That, is a different story, and a point valid only if MRU is in your must see list of places and ARN is not, otherwise ARN-LHR is just as much a waste of a segment as MRU-LHR.

Although it's a 12 hour flight, I could quite happily spend a week in Mauritius. However, as for Sweden.....London is far enough north for me.

I've also been considering AONEX from a variety of locations, and after toying with South Africa, Argentina and other more exotic starting points I have to say that I've come to the conclusion that the best option for me (as a Brit) is a start in the US. Although I could shave a couple of thousand off the price, a US start is enabling me with little difficulty (i.e. one ex-EU feeder flight to JFK and one cheap LGW CE ticket to feed the feeder) to:

1. have a month or so of genuine RTW experiences in (in my case) JFK,EZE,AKL,SYD,HKG and NRT (could easily have added a few if I had time or inclination);

2. return to LHR and some time later have a week or two in CAI (or any other European place of choice - choosing CAI gets F class, 360 TPs and 2A on a 747!);

3. return to LHR and sometime later spend another week or two in the States, in my case in LAX and JFK;

before returning to LHR and exhausting the various tickets (exEU bit aside).

So the 3 tickets provide a multi-centre holiday, a separate Egyptian holiday, a separate US holiday and if wanted 2 weekends in Rome or Lisbon, all to be taken on a pretty flexible basis over many months.

On the whole I think this is better value than slogging to Mauritius or somewhere twice (i.e. once more than you could realistically want to be there) on the one hand or buying an ex-EU RTW which makes splitting the trip into several elements and returning home between them somewhat tedious/difficult.

FWIW AA want $13,840 for my RTW itinerary (against a base price of $13,100 for an American AONE5).

I'm sure others will think I've missed an opportunity but I just prefer having highly attractive and flexible itinerary options over saving a couple of thousand pounds...

Sounds fine to me but the 2 stopover rule in a continent that allows 6 segments is probably considered very inconvenient by many. On the other hand, a 16-segment AONE5 wouldn't let you take full advantage of those 6 segments anyway, so it is arguably not that much of a problem after all.

I'm sure no two people on this forum would come up with the same itinerary - how boring if they did. We've not been to any part of the Far East for 10 years and that's where we're concentrating at Easter for 3 weeks. Mauritius is somewhere we would have gone during the next few years anyway, so it's ideal to start there and the more I think of JNB, the more I prefer MRU.

Our planned itinerary is:

September MRU - LHR 1 segment in BA First
November LHR - DXB - LHR 2 segments in BA First
Xmas LHR - DFW - MBJ - JFK 3 segments, one in BA First
February JFK - BGI - JFK 2 segments
March JFK - BDA - JFK 2 segments
Easter JFK - HKG - NRT - SIN - HKG 4 segments in CX/JL First
May HKG - JNB - MRU 2 segments, one in CX First

We spent last Christmas/New Year in Jamaica and New York and with the addition of Dallas we'll repeat that again.

With the other 5 trips we will be restricted to 7 or 8 days because of work commitments.

We have enough BA miles to get to MRU in CW and for 3 pairs of MFUs to CW JFK-LHR-JFK. HKG-LHR-HKG we'd have to travel WTP - ouch!! We've allowed £14,000 for the 2 AONE4 and additional tickets.

Subject to all my IT clients renewing their contracts this year we would then start another ex-MRU AONEx. If MRU went the way of CAI or business slowed down we would just have to return to London in economy - we're not proud.

Completely agree about JNB, so my AONE5 is CPT-based, ending up in DAR. (It could have been First to NBO, but I've always wanted to go to Zanzibar...) On the one visit I had to CPT on a work itinerary, I was really impressed, hence the return as a tourist. If you haven't been, you might also want to go there in the next few years. Perhaps for your next RTW.

Not sure that you need xONE5 for your itinerary, as you have no Australasian (SWP) segments. AONE4 should do it. (Africa - Europe - N.America - Asia - Africa)

IMO there's merit in being pragmatic rather than jumping at what appears to be the biggest bargain. Why add a continent (Africa) to your itinerary if you have no real urge to go there? I like your approach, simon50: decide what you really want out of the trip and see what else you can get for very little effort and cost.

On my first RTW (sort of) I needed to get to the UK and Australia from South Africa. The AONEWC3 (Circle Indian Ocean) fare was way cheaper than direct fares in J. In addition I could get them for much less in HRE, without too much fuss. So I got an amazing deal and as a bonus the trip propelled me to Emerald status. The fact that I utilised only 2 sectors in Europe (and those in BA's execrable "domestic business") and none in Asia mattered not a jot. Any more travelling on that trip (13 flights in 2 weeks as it was) would have just been unnecessarily exhausting and pretty pointless.

Of course now that I've done a few, I'm getting into that stage of blue-sky planning where I start with no, or few, fixed ideas of what I have to do and construct a trip that is much more driven by incidentals like where can I fly in F on xx airline or how to retain status on several alliances. Plus I have gradually introduced SO to the concept of the MR and the benefits of status, so I have more leeway for such indulgences.

Personally, I would be cautious about advice about where the ZAR is headed even if your friends are economists. Fortunes have been made and lost speculating on currencies and the ZAR is not the easiest one to predict. Locals are notoriously pessimistic - witness how everyone ran for the exits when the ZAR reached 13 to the USD in 2001. And, naturally, someone planning to disinvest will tend to have low expectations of the currency.

There are plenty of reasons why the ZAR is weak and may weaken further - general risk aversion, emerging market aversion, balance of payments, inflation differentials, political uncertainty, elecricity supply problems - but having taken a huge beating (it is down 50% against the EUR over 3 years) the unit is fundamentally underpriced on a number of measures. So anyone who knows where the rand will trade in six months or a year's time can make more money on that trade than the paltry savings on an AONEx ex-SA!

My apologies Cheetah_SA, it was a callous and unnecessary remark and one I am totally unqualified to make.

My friend managed a bank in Durban for many years and only felt the need to move his wife and young children after being held up at gun point three times (twice by the same person). He sold his main property ten years ago which gave him enough to get a foothold in the London property market. He has been trying to sell his remaining South African property for some time now and has dropped the price twice.

While he has advised me to avoid JNB and DUR, he always sings the praises of CPT as a must see.

Simon

What route are you using to get to DAR (from LHR?)

AONE4 is fine for my route - no SWP or SA.

I think LHR-DAR is the only route possible.

Yes, using Flightstats.com it was the only Oneworld I could find.

So, with an Eastbound RTW such as MRU - LHR - DXB - LHR - SIN...... you could finish on JFK - LHR - DAR according to Oneworld regulations?

Yes, but it must be JFK-xLHR-DAR

Oh, I wasn't at all offended by the remark! I work in asset management and hear both pro and anti opinions from the analysts all the time. I was just sounding a word of caution not to bank on the direction of the rand - it has a tendency to fluctuate widely. I've long since stopped trying to time the purchase of foreign currency. Given that I travel regularly it seems to even out over time if I just buy it when I need it.

And as for personal safety: sadly, as much as Cape Town is a delightful place, it is not without violent crime. It's all a matter of degree, I'm afraid.

When I was 20 I did my first RTW, although in Y. Nowadays I do these "once in a lifetime" trips two or three times per year....