itinerary:

Sunday Day 1

• CX888 YVR-JFK 21:45-6:00+1 (2444 miles)

Monday Day 2

• AA577 JFK-MIA 11:10-14:25 (1091 miles)
  AA915 16:30-19:55 (1514 miles)

Friday Day 6 IB6586 BOG-MAD 18:05-9:55+1 (4992 miles)
Saturday Day 7

• IB7442 MAD-LHR 12:30-14:00 (774 miles)
  SURFACE LHR-LGW
  BA2055 LGW-SSH 22:00-5:00+1 (2404 miles)

Friday Day 13

• SURFACE SSH-CAI (210 miles)
  BA154 12:00 CAI-LHR (2194)
  BA LHR-JFK (3452 miles)
  CX889 JFK-YVR 21:45-00:45+1 (2444 miles)