Edited

From Oz, the AA direct Around The World desk no is:

• 0011 1 800 247 3247

Thanks again serfty.

After getting three to switch on International calls and trying to dial until 2:30am I gave up and went to bed. Got up at 7:30am and went to work, only to find I could dial AA from work fine, but not from my mobile for some reason. The whole process only took about 10 minutes because only the first 5 flights could be dated, the rest are open.

At least the boss is letting me go home early today because I feel like crap after not enough sleep. ^

My final itinerary is:

1. JNB-HKG on CX
2. HKG-DEL on CX
3. DEL-NRT on JL
4. NRT-PEK on JL
5. SURFACE
6. PVG-HKG on CX
7. HKG-JFK on CX (AA codeshare and PLT Challenge flight)
8. JFK-UVF on AA
9. UVF-MIA on AA
10. MIA-LAX on AA (in First!)
11. LAX-DFW on AA (in First!)
12. DFW-YVR on AA
13. YVR-MEX on JL (Sneaky)
14. MEX-MAD on IB (AA Cape Town had no probs with this)
15. SURFACE
16. CAI-MAD on IB
17. MAD-HEL on AY (Finnair)
18. HEL-BUD on AY
19. BUD-xLHR on BA
20. LHR-DAR on BA

50,191 Miles + 25% Business Bonus + PLT Status from HKG-JFK onwards gives me a total of 90,130 miles at the end of my trip.

If I spend the next six months before I leave playing Live Search Club everyday at work then maybe I'll get another 90,000!

Dollar went up again against everything, the DONE4 without taxes is now only AU$5388, awesome. Hopefully taxes won't be too much. And to think, with +++ it's probably only going to be $1500 more than a LONE4 with Qantas.

Just waiting on taxes to book it! :D :D :D

I found out the taxes:

The base fare was actually calculated as ZAR40020 and taxes are ZAR3542 plus ZAR233 for a total of ZAR43795. This equals just a smidgen under AU$6000 which is very nice indeed!

So by avoiding LHR and going through AA, taxes were only 9% of the base fare.

I scanned and emailed my authorisation and identification instead of faxing and it was fine.

I was just reading another thread and someone mentioned they flew LHR-CPT on BA metal with a Finnair codeshare. So I'm thinking, can I do a switcheroo on my last four sectors and fly MAD-BUD-HEL-xLHR-DAR and have the HEL-xLHR-DAR on a finnair codeshare and earn a status bonus?

You could if the LHR-DAR flight carried an AY number, but unfortunately it doesn't. Only OW codeshare I can see on the DAR flight is AA's.