LONE5 advice requested
 

I am planning my first OWE RTW trip, departing from South Africa. I plan to travel from June 1 - November 1, and I will pick up my ticket from the AA GSA when I am in CPT in March. I could start my trip from either JNB or CPT, but I've picked JNB for the routing presented below.

Most likely, finances will dictate that I do it as a LONE5, so I am looking to maximize AA flights or codeshares whenever possible. Any advice on options where that currently does not exist in my planned routing would be appreciated.

The itinerary I've mapped out follows below. Any advice or comments on it would be helpful--starting with, is it valid? I could adjust a segment here or there for more miles or better routings.

When going through LHR, can I avoid the awful airport taxes for under 24-hour stopover? or, are the tax rules even more limited in hours than the stopover rules?

I hope to call the AA RTW desk next week to get the ball rolling on this. Thanks for any help and feedback! Here it is:

JNB-MAD-ARN-xLHR-MCT-AMM-xORD-EZE-CCS-SCL-IPC-SCL-LAX-SJU-DFW-ANC-DFW-JFK-HKG-xLHR-DAR

CCS is not a pleasant tourist destination. I suggest UIO or BOG; less miles but a lot safer, cheaper too, because in CCS if you value your safety you are restricted to only a few high end places and methods of transport.

LHR taxes will not affect you if your transit is under 24 hrs, and even if you do stop taxes on economy class tickets are much lower.

Putting im Mileage monkey shows you have a problem. Mileage monkey may not not have current routes in its database, but 90% sure AA do not fly ORD-EZE.

Origin: JNB (za)
1: JNB-MAD: intercontinental
2: MAD-ARN: 1st of 4 (Europe)
3: ARN-LHR: 2nd of 4 (Europe)
4: LHR-MCT: 3rd of 4 (Europe)
5: MCT-AMM: 4th of 4 (Europe)
6: AMM-ORD: intercontinental
7: ORD-EZE: intercontinental
Error!!! No oneworld service exists ORD-EZE

AA does fly ORD-EZE (AA961), the tool is out of date.

Bit of an exaggeration there...I agree that CCS isn't the most sought-after tourist destination in the world, but there is no shortage of safe and very reasonably priced mid range hotels and eateries along the Sabana Grande - Chacaito - Chacao corridor. During the daytime, the city centre is also perfectly safe. I wouldn't go to CCS just for tourist purposes, but IMHO Venezuela has to offer some fantastic nature and beaches that are well worth exploring, and Caracas isn't that bad for a couple of days in between going to/returning from these places.
MAR is more pleasant than CCS as an airport as well as a city. AA do fly there from MIA, but I don't think any other ow airlines do.

This route (& return) now added to MM. Mwenenzi's link in earlier post now works. (Be sure to refresh, if you don't get v0.95016 then your browser has cached the old version)