After a quick search, it appears that CAI is one of the better (best) bets for DONE3 pricing ($5337) and JNB / CPT as far as DONE4/5 pricing goes ($5,228 and $6,021). And if looking to start from Asia, then NRT is about as good as it gets for a DONE3 ($5,713).

Are there any other good Asia based starting points I am missing?

Does the above rule apply for RTW's that start outside of Africa? I was thinking about an ex-NRT DONE3 that would have something like NRT-CDG-DOH-MAD-DOH-TXL-LAX...NRT

Those are the standard ones. Try ICN for another Asia starting point.

The rules I posted only apply if
- Africa is included in the itinerary (and it cannot be included in a xONE3)
- AND you wish to have two visits to Europe/Middle East

So the answer to your question is No, they do not apply in your case

???
NRT-CDG-DOH-MAD-DOH-TXL-JFK-NRT
is a simple valid XONE3 itinerary.
The rule about Europe/Middle East/Africa exception doesn't affect your itin.
(I could not find a TXL-LAX flight. so, replace LAX with JFK)

AB operates seasonal flights between DUS and LAX.

Hi all,

I'm looking at doing a trip LHR-MAL (via DOH)-HKG-NRT-HNL-LAX-ORD-LHR. We've lived in South Africa and would be happy to incorporate that into the trip given all our friends down there. it will be myself, wife and 15 month old daughter travelling over c.8-12 weeks.

Two questions I have:

1) Do you have to complete your RTW ticket. e.g start in JNB but get off at LHR after completing most of the trip? What happens if you don't complete all legs?
2) Can you add an infant for part of the trip?

Any ideas on the trip would be greatly appreciated. We also have friends in Finland we would love to see too.

Thanks in advance!

1. Technically they could come after you for the individual flight costs on unfinished itineraries, but I've never heard of that happening.

The bigger question is, what class of service are you planning to use? If economy, then the cost savings created by adding Africa to the itinerary (not just the access costs to South Africa but the addition of a fourth continent) might not be worth it. Without JNB, you would be able to buy a 3-continent ticket.

For example, a four-continent economy ticket bought in South Africa is around £1240 plus taxes and fees. A 3-continent economy ticket bought in the UK is £1800; in the Euro zone £1670, and in Egypt around £1430. In business class, a DONE4 bought in South Africa is much cheaper than Europe, but not too much cheaper than a 3-continent DONE3 bought in Egypt, £3440 in SA v. £3740 in Egypt. You can do the math and see how it works out; but it's doubtful to me that you could get from the UK to South Africa and back for something like £400 or less.

Using a 3-continent approach, I'd look at something like CDG-DOH-MLE-HKG-NRT-HNL-LAX-ORD-LHR-HEL-CDG in order to capture the lower Euro-zone fare, plus avoiding big UK departure taxes (just fly on your own to Paris, but could also be AMS or anywhere else where the Euro is the currency.) And by adding the UK as a stopover rather than as origin/destination, you could spread out the trip and make Finland a secondary holiday later. Just some speculation on my part, of course. (I'm assuming that by MAL you mean MLE - Male.)

2. Infants without a seat are charged 10% of the fare; with a seat kids under twelve pay 75%.

MAL(Mangole Island, Maluku Islands, Indonesia) ?

Anyway, some threads discussed your question 1). An answer is basically YES you can practically terminate your journey on the way, but of course, no refund.

2). An oneworld explorer rule sheet in http://www.oneworld.com/ clearly states child/infant discount.
Infant without a seat - charge 10 percent of fare.
(NOTE If an infant reaches two years of age after travel has commenced but before travel is complete, a full child fare ticket must be purchased for the entire journey. Exception, For sales in Russia, for travel commencing in Russia: Infat under 2 without a seat not permitted.)

PART of the trip or ALL of the trip? Also if listing unusual airports like MAL, please clarify where it is. I googled it and it came back with an airport in Indonesia and an airport in New York State.

I'll be interested to see if this applies in practice as micro-Puff, now ticketed as a lap-infant, will turn 2 years old prior to the date where I want to take the last flight. In my case the final flight is not with the airline who issued my RTW ticket.

ALSO for further info on lap-infants (for info as the itin in question does not include South America). Lan Chile do not permit lap-infants in business class, regardless of if it is a DONEx fare or a regular point-to-point or return fare. I kissed Lan Chile goodbye for almost all of my DONE6 flights for this reason and Lan Chile likewise kissed goodbye to a large proportion their share of my $26k+ (family) ticket cost in favour of American Airlines.

Edit: According to the Lan Chile website, they also require children over 2 and occupying a seat to pay the full adult fare (no 75% fare) for business class. However this requirement does not seem to apply when the child is travelling on a DONEx fare.

Finally got this ticketed. Had some issues with QR flights not confirming and the day I tried to ticket Mindpearl had to redo the whole ticket to get the QR flights confirmed. They also did the pricing immediately

Final Price:
Fare 58,940ZAR
Tax 1,826ZAR
YQ 5,904ZAR

I cannot explain the fact that everything was lower than when setup by the RTW desk and sent for pricing, but from now on I am calling SA directly!

Could you possibly post the Email address of your contact at Mindpearl. (I have been using a worse than useless agent in Johannesburg).

Thanks.

Thanks Gardyloo for the reply, very helpful.

1) We'd be looking to do the trip in business.
2) Apologies yes its Male so MLE.
3) Fully aware of the infant charge of 10% which is fine. Key issue is if we are starting the trip in JNB but routing back up to London en route to MLE, can we pick up our infant at that point (say after 4/5 days with the grandparents whilst we would be in SA). E.g. Can you add the infant for specific legs?

Hi all - I've searched this thread for "extra sectors" and "extra segments" with no joy- how much does it cost to buy extra sectors / segments (as in, I can see its dependent on the class of travel, but what is the dependency.)

Also -if I do want extra sectors how should I book it since it looks like the online tool can't cope with that concept?

Cheers

The sixteen sector limit is a technical restriction imposed by IATA. An e-ticket cannot hold more than sixteen sectors, including surface sectors. (Well actually, each e-ticket can only hold four sectors, but you can join up to four tickets together to form a booklet of conjunction tickets.)

If you want more sectors, you will have to book them separately.

(Some airlines did used to violate this provision by creating larger ticket booklets of more than four tickets, but the tickets they produced were non-standard and caused difficulties for other airlines, so IATA has become quite strict about the 16 segment ceiling now.)