I forget the address, but it's on the road between the Westin Hotel and the Waterfront. Google Mindpearl's address. But, unless you're a corporate customer, they won't deal with you. You have to phone AA in CPT.

You always needed an appointment at Mindpearl; "dropping in" was never an option AFAIK.

I typed my four segments into ITA/matrix multi-city and looked at the taxes-and-fees they listed. Be careful to notice which currency each item is displayed in - specifying e.g. USD or ZAR up front applies to the total, but taxes and fees may not be bound by your spec.

For more segments than their multi-city allows you may have to do some overlap to make sure things like transits vs stops show up correctly. But if you're comfortable with ITA it's rather quick to e.g. change carriers and see the differences.

Another data point: two xONEx RTWs ticketed successfully with mindpearl yesterday.

Set them up with the AA RTW desk on Wednesday morning US (evening in South Africa). Initially on one PRN then split them into two PRNs as our first flight is on a different day (all other flights were the same). It was sent for expedited pricing as the first flight is on Saturday.

For some reason only one PRN was priced when I rang mindpearl 12 hours later (South Africa morning) and spoke with Pablo. He said he'd get the other PRN priced. You'd hope it would be trivial since the routing was identical to the one that was priced. Alas the promised return call 2-3 hours later never arrived and I found out they had been pulled into training re: US airways merger and he hadn't sent it for pricing or called me :(. Fortunately as we spoke the 2nd PRN was priced up (presumably in the US).

Ticketing then took 20-30 mins on the phone to give the two sets of credit card details and confirm it all went through. It was then visible immediately as ticketed on aa and we got our email confirmations ~30 min later.

Interesting: I was able to use that AA PRN on ba.com in order to manage the BA flights (seat selection, check-in etc). Not everything came over (had to re-enter passport details) but that's better than I was expecting.

Very good Mindpearl service
 

I ticketed an ex-JNB AONE4 with Mindpearl a few days ago without problems.

After I had finalised my routing using the OneWorld journey planner I called up the AA RTW desk via the AA EXP UK number and an agent entered my itinerary, sent it off to be priced, and gave me a record locator. I was slightly concerned about not having any AA intercontinental segments but he wanted to use the AA codeshare on a BA segment SFO-LHR which was agreeable to me. I said I had to check a few things and asked for it to be placed on hold.

The itinerary was visible on aa.com shortly after, and I found the agent had made several errors in the data entry. He didn't seem like the sharpest tool in the box. I had to call back to get these fixed, and the agents that answered me on subsequent calls seemed a lot sharper. It was well worth checking the itinerary carefully online.

Pricing appeared on the reservation a few hours later and was roughly as I expected, slightly lower than I had got from the OneWorld planner probably because of the AA codeshare replacing BA.

I called Mindpearl about 2 days later (I had no time during SA business hours before then) and a competent (South African sounding) agent looked up the record locator, congratulated me on my EXP status, and took my (UK-based) payment card details. I spent about 10 minutes on hold for payment to be processed.

The record locator status changed to ticketed a few hours later and I have a ticket number.

Overall quite painless, probably even easier than doing it all with AA in the US as I did on my first xONEx ticket. Excellent, efficient service from Mindpearl.

Also thanks to all the people who contributed to this thread already, it made my life very easy.

That echoes my experience last year with an AONE ex-JNB except that I did business completely with Mindpearl (which answers "American Airlines" and sounds just like the folks at DFW). It was an excellent interface, other than from the U.S. the time difference means you can only speak with them around midnight (PT) and I typically had to wait a few minutes for an agent.

The agents I spoke with were certainly professional and competent, even to the point of pricing our tickets themselves after waiting three days for the AA rate desk (accurately, near as I can tell, but it was a simple itinerary). They always sounded self-confident, took my announcement that I wanted to book an AONE4 as if they had been doing it for years, accurately entered the itin I gave them and booked the flights I needed quickly.

But I'd gladly spend the ~$200 (AA YR vs BA YQ) and NOT use the AA codeshare ex-JNB. We showed up at the gate to learn that our flight had cxl'ed, BA had moved their pax to the later flight, but as AA pax we were AA's problem. I'm not timid and stood my ground and a more-empathetic supervisor took care of re-accommodating us. After a nail-biting wait.

In view of a post a couple up from this one, I'd not count on that outcome. Sara, ex-of the DFW ATW desk, said that (in her day) BA informed AA of IRROPS and the ATW desk would look after us, but that obviously didn't happen. AA c/s replied to me that AA expected its partners to take care of codeshare pax anytime it was in their power to do so - which it clearly was in my case - so AA seems to have taken itself out of that loop. Flyer beware!

I had a similar experience a few years ago using the AY code on CPT-xLHR (-HEL). BA wouldn't lift a finger, Mindpearl couldn't help... Finally made a minor scene and got routed via JNB using a BA code, but like you say, a bit disconcerting.

Not very encouraging (either post). I'll bear this in mind for the one AA codeshare that I have (SFO-LHR).

Commensurately when AA failed to actually re-issue a previous AONE4 after a change and it wasn't obvious they had not done so, CX (in Seoul) were extremely accommodating in holding seats for me while I called AA to get them to reissue it ASAP, which took an hour and some on the phone.

In the current case I somewhat felt that one AA codeshare was required for them to issue the ticket, in that they are reputed to be awkward if they don't have a long haul flight in the ticket and I want the ticket issued by them because I have the FF status with them. Possibly I could have pressed the issue.

They have.

In my own experience, tickets issued in S.A. have always been charged in ZAR.

Absolutely. Just look at the ticket receipt and it will state the currency as ZAR to the right of the total price. However, there is a glitch on aa.com that unnecessarily shows a "$" symbol to the left of the amount so this should be ignored. The total cost of the ticket will then be converted (by Visa, MC, AMEX) to an equivalent amount in your billing country currency.

For those that ticketed through Mindpearl, are you bound to call them for any changes after that?

Or can you call the DFW RTW Desk for changes? Or maybe either one? Is it indifferent?

I have called the AA DFW RTW about 3 times to change dates this year on a Mindpearl ticketed DONE6. Have never called Mindpearl after initially purchasing the ticket.

Not bound to Mindpearl as others have said. For date changes I'd just call whoever is most convenient for you. Bear in mind their lines are open at quite different times.

For route changes, one nice thing about mindpearl is that you have a chance of speaking directly to someone able to price the change up (using a tool which won't give a breakdown) whilst you are on the phone.

Booked with AA RTW desk and paid Mindpearl and had to make some date changes so decided to ring Qantas and not AA...no issues except that Qantas reissued the ticket on their stock...Was initially concerned but so far our DONE5 is proving to be hastle free.