Hi, the exact text from OW is:

8. Cape Town (ZA) - Moscow (RU) 30/May/2014 (+1 day) Change flight Surface Sector info
Cape Town (CPT)
19:45 | Terminal:
London (LHR)
06:30 (+1 day) | Terminal: 5
British Airways
BA58
Stops: 0Aircraft: Boeing 747-400 PassengerBooking Class: L
No upgrades available
London (LHR)
08:55 | Terminal: 5
Moscow (DME)
15:35 | Terminal:
British Airways
BA233
Stops: 0Duration: 17h 50mAircraft: Boeing 747-400 PassengerBooking Class: L
Add Premium Economy
9. Moscow (RU) - Helsinki (FI) 09/Jun/2014 Change flight Surface Sector info
Moscow (DME)
11:00 | Terminal:
Helsinki (HEL)
12:05 | Terminal: 2
S7 Airlines
S7691
Stops: 0Duration: 02h 05mAircraft: Airbus A319Booking Class: L
No upgrades available
10. Helsinki (FI) - Amsterdam (NL)

EDIT: I do notice there's an option to fly out of SVO as well.
-----------

I will try and play with starting from various locations (maybe RIO->SYD) and see if I get better results. I see your point about Business Class and will consider it. Can I expect any "extra" charges from the OW quote or is that an all in price? Thanks again for the help everyone.

flying out of SAO->SYD on economy saves almost 4k (not including 1k RT from NYC) but the trips are painful (20hrs from NYC to SAO then 40hrs from SAO to SYD). On Business Class there doesn't appear to be much savings (SAO->SYD is about 3k less but NYC->SAO is ~3k RT).

One question... If I have a long layover (11hrs), am I permitted to leave the airport and come back?

Generally yes but is subject to passport/visa issues of the country you are in. Beware there can be a cost difference (taxes) between a transit vs stopover. So its best not to tell check in agents you are leaving the airport as they may think you are making a stopover.

What airport would this be? [have not looked at your itinerary in detail]

Not sure what prices you are looking, but every itinerary has add on fees & charges to the base OW *ONE* price. Note leaving LHR in business has a high APD
Have you fully priced out to just before putting your cc details in?

From above is pricing out DME-HEL. Is Unusual
Edit: A new route: http://airlineroute.net/2013/11/27/s7-hel-s14/

This would have been LAX if leaving from RIO->SYD. However, I don't think I'm going to be able to muster the strength for that scenario...

duplicate post

Yes, I see a total price. When I try to price with a surface travel from LON->MAD, price is only about $75usd better (This is on Business). Is it possible, or even worth it, to try and do economy on some of the lesser legs (4hrs or less) and business on the rest?

Here are my surcharges (for business class). Does anything look out of line w/my itinerary?

Taxes and Carrier Surcharges/Fees Breakdown
Adult
Australia Passenger Movement Charge 49.15 USD
September 11th Security Fee 2.50 USD
Embarkation Fee -BRAZIL 32.13 USD
Finland - Security Charge - Domestic and International 6.44 USD
South Africa Passenger Safety Charge 1.47 USD
Finland - Passenger Fee - International 12.09 USD
UK Air Passenger Duty 43.33 USD
Hong Kong Air Passenger Departure Tax 15.46 USD
Passenger Security Charge for New Zealand 11.28 USD
Airport Services Charge for Spain 31.58 USD
Passenger Security Charge at Auckland Airport (Arrivals) 14.81 USD
Passenger Security Charge at Auckland Airport (Departure) 14.81 USD
Passenger Service Charge - Malaysia 19.77 USD
OGCO 0.80 USD
OISE 5.13 USD
PZSE 4.30 USD
QAAP 10.98 USD
Security Tax for Spain 5.19 USD
International Terminal Use Charge - Russian Federation 8.40 USD
Passenger Service Facilities Charge - Japan 20.60 USD
UK Passenger Service Charge 101.62 USD
UMSE 2.02 USD
U.S. International Transportation Tax - Departure 17.50 USD
International Arrival Transportation Tax (USA) 17.50 USD
Air Passenger Tax for South Africa 17.43 USD
Australian Passenger Service Charge 48.58 USD
U.S. Animal and Plant Inspection Service Users Fee 5.00 USD
Passenger Facility Charges 4.50 USD
XUAV 1.65 USD
Immigration and Naturalization Service Fee 7.00 USD
U.S. Customs Fee 5.50 USD
Carrier Surcharge/Fee 999.93 USD
Airline Insurance Surcharge 5.00 USD
Multiple Carrier Surcharges/Fees 344.20 USD
Multiple Carrier Surcharges/Fees 390.00 USD
Passenger Service Charge for South Africa 31.75 USD
2,309.40 x 1 = 2,309.40 USD
Total Taxes and Carrier Surcharges/Fees: 2,309.40 USD

Read up on this a bit.. Thank you for the pointer. Is the order of operations then, call AA to enroll for platinum challenge then book with OW and apply the miles/points to the challenge? If I choose to fly Business Class on this RTW trip are there still material advantage to being enrolled in this program (I've never flown anything but economy to date).

Its an economy LONE* or a business DONE*. You cannot mix and match. On some routes where business D class is not offered you fly economy, but do not get any $$ back:- such is life.


The AA challenge
Order does not matter. You just need to sign & up and pay before starting the challenge on a flight. As long as your AA ff number is in the reservation its OK. But keep all the physical boarding passes until they post
If you buy a DONE6 and do a AA Plat challenge you get Plat quicker. MileageMonkey calculates earning

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-platinum.html
http://flyerguide.com/index.php/Challenge_%28AA%29

These may be fuel surcharges by AA on BA flights. Hard to know.
If you were booking direct with the AA RTW desk instead of the on line OW tool they could tell you
Booking AA codeshares where possible helps reduce these.

Thanks so much for all the help Mwenenzi, everyone!

And Mwenezi, if you happen to be in Sydney or Auckland end of Apr/Early May, would love to buy you a pint. Thanks again!

This sounds like an exciting trip. Please let us know the final itinerary and fare, and I hope you will also be able to post a trip report with details on the flights and places you stayed at. Thanks, and good luck.

As soon as you become platinum, your flying will earn bonus miles. The other benefits - like getting to check in at a premium counter - you won't miss on a biz-class trip for the obvious reason.

The UK Air Passenger Duty is based on how far your flight segment from the UK takes you, whether you're in coach or premium (biz and first cost the same), and whether or not you're transiting. Transits are very cheap (relatively speaking) and occur (for this kind of ticket) if you've spent less than 24 hours there and leave on the same ticket you came in on. (The 'ticket' covers all 16 segments of your rtw.)

No one from the airline will care if you leave the airport for 11 hours or 23:59, just be back in time for your departure scheduled for 23:59 or less after your arrival. (Anything the airline does, like delaying that departure flight which you've hurried to catch, will not be held against you.)

If you elect to fly coach note that some of the OneWorld carriers credit your FF account with a fraction of full mileage for that class.