Hey guys, I have over the last few months been asking about various rtw possibilites.

It is a DONE4.

Firstly I am planning on going,
jnb-lhr-jfk-bos-sfo-lax-syd-adelaide-sydney-jnb-cpt-jnb?

is that routing ok? when I arrive back home in jnb to throw in a cape town and back ticket for later use?

Secondly, what if I book and find only J class prices left will they give me a seat or will I get told pay more or turned away and told to go to another date?

Was searching the ba fares from jnb-lhr during december and found not many available at the cheapest going rate? How does that work?

thanks

matthew

You can fly 4 segments in your continent of origin but cannot leave your country of origin after your get back to JNB. So flying JNB-CPT-JNB is fine, but JNB-VFA is not (presuming that VFA is in Zimbabwe -- I haven't checked).

All flights must be in D inventory (or in L if D is not available and you wish to downgrade). If only J or C is available on a flight, then you don't fly on that flight. Sometimes (very rarely) airlines will release J for a D ticket, it helps if you have top-tier status with that airline when you ask for such a favour. If no flights open up with D, you never fly (and the ticket can expire a year later unused); but in general D is readily available on most routes, even when specific flights are sold out.

As for the cheapest fares not being available, and your question about how does that work, it is supply and demand at it's simplest. When demand is higher than supply (as it is for December travel to/from JNB), fare go up, often by more than 100% compared to a few weeks earlier or later. Those who care about the cost reschedule their travel to another date, and get the cheaper fares, while others choose to pay more. Classic economics.

Yeah, I understand supply and demand, im just aggrevied by it, i made plans to get to a friend at yale on the 15th and their is only c and J available which is a real bummer, I was hoping a rtw was some what more flexibile.

Tomorrow I will have to call the travel agent and get her to huck them for me.

.... that throws my entire holiday plan up in the air, bummer bummer bummer.

Its a family vacation.

If no D inventory on BA JNB/CPT-LHR, you have some options: IB JNB-MAD, QF JNB-SYD (travel to Yale the long way), CX JNB-HKG. There are LOTS of alternative routings, and I guarantee that at least one will have D for most dates ... just maybe not the one you want! The high demand dates to/from Europe and South Africa are SOLD OUT on MANY airlines ... I have seen no A inventory on BA for a MONTH at a time, for example (and had to downgrade to D when I wanted to fly).

November 15 or December 15? If November, then there's plenty of D availability via MAD on the 11th or via LHR on the 13th.

If December, there's plenty of D space on the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th, via either LHR or MAD.

FWIW I was unable to book CPT/JNB-LHR on my DONE5 even waitlisting several months (admittedly I was locked into specific date). OW Emerald counted for nothing, but maybe high status on BA would have released a seat (there was plenty of full fare seats available just zeroed in D)?

I ended up routing to LHR through SIN (since I was coming from SYD).

Although I have no reason for thinking so other than inferences based on postings like this, I'm generally convinced that British Airways has a major disagreement with the other OW airlines regarding the xONEx fare, and is unilaterally trying to get rid of it in favor of a scheme that they presume will be more lucrative for them.

JNB-LHR is hardly the only route with difficult availability in the RTW booking classes.

And other alliances have the same issues. Eg on *A it can be very difficult getting D (discounted business) between AKL and SFO/LAX, so much so that the CRWSTARx product now allows access to C booking class (full business) on NZ albeit for payment of a surcharge.

Hey,

I need to go Uk, US and then AUS. Family xmas in boston and aus is planned for after the US. The family is coming along on this one.

Can I route jnb-cpt-lhr-jfk-bos-sfo-lax-syd-jnb?

Is that ok?

I have had so many years of IB via madrid I was looking forward to BA, im not too bowled over by IB and in dec when I made my last flight with them I thought thank god never again.

Is there availability jnb-lhr for 5 pax, in D from the 9-15th of dec on BA?

D9 BA56 JNB-LHR 11 Dec only

D9 BA 42 ex CPT on 11-15 Dec

Can I fly jnb-cpt-lhr is that ok?

what about

jnb-cpt-lhr-jfk-bos-sfo-lax-syd-jnb-plz-jnb?

That's OK, as long as there are no more than 2 stopovers in Africa. That means you must make a transit in cpt or jnb (assuming that you want to stop in plz).

Personally, I think that if your schedule allows you'd be much better off going LHR-BOS-JFK-SFO. The JFK-SFO flight will be much more comfortable in either the 3-class 767-200 (you'd get Business) or the 2-class 767-300 (you'd get First), than on a narrowbody on BOS-SFO.
Or, since you get 6 segments in North America, you can do LHR-JFK-BOS-JFK-SFO.

Thank you for the info.

The JFK is going to new york with my gf, then up to boston for family xmas then all of us are going to california. Maybe I can back track as you say, but my mother whom is travelling with me across the United States doesn't see much logic in Mileage running and so will have to rub the belly of the beast. She still doesn't understand some of my routings when I fly. eg. JNB-MAD-LHR-ZRH, why dont you fly directly to Zurich she says?

The PLZ part is I have a holiday house there and was thinking I might as well swing down there a bit later for a week or so.

Thank you guys again for the info.

Cheers

It's not mileage running (goodness knows you could do a lot more of that on this ticket if you wanted) but angling for much better seats. I live in BOS and I route trips to LAX/SFO through JFK whenever I can, not for miles, but because the seat is so much better on the 762/763 than on the 757, at least in First/Business.

Michael