No Sudan currency available on E/F for KRT, so USD used:Results from ExpertFlyer.comResults from ExpertFlyer.comResults from ExpertFlyer.comB]Results from ExpertFlyer.com[/B]

thanks serfty...

KVS has the local fares:

[KVS Availability Tool 6.2.0/Diamond - Sabre: Fares/DotRes/US]
[KVS Availability Tool 6.2.0/Diamond - Sabre: Fares/DotRes/US]

More exchange rate confusion. Direct AUD price from expert flyer does not match the xe converted SGP amount.

From Expert flyer - AUD 6226
Conversion from xe (20400 SGP) - AUD 7118

somebol, that is explained in prior posts - expertflyer uses a bank rate (if available) as it seems to be for SGD-USD, but otherwise defaults to the IATA tables (which use a dated rate) for SGD-AUD.

If you ticket fro KRT you will either pay in USD on the oneworld engine (which appears to use a bank rate) or in SGD in which case your credit card company will charge you bank rates (equivalent to xe)

I read thru some of the earlier posts and could not find an answer: did anybody actually start a ticket in KRT?
I contacted the Sudanese embassy in Berlin and getting a visa seems to be no problem at all. Hotel Res + money + passport + wait for a week or so.

It is not as easy and straight forward as they say it is. Waiting times can easily exceed one month.

depends which passport you have. US is the worst, then UK. I think with EU passports, it's probably much easier/quicker to get a Sudanese visa.

Yes, but even then it can take a couple of months and not just a week to get the visa.

And not some way (involving payment to an interested intermediary) that will hasten the process?

What I wanted to say is that from my experience with some embassies the actual time to process a visa can be substantially longer than what the embassy website says.
Some embassies might be faster, there might be expediting possibilities and I am not an expert on Sudanese visas. All I am saying is that it can take longer than "a week or so" even if the website might make it look like an easy process.

Very very confused. I have read on this forum about BA adding on YQ, that some airlines don't charge. Gardyloo, am I missing something, unless I fly IB for the first segment (assuming IB doesn't charge YQ like BA) aren'
t I better off having RJ issue the ticket and therefore wouldn't I want RJ to be the airline I fly on the first segment?

Please help steer me in the correct direction I am thinking of buying my first RTW ticket for travel in 2012.

Normally, the ticket is issued using the stock of the airline you first fly. This is how the online tool is doing it (with some exceptions). You will then pay the fuel surcharges of that carrier often for all the flights in the itinerary.

However, this is not a rule. In other words, you can get the ticket issued by any airline on the itinerary, theoretically even by an airline which you don't even fly. So if you get this ticket issued by AA your fees will be a lot lower than when BA is issuing it. In reality, for an airline to be willing to issue the ticket they often ask for you to have at least one long flight with them. The online tool will always take the first airline unless the first airline is RJ, then AA will issue the ticket. If you want somebody else to issue the ticket then you need a travel agent /airline to do this for you.

The point I was making was in regard to an AONEx being issued in the Middle East.

It might very well be that having RJ be the first carrier, hence having the ticket issued by AA on RJ's behalf, might save some money overall in fuel surcharges. (But I'd caution not to overestimate the scale of savings. Do some dummy booking using the OWE tool - some with BA as the first/issuing carrier, and others with RJ/AA, and you might be surprised at how small the difference will be. Much depends on the route and carrier choice later.)

However my point was in the context of posters wanting the most first class bang for the buck. In the case of RJ as the first carrier, since there is no first class service into or out of AMM on Oneworld metal, choosing RJ means basically that at least the first, and potentially the first two, segments of 16 can't be in FC. In the case of KRT origins, it would be at least the first two, KRT-AMM and AMM-XXX, that would be in business class by definition.

In some peoples' minds, foregoing 2 FC segments out of 16 (at least) might be a sufficient disincentive that paying the extra YQ and/or country-of-issuance costs might be worth it, in order to originate in some country and/or some carrier that offers FC as soon as possible (which in the case of the Middle East means BA, full stop.)

My experience of Sudan
 

In case this is of any help in deciding whether to originate from KRT:

1) I flew to the Sudan for wedding three or four years ago. I flew with British Midland via Beirut. This is a dreadful flight in economy, do not do it!
2) I got my visa in London. The bride was the daughter of a Sudanese official so an arangement had been made to expedite the applications of our group but even that took a couple of weeks and the process at the embassy was perhaps best described as whimsical and arbitrary. The embassy kept my passport during this period.
3) Credit cards (other than Diners, the French foreign policy exception!) do not work in the Sudan because of US sanctions (these may have been lifted) and Sudanese pounds do not appear to be available outside the Sudan. As a consequence, all tourists carry stacks of hard currency. Whether the sanctions also affect interbank settlement of Sudan pound transactions, I can't say, but I do wonder how the price of the RTW ticket is actually arrived at....
4) Arriving at KRT airport was, er, opaque. However, I am used to first world airports and their transparency of process. It may be run of the mill for African airports, or even quite good, I cannot tell you. It may also make a lot more sense if you speak Arabic! Again, arrangement had been made for us by the family and we wranglers meet us airside to escort us through the process but it still took a very long time to go through immigration etc.
5) Departing KRT airport was frankly chaotic. The flight list was incorrectly compiled and a couple of our group were in danger of being forbidden boarding but it all got sorted out in the end. Again, the family and the arabic-speaker in our group sorted it all out.
6) We stayed in the KRT "Hilton" - in quotes because, again because of sanctions, the official franchise ran out years ago. I believe it has been rebranded a Sofitel since we stayed. It is a faded seventies Modernist concrete block, with vintage interiors and a nice swimming pool. Wallpaper would love it and it would make a good set for a pre-oil crisis Graham Greene film. It was not cheap!
7) If you get a visa and actually enter the Sudan, you will find a lovely country. The Sudanese are extremely dignified and will leave you to your own devices (not like Egypt!). There is plenty of interest to see - the whirling dervishes, the market at Omdurman, the pyramids at Merope etc. - and the city itself is quite grand, set on the banks of the confluence of the Niles, with islands and boats and boathouses dotted on the shores. We went in December and it was still very hot!
8) I would love to go back. I would also love to use it as an origin for OWE fares but, having flown in and out once, I would rather let somebody else prove to me that it can be done....

Good luck!