First of all: let me thank everyone on this forum since all their contributions make this about the most helpful resource for a RTW newby like myself. Really appreciate it!

Finally decided to go on a World Trip. After looking into the offers of several alliances I decided on OneWorld. Most important reasons:

• Skyteam (of which I am a Platinum member) unfortunately has very limited routes
• StarAlliance was too expensive

I opted for an AONE6 to be collected in MRU. (I used that VERY helpfull WearyBizTrvlr's RTW Fares spreadsheet. Man, what a great thing he made! Thank you!!) I tried to plan it so I can fly back home in between from convenient ariports. This way the route I believe maximized the potential benefits you can get out of an RTW short of taking a couple of months of to do everything in one go.

Part 1: (Route to MRU in D and paid for by BA Miles) AMS-LHR-JNB (2 weeks in SA, including SAA flights to PHW and CPT) - MRU (collect AONE6 and enjoy one week in the sunshine) - LHR (buy a ticket to AMS).

Part 2: (buy return AMS - LHR) LHR -DXB - LHR

Part 3: (Buy a ticket AMS -LHR) LHR - EZE // PMC - SCL - IPC - SCL -CUN - NYC where I buy another return to AMS to continue a couple of months later.

Part 4: (AMS - NYC) JFK - LAX - AKL - MEL - SYD - HKG - SGN -NRT - DPS - HKG - JNB (buy a ticket back to AMS)

I am so looking forward to it. Starting on May 17th.

I have validated the ticket and the sweet lady at the BA office in MRU is now ticketing it for me. No idea what the taxes will come to, but the ticket itself is dirt cheap (5700 euro!) for what you get.

I believe I have maximized the use of F cabins. I was just wondering about a couple of things:

• Does anyone know which OW airlines will get the first delivery of the A380 and on what routes they will start flying (and when approximately)?
• I have left all flights after trip 2 open. Trip 3 is about to start in December 2008. Is this wise? (With regards to A class availability)
• I will collect about 120K BA miles with this trip. Is there anyway to use them towards a new xONEx ticket?
• Anyone have a ballpark figure what the taxes will amount to? (In the same category: I heard that A surcharges and taxes are lower than D. Is that right?)
• Although not part of my AONE6 I will fly straight on from NYC to AMS. No need to pay a lot of airport tax then, is there. Do I need to book a OneWorld flight to benefit or can I just inform BA I do not intend to leave the airport and am in transit?
• Any great tips & tricks I really need to know about?

Enough bragging for now. I really look forward to that year. Thanks for your replies!

- taxes are calculated per ticket, so separate tickets have separate taxes; i.e. you are charged for a stopover when using separate tickets. UK premium cabin taxes are quite high (GBP 40 per stopover, I think), and you have several of these (so circa 200 EUR in just those taxes on the itin). Remember that fuel surcharge is also part of the ticket tax, so expect taxes on your itin to be circa 1000 EUR. Careful route selection could cut those taxes by several hundred EUR, but at the expense of the flights (e.g. the LHR-DXB-LHR loop costs about 200 EUR in taxes). I am approximating the amounts, but you get the idea.

- first OW A380 is by QF and will be used for LAX-SYD-LAX service only. Probably Oct 2008, but we'll see.

- open dates means you assume the risk if schedules change and the flight no longer operates. Dated ticket will be involuntary rerouted (including routing that breaks OWE rules), while open tickets are a voluntary reroute (so you pay the fee and have to find a routing that is valid for the entire ticket -- which might affect subsequent sectors). For scarce routes, like IPC, I consider open dating to be extremely foolish (D is known to sell out for months at a time, periodically).

- miles cannot be used to purchase any kind of ticket, but BA allows using miles for upgrades, so I suppose you could buy D next time and try to use the miles that way.

Thanks!

I started calculating the taxes just after I posted my first post. I come to EUR1235,-. Slightly more than I expected, but not too bad. I knew using LHR would cost extra, but what can you do?

Going A class to DXB for EUR300 is not too bad. (Too bad they view the tickets as seperate even if I will only transit through LHR... ).

Good advice on leaving scarce flights open. SCL - IPC is the only one that is really scarce, but I will try and finalize my dates through to CUN.

Can you also upgrade ONE from economy to D?

The spreadsheet is a very well thought out tool. ^

However, It's pricing may not be current. oneworld now publish up to date information on their website.

You can get the base cost of xONEx fares here: Fare Estimate

I believe QF has said the first route will me LAX-MEL and not SYD, though that will follow soon thereafter/