MiamiPrep

Or just call the RTW desk. They're usually willing to give prices for a few countries.

anabolism

Per the OW rules that I saw, Egypt but not Israel (or Jordan for that matter) is part of Europe. Is that right? So for Egypt we wouldn't need to add an extra continent, as would be the case with South Africa, but we would if we start in Israel or Jordan?

If we do ex-JNB, I'd probably burn BA miles and do the positioning flights as awards. Israel is an option I hadn't though of. I did try Egypt, mostly because I wondered if prices were lower reflecting the unrest.

Thanks for the great tips!

Gardyloo

All of the Middle East is regarded as Europe.

Due to currency fluctuations, in USD terms at the moment Egypt is a little cheaper ($100 - $150) than either Jordan or Israel for DONE3 and DONE4s.

One negative note, however, is that you'll probably have to have BA issue any RTW beginning in Egypt, unless your first flight is on RJ to AMM. Recently (say the past 3-4 years) BA-issued xONEx tickets have ended up carrying significantly higher taxes and fees - due to fuel surcharges - than those issued by AA. (Iberia also serves CAI but people have not had good luck trying to get IB to issue RTW tickets.) AA does the issuing on behalf of RJ when using AMM as a starting point, or you can use AA's GSA in Israel, Tal Aviation, to get AA-plated tickets out of TLV. On a typical DONEx, the additional cost due to BA's fuel surcharges can amount to another 5-7%+ of the face cost of the ticket, which is serious money with tickets costing $6000 or $7000 (or more.) Using AA as the issuer (or AA as RJ's proxy) tends to avoid those fees.

anabolism

I thought only Egypt was regarded as Europe, with Israel (and Jordan) considered Africa, from the link just above:I thought that since Israel wasn't in the list for "Europe and Middle East" that it was considered to be in Africa.

If starting in the Middle East counts as Europe, and we wanted to stop off in Nice and Stockholm, is this possible? Does the rulemean that stopoffs in the continent of origin have to be on the way to or from the gateway, so both Nice and Stockholm would be out?

I'd want to book via the AA RTW desk and ticket via an in-country GSA, which we did last year for our ex-JNB trip this year. Sounds like this won't be possible for Egypt but would for Israel.

Thanks very much for your help. We've done a few xONEx trips, but realize there is a lot we don't know.

BrewerSEA

You're misinterpreting the phrasing. The named countries are to clarify which nations that are often not considered geographically part of Europe and the Middle East are considered such for the purposes of the Oneworld Explorer. For example, Libya and Sudan are geographically in Africa but are in Euro/ME for the purposes of this fare. Kazakhstan is in Asia, but is considered Euro/ME for this fare as well. Italy and Jordan, for example, are not listed as they are unambiguously located in Europe and the Middle East, respectively.

Gardyloo

The countries listed (Egypt, Morocco et al) are there because they're either on the African continent or traditionally regarded as central/western Asia (ex-USSR countries). Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf states are all treated as Europe. Iran comprises the first "Asian" country one encounters heading east.

The quote from the OW website has been goofed up and is not reflective of the rules. You're allowed a max of 2 stopovers in the continent of origin, full stop. You can make one of those stopovers within the country of origin before departing internationally, and/or one after arriving internationally at the end of the trip, e.g. for trips starting in the US you could fly LAX-oJFK-LHR... and/or ...NRT-oORD-JFK at the end, but not LAX-oJFK-oMIA-LHR on the way out. (Hope that makes sense.) I'd recommend ignoring the bumph on the website and just download (and print) the PDF file with the official rules.

I checked and AA lists a ticket office in Cairo - see http://www.aa.com/i18n/aboutUs/where...kets/egypt.jsp No idea if they're equipped to take credit card/wire transfers for RTW tickets, but they ought to be.

Using the online tool, tickets using RJ for initial flights ex AMM are actually issued by AA on RJ's behalf, and are automatically priced at the Jordanian price. You should play with the booking tool to see if it makes sense for your plans.

Stopping in both NCE and ARN would be difficult (but not impossible) because both require transfers someplace (e.g. LHR) and you'd run out of segments in Europe. If you decide to start in someplace like Cairo, I'd probably recommend hitting Nice or Sweden before you start the trip, i.e. en route to wherever your origin point is.

jerry a. laska

Quite a few of us have purchased xonex's starting from Cairo over the years. As easy, if not easier, than purchasing from South Africa. Do a search on this forum and you will get a lot of threads. Most are from several years ago when Egypt as a starting point was much cheaper than it is now although several people reported purchases from over the last few years. Here is a recent one from this year:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...out-cairo.html

anabolism

This seems blindingly obvious in hindsight, sorry for being dense.

Great, thanks.

Good points. I tried to work in both NCE and ARN, but ran out of total sectors (and we'd have to buy extra sectors for Europe and North America).

One difficulty is that I'd like to also use miles for my partner, which is always hard -- in addition to the flight availability problem (even booking as far out as possible) there are additional restrictions on connecting through the same city.

MiamiPrep

Wrong! I have had at least 6 or 7 RTW's issued in Cairo by Emeco, AA's GSA in Egypt. Very easy agency to work with. I even had email from Inas, one of the agent's I've worked with in Cairo, a few months ago telling me she was fine.

Gardyloo

Yes I should have edited or amplified this point subsequent to blathering. AA doesn't list a GSA for Egypt; they list their own office (which maybe is Emeco for all I know.) If AA issues the ticket the chances are good that it will end up costing less than the same ticket issued by BA due to AA's treatment of fuel surcharges.

We really need some current data points on this, however. The AA/IB/BA JBV is already generating some convergence in treatment of fuel surcharges (with TATL AA redemptions, for example) so it would be good to know if this trend is seeping through to paid RTWs.

ACfly

Does ticketing in Canada exception still apply?

aaupgrade

Yes..

JohnAx

AA seems to be playing the fuel surcharge game (at least TATL) now. Also reflected in xONEx?

Unrelated: the new 2-stopover rule suggests that starting in a "boring" place (one that doesn't figure high in your travel plans, e.g. Africa) can yield a cost offset for the extra tickets you won't have to buy in your "popular" continent e.g. Europe.

anabolism

I found their contact details on aa.com but there is no email address listed. Do you have an email address for them?

What's the best way to arrange purchase through them after having the AA RTW desk set it up?

jerry a. laska

You could try the email for the sales manager listed on this page:
http://www.talaviation.com/info_page.asp?info_id=867

In other threads Gardyloo has recommended using Skype and calling:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...israel+gsa+tal