Looking at using a Business Class Global Explorer <34k miles. Would plan to have it issued in South Africa, start in Dakar. (We are in London - Dakar seems to be closest place in Africa to start)
I don't think there is an online tool for Global Explorer like there is for OneWorld Explorer. So how do you work out what taxes, surcharges etc would be? Is it safe just to use, say, the AA website to get quotes for single flights (eg Dakar-New York via Madrid) and assume the taxes etc on the Global Explorer ticket will be the same as on an ordinary ticket?

Oneworld doesn't publish fares for RTWs originating in Senegal, so you wouldn't be able to start there. However you'd be able to end there, provided that if you start in South Africa you go first to Asia or Australia, and not Europe, from JNB. Here's an excerpt from the GlobEx rules (my bold):

Note Senegal is only served by Iberia and only from Madrid. Senegal is not included in the list of African cul-de-sac countries to/from which a second European entry is allowed, so it really only works as an end point.

As for the taxes and fees issue, I don't think there's really a way to compute them in advance - too many tariff rules, fuel surcharges that are airline-specific, taxes that vary according to stopover/transit rules, etc. It's hard enough for the various airline rates departments to manage it, even with their resources. As a rule of thumb I add 12% to the ticket price if the ticket is being issued by BA, 6-7% if by AA, but those are pretty rough.

Damn! Well spotted! Stupid me. But Lagos (LOS) would work? To New York either via Madrid on Iberia or LHR on BA?

Thanks for the hint about what % to apply for charges and taxes. Very worth not having ticket written by BA then. Can one use the AA agent in South Africa to write the ticket for travel starting in Lagos?

bnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Please note that the price you'll pay is based on the country of origin, not the country where the ticket is sold. More from the rules:
In the case of SA vs. Nigeria, the price ex-Nigeria is higher than the South African price (by around $75 today, depending on exchange rates) so that's what you'd pay. I don't know if Mindpearl in CPT would want to issue the ticket; they would probably just send you to the AA RTW desk in the US since they'd have to send the PNR there (and to the AA rates department - most likely in Dublin) in order to get it priced. Not worth the effort to you IMO.

I might suggest that you think about having the ticket issued in Jordan or Israel rather than Nigeria or South Africa. The prices are virtually the same, I expect you'd find access costs similar or cheaper, and you'd probably have an easier time of it altogether.

Without trying to pry, I wonder why you're thinking of the Global Explorer rather than the Oneworld Explorer. If you're visiting 4 or more continents, the mileage restriction on the GlobEx can really pinch your flexibility compared to the freedom created by the absence of mileage limits with the OWE. Across the board, the DGLOB34 prices are usually the same, or even a little higher, than a DONE4 from the same origin country. Again, not trying to be a snoop, but maybe if you indicated your planned route there could be some better discussion of the benefit of one starting point vs. another. Certainly the ability to buy the ticket online (and pay the price in the originating country) is a big plus for the Oneworld Explorer vs. the GlobEx.

You're clearly a mine of 'best way to do things'. I guess I got fixated on Global Explorer because that way you get to use the Qantas codeshare on Air Tahiti from Papeete to Auckland. Though I also considered Santiago-Easter Island-Lima-Auckland and buying a separate ticket from Auckland to some palm fringed islands.
And Amman makes sense - now that Easyjet are flying London-Amman the previously crazy prices on that route are set to tumble so access would be much cheaper/easier than South Africa.

Sorry if my ramblings seem naive, I'm new to this world!

Sorry - forgot to post planned route. It is very much in formative stages right now. But these are the places we need to go - to see Central and South America and Southern Africa and the Pacific.

We live in London.

First place we want to get to will be Boston (BOS) or New York (JFK).
We then intend to do a surface sector all the way to Santiago. We actually prefer travelling on the ground and seeing things, but we know Panama to Colombia by surface isn't 'safe' so that will need a flight, plus we want to go to Cuba which we understand won't be possible on the RTW ticket if we have AA flights (??)
So we would cross Canada to Vancouver (by train), south on the West Coast to Mexico, pick up some tour through Central America, hop across to Colombia then south through Peru and Chile then East to Argentina and back West to Santiago. There is an argument that says we pick up the RTW again in Buenos Aires (AEP) to SAntiago (SCL) then on a Global we would go Easter Island (IPC) - Papeete (PPT) - Auckland (AKL). If not on a Global we would have to go back from IPC to SCL or LIM then to AKL.

Then AKL-SYD-JNB then surface to Nairobi (NBO) from where we would want to get home so I guess we would book NBO-LHR-AMM (or could we stop at LHR??)

I have just been playing with that with the OW tool and it seems starting from Amman makes it a DONE5 rather than a DONE4. Need to play a bit more with the tool and see if it fits into 34,000 miles. According to mileagemonkey this itinerary:
amm-jfk-eze-scl-ipc-ppt-akl-syd-jnb-amm
comes to 31,503 miles.

If you are doing an xONEx, there is no mileage limit. In fact many of us plan the routing to maximise the number of miles flown, for elite qualification purposes.


Happy Travels.

Yes, it would be a five-continent itinerary (xONE5) since you're touching both North and South America as well as Oz, Africa and Europe. Since there are no Africa < > South America routes flown by Oneworld airlines, all Oneworld RTWs must include Europe.
Yes, but since there's no JNB-AMM service you'll have to go via MAD or LHR in order to return to the Middle East, which will send you over the max. It looks like the easiest way you could fit this into a GlobEx would be to cut out North America.

You might look around for starting points where a DONE5 wouldn't be too onerous compared to the GlobEx (looks like Egypt might be cheaper than Jordan, also closer). Or, make a 2-year "strategic" travel plan and think about using mileage redemption (on a business class RTW you can earn a huge number of FF points) for destinations that would add big costs to your initial paid ticket.