FlyerTalk Forums - Flight changes, taxes and routing help

My wife and I are currently in Amman, Jordan attempting to change two of our flights through the BA office here. We are 2/3rds of the way through our LONE6 trip (issued by AA) but have hit a snag.

BA stopped service on their London Gatwick to/from Reykjavik flights and therefore we were summmarily dropped from 2 of our flights. We attempted to get "endorsed" onto another flight to Iceland but BA refused. No problem we thought, so we selected 2 other flights to take their place. However, we are still in Amman and the agent here is having a little trouble...she (now) believes that she can make the changes (and why not?) but says that we would have to pay the taxes on the new flight.

Here is the first of my questions, since she is having no luck with the higher-ups at BA:
We want to swap our LGW-KEF flight to Amman-Istanbul but she says that will cost us over $150/pp in taxes. However, we paid our taxes up front when purchasing the LONE6 ticket and therefore have paid the taxes for the LGW-KEF flight, but this amount is not being credited to the new flight. The agent informed us that we must front the $300+ and then get refunded the taxes from the LGW-KEF flight through our "ticketing agent" (whomever that is...AA or the travel agent in Australia that we bought it from?). Is this true?? Has anyone else been dealt with this scenario? Shouldn't BA be a little more helpful since they unceremoniously dropped two of our flights?

Here is my 2nd question:
My wife and I have found a replacement flight for the 1st flight (Amman-Istanbul) however we are at a loss as to what to choose for the second flight's replacement. Any subjective help would be appreciated. Our remaining flights are:
LGW-KEF cancelled by BA
KEF-LGW cancelled by BA
LHR-NBO unflown
JNB-MRU unflown
MRU-JNB unflown
JNB-HKG unflown
HKG-BKK unflown
PEK-NRT unflown
NRT-CNS unflown

We should have a segment left in Africa as well as Asia. I noticed that a Cape Town to JoBurg flight is incredibly cheap on the web and replacing our lost flight with that one would probably be worthless especially with having to pay the taxes on it and all. We also attempted to replace our second flight with an Osaka to Tokyo flight, but they are apparently full in the month of September. Any suggestions?? We still have to get from BKK to PEK in early August (wanna buy/trade some Olympic tix??) but I notices that Cathay only goes to Hong Kong. Are we limited in China?

We are in danger of only getting one ticket replaced and then we have to go through this scenario again (already been one week)!

Plus, I believe that we have to replace the flight before the initial flight date occurs (early June) or else we lose the flight. Is this true as well?

Sorry for the questions in a stream of consciousness form...any help would be great.