As part of a 20 segment AONE I want to fly JNB-VFA rtn. Both legs have a BA flight number, but are operated by Comair. Are these legs permitted on a OneWorld RTW?

If so, can anyone please explain when flights HAVE to be on BA metal, and when not? e.g. LGW-GIB is allowed (though not BA metal) whilst PHX-SAN on AmericaWest is not, though a BA code share. Confusing.

Thanks.

You certainly can do this.
I myself have done this exact flight.
Comair is a franchise carrier of BA thus allowing travel on a Xone. Other carriers include BMED, BA CitiExpress, Sun-Air, Loganair and GB Airways.
There is no First Class on this route so you will be slumming it in Business Class.
Have a look here and click on Planning an Explorer Trip, about affiliates and which other franchise carriers you can use.
This thread also has alot of information regarding XoneX. It also answers your question about BA metal flights.

Kurwah,
Many thanks for the speedy response and for pointing me to the FAQ thread - most helpful.

Yes, you can do this. We did it last year summer with our DONEC4. We did a surface to VFA and from Livingston both on BA comair.

Kurwah & bertheike:

As you've both visited Victoria Falls, for a quick 3 day visit would you advise staying on the Victoria Falls or Livingstone side of the Falls? Not really interested in safaris, etc. Just a relaxed luxury hotel with local sight-seeing.

Is there any advantage to splitting it between the two sides and entering via VFA and exiting via LVI, or vice versa?

Also, is travel between the two countries easy (security, hassle factrors, etc)? Visas for travellers with US & UK passports?

Does any OW airline fly LVI-JNB?

i have done the Zambia side of the Falls, but I booked from SA, otherwise the hotels charge way more and get really expensive.

The Royal Livingston is a SUN international hotel and shares the gorunds with the cheap hotel. From the hotel it is a 10 minutes walk to the falls, and if you are in the hotel you don't pay the park fee to go into the Fall area.

Even though it sounds horrid, we did a package. FLights, hotel, breakfast, helicpoter and river curise.. EEEK River Cruise, but it was actually quite good, and the free booze was plenty and sufficiently diverse.

Three days is minimum if you are doing these things.

OTOH, the Zim side is more spectacular, as you are in the middle of the river. Having said that we went oto the bidge (I didn't do the bungee jump) and had a look from both sides, I think it is impressive. If you go Nov,DEC JAN, you will be disappointed as the water levels are low. In June/July it is spectecular.

PM me for more.

Wolfgang

This trip report by Gardyloo RTW progress report & Africa Report 1 and Africa Report 2 will be of interest.

Note that Zim is in a mess financially. Inflation is 40% per month. Fuel & food unobtainable. 10 of 1000's of people do not have enough food to eat and will starve to death.

I did the surface only, because BA-Comair was not flying every day between JNB and Victoria Falls. And we only wanted to see the falls in a one night stay. We stayed i the Zabezi Sun
http://www.roamingafrica.com/single_...ivingstone.asp
and the next day we departed from Livingston. You need a Visa transfering from the boarder to the airport !!! under 10km !!! 50USD per person !
following some photos
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-.../IMAG0139a.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-.../IMAG0137a.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...9/IMAG0114.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...9/IMAG0121.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...9/IMAG0124.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...9/IMAG0128.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...9/IMAG0131.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-.../IMAG0134a.JPG

Our JNB-LVI flight last month on Comair got cancelled a couple of hours before departure and they put us on a Nationwide (SA indie) flight that was leaving an hour later. Their J service was not that bad, but I'm waiting (and fearful that it will be in vain) for the miles to post to my AA account, despite assurances from the Comair person at JNB that they would. We shall see. Our VFA-JNB return flight hasn't posted yet either, nor our JNB-CPT flight, both also on Comair.

Both Zambia and Zimbabwe are eager to sell you visas priced on sliding scales - more for some passports, less for others - we paid USD40 each if memory serves for two-hour transit visas in Zambia (just traveling to the river crossing into Botswana) and USD30 each for 2-day (good for a week I think) single-entry visas into Zimbabwe from Botswana. My understanding is that mutiple-entry visas are more in each country, but probably worth considering if you're intending to fly into VFA and day-trip across the bridge into Zambia while visiting Victoria Falls.