Hi Folks! We are attempting another RTW trip beginning in July of this summer. We will be doing a positioning trip at the end of July that will take us to Budapest at the end of July for a competition our kids have. From there we will get to Johannesburg and stay in South Africa Nambia until the beginning of September.

Our plan is to use a number of BA miles collected to travel throughout Europe and to Cape Town. We need to be back in Toronto several times throughout the year.

Here's what we need for sure.....
- We want to start from Africa (South Africa or Nambia) around September 1st 2013
1) We need to be back in Toronto around Xmas/New Years
2) We need to be back in Europe (for a wedding in Ireland summer of 2014)
3) All travel needs to be completed prior to Sept 2014 - ticket will start when we leave South Africa

We are interested in seeing and expect to purchase additional tickets outside of our 16 segments:
Nambia
Croatia
Russia
Ski in Europe outside of high season
Goto Hawaii (maybe LAX instead of YVR below)
Seoul Korea
Bali
Thailand (week of diving)


We don't really want to see Australia again; however, we don't want to head to Europe from South Africa because we want to do this the following summer. We would prefer a DONE4 for pricing if at all possible.

This is a valid itin based on the Onewold planner (doesn't say it works with Mileage Monkey because of JNB-PER)

What would the price ex-JNB purchased in South Africa? We would likely need only 2 tickets - either L (econ) or D (bus)

JNB-PER-HKG-YYV-ORD-MBJ-BOS-DME-LHR-HEL-JNB


Thanks in advance for any suggestions and assistance.

Kevin and family

JNB-PER is a QF codeshare on SA. It isn't useable on a oneworld explorer (xONEx). It is useable on a Global Explorer (xGLOBnn).

But then again JNB-SYD-HKG on QF would work - taking a bit more time but earning more miles/points

You don't say which FF program has your membership (BA implied). Nor whether the xONEx will be L or D. I ask since CX has JNB-HKG flights and would require one less continent (ie no SWPacific) as DPS is part of Asia. Would CX L class credit to BA?

Happy wandering

Fred

Thanks Fred. Our FF program was AA; however, our Platinum membership is now expired. We converted some AMEX points into Avios and will be using these on our year off for smaller flights in Europe/Africa and Toronto/JKK/ORD.

If you open a new Platinum AMEX card in Canada you get instant Saphire Status with CX (Marco Polo Gold) for a year- so perphaps CX will be our FF program next year. If we end up doing a DONEx and have Gold status with CX it might be worth the extra $$ over a LONEx. Our last trip 4 years ago had us buying 4 tickets. This trip will be just myself and wife with our kids joining us intermittently throughout the year.

Great info on the JNB-HKG flights on CX!! Saving a continent would increase the likelihood of doing a DONEx over a LONEx

JNB-HKG-YVR-ORD-MBJ-BOS-DME-LED-LHR-HEL-JNB

Could someone tell me what the above would cost in South African Rand in a DONEx and also a LONEx?? Not sure where to find the latest South African pricing?

Thanks in advance

Kevin

When looking at an itinerary you need to include all segments in order to be sure you're not exceeding the per-continent flight limits. In your case, a valid xONEx routing would be something like

JNB-HKG-YVR-DFW-MBJ-MIA-BOS-LHR-DME-LED-HEL-LHR-JNB or JNB-HKG-YVR-JFK-MIA-MBJ-MIA-BOS-LHR-DME-LED-HEL-LHR-JNB or some such.

BOS-DME requires a connection through somewhere in Europe, presumably LHR, so that would make the European part of your "original" itinerary something like ...BOS-xLHR-DME-LED-LHR-HEL-LHR-JNB, which is one too many segments in Europe.

Current pricing according to Expert Flyer is ZAR 21,800 for an LONE4 and ZAR 48,000 for a DONE4. Those are BASE FARES, and taxes and fuel surcharges can add 10% - 20% or more to those prices depending on carrier, stopovers (e.g. the UK) and other factors.

Note your route above only contains 12 or 13 segments, so you could include the remaining segments in your ticket fairly easily, e.g. HKG-DPS-HKG for Bali, or possibly originate in Namibia rather than South Africa and make your first segment WDH-JNB. Prices originating in Namibia are almost identical to those originating in South Africa. Any xONEx begun in Africa can be ended anywhere else in Africa, so if you wanted, say, to conclude in Tanzania or Kenya, you could do so.

LONE4 21800+tax ZAR
DONE4 48000+tax ZAR

Thanks for the pricing -it's what I also got when using the Oneworld tool. Your suggestion for Bali is great!! HKG-DPS-HKG works for us. We will likely have to start from JNB as positioning flights are far less expensive (YYZ-LGW-BUD-JNB)

Taxes were 14,000 RAND or 29% on a DONE4 with the 13 segments - so probably a little higher once we add in DPS. Any suggestions on what to do to minimize the taxes on a DONEx? I don't think the taxes on a LONEx were as high (ie far less than 29%).

Thanks for the advice and help.

Kevin

Now just trying to minimize the tax where possible.

Kevin

It's probably not taxes, it's fuel surcharges being added by some carriers, most notably British Airways. Reducing the number of BA segments is one way to lower the "tax" cost. This makes South Africa hard as an origin/destination point, since for the moment BA is the only game in town for European arrivals/departures from JNB/CPT. Cathay may also be adding fuel surcharges (look for "YQ" in the tax/fee breakouts) so you might substitute AA for the transpacific segments, e.g. HKG-xNRT-DFW.

In addition, stopovers in the UK will result in very big UK Air Passenger Duty charges being added. These can be avoided by only transiting through the UK, or the amounts can be reduced by limiting UK departures to short-haul destinations, as the APD is distance-based.

OK
1) Minimize BA flights (I assume using AA codeshares would be favourable)
2) Check YQ taxes on CX flights

Funny thing about the European flights.....I'm trying to use longer flights to maximize miles and value for Business in Europe but I guess I have to take a hit on the taxes to do this.

Much has been learned and accomplished in the last 24 hours. Thank you

Unfortunately AA is now passing through BA fuel surcharges, even if it's an AA flight number on BA metal. The only way to avoid BA fuel fines is to avoid BA.

Cathay now adds a fuel surcharge of US$124.50 for flights between HKG and Europe, Africa, Oz/NZ, India/Middle East and the Americas, and a lesser amount ($29.50) for southeast and east Asia. Here's their listing.

To see BA's fuel surcharge amounts, you have to go to their Japanese website (it seems they don't want to make it easy to find the amounts elsewhere) but here it is, e.g. GBP179.50 for 9+ hour flights in business or first.

To reiterate, these are not taxes. The technical term for them is "profit." Note you will pay BA fuel surcharges even on mileage redemption tickets, including those booked with AA or other airlines' miles/points.

You can (at least as of last October) avoid BA fuel fines with an IB code.

Not that I want to hijack 'Misnerfamily's' project, but I've been looking at DoneX out of JNB myself. Would love to start there but not necessarily return. Can I not use the final segment back into Africa, either from Europe or Asia, instead finishing back there? Are there any known issues with this, penalties, repricing of ticket etc? THANKS!

Yes, you can finish anywhere in Africa (as defined* in the ticket rules). There are no issues with doing this.

If your final segment is to be Asia-->Africa, then you have no choice since the only oneworld flight available is CX's HKG-JNB (ditto if from SWP - the only flight is QF's SYD-JNB)
But from Europe there are a number of options from either LHR or MAD

* the ticket rules define the countries in North Africa (from Morocco to Egypt and including Sudan) to be part of the Europe/Middle East continent - and so you cannot end your ex-Africa xONEx in any of those countries

Thanks Pandaperth, but I guess I wasnt quite clear enough: I was wondering about not going back to Africa at all but finishing the trip in either Europe or Asia. Can't ticket it this way, of course, so would just not take that last flight back into Africa.
Apologies again to the Misners for muscling in .....