Looking to purchase a DONE4 ex-JFK ("Ticket 1") to get to JNB, and an AONE4 ex-JNB ("Ticket 2") to get out. Am I thinking about this correctly?

1. Fly JFK-JNB on Ticket 1.

Is JFK-LHR-JNB the only option?

If I book LHR-JNB as an AA flight (obviously on BA metal), instead of booking as a BA flight, do I save on the surcharges, or will it price out the same?

I assume if I only transit and do not have a stopover in LHR on my way to JNB, I can then use my Europe segments at a later date when I resume Ticket 1, correct?


2. Pause Ticket 1 in JNB.

3. Fly JNB-LHR on Ticket 2.

Is there any other option to use segments within Africa?

I will then use Ticket 2 to travel around Europe, and to return to the U.S. (probably via LHR; there are no ex-Europe OneWorld flights with F other than via LHR, are there?)

At a later date, I will use Ticket 2 to travel Transpacific to Asia and then onto JNB (via LHR), where I will resume Ticket 1 to return to Europe and travel around Europe and Asia before returning to the US Transpacific.

Am I missing anything? Any way to minimize the taxes and surcharges?

Yes, traveling via LHR is at present the only way on Oneworld metal to JNB from Europe.

No, you can't return to Europe if you've transited LHR en route to JNB. South Africa is not one of the countries where this is allowed, only Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria.

No, AA routinely passes through BA's fuel fines in RTW tickets, regardless of the code on the flight. The difference appears to be that if BA issues the ticket they'll add YQ to everybody's segments, not just their own.


The plan fails on the "return to Europe" part of the Ticket 1 scheme. If you're set on a DONE4 ex-USA then you probably ought to think about flying on the ex-JFK DONE4 to Nairobi or Entebbe, then flying on a revenue ticket down to SA to start No. 2, in essence "freezing" your eastbound ticket in one of the countries where you would be allowed to return to Europe later.

No, for the same reason. You'd have to fly from HKG to JNB (or SYD-JNB if you included Oz instead of Asia.)

And just FYI, DONE4 tickets ex-CAI are around $500 more than DONE4s ex-JNB, and around $5000 less than DONE4s issued in the USA. Can you get to Egypt for less than five grand?

I ticketed a simple AONE4 ex-JNB (FWIW dealing by phone entirely with the "AA" office in Cape Town) and I'm pretty sure I got AA's YR pricing on the JNB-xLHR-LAX code-share that starts my ONE I used ITA multi-city to see the taxes and was within $50 of the amount I paid (and the difference between AA's YR and BA's YQ is more like $200 iirc).

I also believe that you can't use an AA code-share JNB-LHR or vv. It has to be to/from a point beyond LHR, e.g. JFK.

BA had an I-fare LHR-JNB-LHR for something around USD2500 that i pasted around the RTW. I think I've seen fares on that route under $2000 in the last year.

FYI, if traveling this summer there is service on AA 772s with F from FRA and MAD I believe.