What's the Bottom Line for an AONEx?
 

I think once you get bitten by the RTW bug you can split this infection into five or six phases.

Phase one is that amazing buzz you get when you discover a RTW ticket in First Class for you and your partner is really doable before you're 80, within your grasp and less than the price of a return flight from London to New York in First, albeit starting at the other end of the world, or even worse, Canada.

Phase two is the compromise we have to make when we find our dream RTW will not work, due to one regulation or another.

Phase three is where I am at the moment, in trying to calculate the true costs of RTW travel, the costs when taxes etc are added to the ticket. When I first started looking at FT, Cairo was the place to start an AONE*. Then it became Mauritius, which was great. A week of sun, sea and …….sand - ideal. I read about a £300 pp admin charge but the prices through their BA operation were still really good.
I now understand, because of a plummeting rand Jo’burg is the cheapest place to start and buying the ticket through AA reduces costs even further because their airport taxes are better than BAs. Speaking to some friends today who have just returned from Durban, where they are attempting to sell their property, the rand is going to get a lot weaker before it improves.
Other posts suggest starting from Sweden through AA, low additional costs again, but I really would prefer to start from outside Europe, so I can do LHR-DXB-LHR in BA First. I appreciate a couple of London take offs is going seriously add to the additional costs but can’t be avoided - I live there and to be able to use the ticket I am going to have to split it into at least 6 journeys.

So my question is what is the true cost (in people’s recent experience) of ex-MRU and ex-JNB AONEx tickets, once all additional costs have been factored in? I would like to do MRU(JNB)-LHR-DXB-LHR-DFW-MBJ-JFK-BGI-JFK-BDA-JFK-HKG-SIN-NRT-BKK-HKG-JNB-(MRU adjust to 16 leg if required – book in July).

If I can get some feedback I will then be prepared for phase four, booking the ticket and comprising over the flights I want and those that are actually available.

Thanks,

Simon

There's no big mystery really. Base price plus 8-12% for taxes and fees, plus any service charge levied by the issuing agency (e.g. GBP 300 for MRU, USD 30 for AA/CPT) plus access costs plus hotel and car and food and...

I know when buying my Egypt tickets several years ago, the incidentals (positioning flights to CAI, nested flights to go home from Australia and resume trip, hotels, etc). ended up being nearly as much as the RTW ticket!

I think the fee is USD 300.

Yep, my bad. Plus BA fuel fines, of course.

Wow! Did you book in paid F for your positioning flights? How many nested tickets did you have?

My last AONEx that involved "complexity" was about 3 years ago and for leisure. I paid exactly 9.5% in taxes at the time of booking and my nested and positioning flights cost me about 40% of the cost of the AONEx, booked in D and upgraded for the parts on AA metal, except for my trip home which I booked in Y, endured BA coach to LHR and the upgraded to C on the way home. I could have done it even cheaper and still spent almost all my time up front, just not allll the way up front.

Airport taxes are the same for all airlines. What differs are the fuel surcharges: most airlines collect their own fuel surcharges plus those of others; AA collects its own and leaves it at that.

What do you mean? You can start in Sweden and fly LHR-DXB-LHR without any problem as long as you stay within the 2 stopover rule.

Thanks - just interested in taxes, fuel levies and admin fees. Will either use 100k miles for 2 one way Club World seats to eith JNB or MRU or buy cheap returns. Hotels and incidentals I can calculate.

Thanks Viajero. Roughly, how much would AA save again BA?

I thought ARN - LHR - DXB - LHR - DFW...... = 3 stopovers from continent of origin? I'm stopping over in London, then Dubai, then London again before heading West.

Well, that will depend totally on what airlines you fly. A hypothetical AA issued OWE with no AA flights will cost nada in fuel surcharges; the same ticket issued by BA could theoretically run into several hundred $.

Well, yes, but why does it have to be 3 stopovers? You have just left LHR to go next door to ARN to start your trip, do you really need to stop in LHR again one day later? Just fly ARN-xLHR-DXB and the problem is gone.

Yes, you're right, but to me that's a waste of a segment.

That sounds pretty good, although I would have 6 AA sectors. Can I purchase a ex-JNB ticket from AA or an agent by internet?