Last year ex-South Africa went up about $1k. Year or so before that, ex-Israel/Egypt went up $2k or so if I recall correctly. About 8 or so years ago, ex-North America started going up every year until it had pretty much doubled.

What about ex-MLE, now that UL and CX have flights to the Maldives? I don't recall any published fares on Expert Flyer.

Thy're there now, nothing worth commenting on - CMB is cheaper by a couple percent, for example.

CX has published some:
Results from ExpertFlyer.com

Yes, my mistake - KTM was in my mind as I've been recently looking at MH flights there. My apologies.

This was going back a longer time. Check this: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...n-pricing.html

IIRC, I got an AONE3 ex-ICN for around USD $5.3K during the OneWorld 10 Year Anniversary 10% Off Sale.

And don't forget that RTW base fares are understated by US$1k or so because on many segments you will enjoy paying the airline its "hope-the-pax-call-it-taxes" hidden fare component, YQ/YR.

On those airline surcharges which are erroneously called taxes, wouldn't their designation as taxes mean that you can deduct them on your Federal tax return if you itemize?

I'm thinking of doing this DONE5 route:

Cairo (BA)
London (QF)
Sydney (QF or JAL)
Tokyo (Sri Lankan)
Colombo (Malaysian)
Kuala Lumpur (Cathay)
Hong Kong (Cathay)
New York (AA)
Cancun (AA)
Miami (AA)
Los Angeles (Lan)
Santiago (Lan)
Easter Island (Lan)
Rio de Janeiro (via Santiago = 2 segments)
London (BA)
Cairo

The fare rules say I don't have to terminate in Cairo, I can terminate in another Middle East location. For me, Amman would be preferable. However if I substitute Amman for Cairo at the end of the trip, the price goes up significantly.

Am I missing something? Is it pricing the whole trip with the AMM price rather than the CAI price due to finishing in Amman?

General comments on my itinerary also welcome as are the logistics of actually paying US$24,000-odd for 2 adult+child+infant tickets in Cairo when I live in London.

I think I have it pretty efficient. Every flight except Easter Island -> Rio is a single sector and I actually do want to go to all those destinations. Only thinks I'm thinking of now are deleting something like Miami and adding either Cairns or Vancouver.

Oh another one. Of all the OW airlines, Malaysian is the most likely to cut routes.

If MH stops flying Colombo-KL after I've bought the ticket, what happens?

I believe there is a bug in the tool that it doesn't price up tickets correctly when you end at a different city than you start at.

The only way around this I can think of is to purchase through another method (CAI based agent) or ticket as ending in Cairo and pay the 125 USD change fee per ticket to change after you have it ticketed.

You wouldn't be able to take JL to SYD as it would add one too many sectors (assuming I am counting correctly). The QF flights count as one sector even though there is a stop over in DXB as it is the same flight number all the way. Using JL would use two sectors. You could do BA to SYD on the one flight number as an alternative to QF if you wished.

If MH pull the flight you still have a direct flight on UL that you could take to KL.

Oh yes, to clarify that is what I plan. LHR->SYD on QF with a single flight number which the OW-RTW booking tool is showing as one segment. Quite a distance for one segment!

It is the segment from SYD-Tokyo where I am considering taking either QF or JAL.

According to the booking tool, the itinerary above is 16 sectors.

Thanks for the info about the bug. I may just end the trip in CAI then as a US$125 change fee x several tickets adds up.

Ah yes I see now. Sorry I misunderstood your original post re the JL flights.

Good luck with getting the tool to ticket. The way it has been behaving lately it seems you are lucky if you can get it to do anything other than throw an error on the very last page. :eek: Having said that as your first sector is BA that seems to one of the more stable ticketing options on the tool.

Another thing is I've put a stopover in London between CAI and SYD at the start of the trip.

I've also put a stopover in London before CAI at the end of the trip.

Both stopovers over 24 hours. Booking tool has not complained about it. I thought 2 x stops (not transits) in the one city was not allowed but it seems I'm being allowed to do it.