<i>The South Africa was the impetus for my original trip. I am seeing the RTW as an add on since I will already be there...

I understand your comments about Egypt. I have looked into pricing a ticket from CPT to Cairo and can do for $556.00 per Skyscanner. So the only question now is re working itinerary to leave from Cairo with hopefully the original routing.

Your thoughts ??</i>

Knowing that South Africa was the impetus for the trip helps.

What I was proposing was to see if you could switch your RTW origin to Egypt, then use the RTW ticket to get down to South Africa and around the world from there, ending back in the Middle East at the end of the trip.

I saw on one of your prior posts that you're transiting Doha en route to Cape Town, thus I'm assuming you're currently ticketed to fly on Qatar Airways. Are you using miles or paying cash for this ticket? If the former then it would be a simple matter to re-book (probably with fewer miles needed, but with a fee) to have CAI as your destination rather than CPT. Then you could start the RTW there and continue more or less* as before.

*See below for the changes it would require in your itinerary.

If it's a paid ticket, since Qatar flies both to Cairo and South Africa, I would think it'd be very easy to contact Qatar and ask what it would cost to change CPT to CAI. You'd probably get a credit on the original airfare (since I assume Cairo is much cheaper from the US) but they'd probably charge you a fee or service charge for making the switch. But I'd be surprised if they didn't agree easily enough.

THEN, you'd fly USA - DOH - CAI on the paid/mileage ticket, start the RTW and probably just get back on the same plane to Doha, then down to Cape Town as previously planned.

*Itinerary changes. The RTW rules limit you to a certain number of flown segments in each continent you touch, with a maximum of six in North America (only one of which can be a transcontinental nonstop) and four in all other continents. In addition, you're only allowed two <i>stopovers</i> (24h or longer) in the continent of origin. For the purposes of the ticket, the continent of "Europe" includes the Middle East and Mediterranean Africa, so by starting in Cairo you'd be held to the rules for Europe, i.e. four flights and two stopovers max.

Your itinerary as planned includes stopovers in Rome, Prague, Madrid and London. That would be two too many with a Middle East origin. In addition, you'd have to get from Cairo to Doha at the beginning, and that would use one of your four allowed segments within Europe, leaving you with three to be used later.

Fortunately, the (massive) cost savings you'd make by starting the trip in Egypt would leave you with plenty of resources to buy some additional intra-Europe flights later, using one of your remaining two stopover points as launching points for those "side" trips (outside the RTW ticket.) For example, you could fly from the US to - I don't know - say Madrid - and fly from there to Rome on a cheap paid ticket, then from Rome to Prague, then to London on the RTW for your second stopover, then the final flight back to (anywhere in) the Middle East to complete the trip. (Your two European stopovers will have been Madrid and London.)

Here's a possible route with those changes: CAI-DOH-CPT-JNB-HKG-NRT-SYD-SCL-EZE-MIA-MEM-ORD-SFO-MAD,PRG-LHR-TLV (on a map - http://tinyurl.com/gr2lt75 .) I've used Tel Aviv as your final stop, but it could just as easily be Amman, Cairo, Dubai, Muscat...

Hope that explains things.

<i>Hi Gardyloo.....well here is where I am at. I have entered itinerary starting in CAI-LHR-HKG-NRT-SYD-SCL-EZE-JFK-SURFACE-LGA-MEM-ORD-SFO-MAD-FCO-SURFACE-LHR-CAI. Oneworld shows as 16 segments.

My problem is I can't get it to price online (The JNB routing did price online with no problem). I called RTW desk at AA and BA and they both tell me that it cannot be paid for in Egyptian Dollars, must be USD.

Suggestions as to how to accomplish ?? Thank you again for the courtesy of your time in helping.</i>

Right, they won't price it in Egyptian pounds, their "back office" - the tariff people - will convert the Egyptian currency base price and will quote you the equivalent in US dollars. The old rule ("old" meaning until last month) was that you paid the price where the ticket was booked or where the trip originated, <i>whichever was higher.</i> Now they'll charge you the Egyptian price - converted to USD at the current exchange rate - when you book it through the AA RTW desk. By the way, BA is hopeless on this, stick with the AA people.

I would avoid using BA as much as possible, and especially avoid them for issuing the ticket, as they will add VERY significant surcharges to the price. (These used to be called "fuel surcharges" until BA got sued in US federal court since they had nothing to do with the price of fuel. Now they're called "carrier fees," but a rose is a rose is a skunk. ) Those fees for a business class RTW ticket can easily amount to over $1000. Also I'd avoid longhaul departures from the UK (e.g. LHR-HKG) as those will expose you to the expensive UK Air Passenger Duty, another few hundred bucks you can avoid paying.

Hello Gardyloo. Well heres where I am at....reserved Business Class flights CAI-AMN-HKG-NRT-SYD-JFK-EZE-JFK-LGA-MEM-ORD-SFO-MAD-FCO-LHR-CAI. 16 segments. By following your tip to avoid BA out of London, knocked another $600 off fare with total now of $6600 inclusive of taxes & fees.

Miraculously the online website gave me a price and enabled me to make the reservation. I am just waiting for Royal Jordanian (initial flight segment carrier) to contact me re payment.

Thank you so very much for your help. Saved me a bunch !!!

I believe AA actually does the ticketing on behalf of RJ for online bookings, so if you haven't heard anything in a couple of days, call the AA RTW desk (1-800-247-3247) with the record locator from the online tool. Congratulations!

Just found out AA realized Cairo fares were a money loser and they will no longer ticket RTW fares in Egyptian Pounds. Gonna have to find the next best country to use for my next ticket.

<i>Just found out AA realized Cairo fares were a money loser and they will no longer ticket RTW fares in Egyptian Pounds. Gonna have to find the next best country to use for my next ticket.</i>

The EGP devaluation a week or two ago resulted in ridiculously low (USD-demoninated) prices, like under US$3K for a business class ticket, so it was inevitable that Oneworld would put the kibosh on it. Same thing happened a few years ago with Mauritius, then with Sudan, and the Rand finally got low enough earlier this year that South Africa prices went up. With Egypt "gone" (and we don't know that it is, the prices might be raised but not that much) Mozambique remains as an inexpensive starting point, at around US$4700 for a four-continent business class ticket.

Per my conversation with RTW desk at AA, they are no longer going to be selling RTW out of Egypt.

They can't just arbitrarily stop selling tickets for which they have a published tariff. They CAN slow things down to a crawl of course, pending a new fare being set.

In the meantime, Google Emeco Travel in Cairo. Emeco used to be AA's GSA in Egypt and have sold a lot of xONEs over the years.

Gardyloo....Have run into an interesting situation that is unresolved with AA RTW at this time. When I booked ticket starting in Cairo it came out to exactly 16 segments. One of these segments was a non-stop SFO-MAD. Since booking the ticket, AA has changed its schedule so what originally was a non-stop (no longer offered) is now a SFO-DFW-MAD routing. They claim this gives me 17 segments.I should expect them to make this right, agreed ?? They have yet to come up with a solution. Your thoughts ??

When was your SFO-MAD flight to have taken place? Sometimes the seasonal flights go away and then come back.

I've run into this situation myself, and have had it go both ways. If travel hasn't yet commenced, they're within their rights to force a rerouting. I've also had it go the other way, where they had to scrub the e-ticket and provide "paper" tickets so they could get past the e-ticket limitation of 16 segments.

I've also had irrops result in a non-Oneworld flight being substituted. A few years ago I was in Anchorage ready to fly ANC-DFW-SEA on AA. DFW had thunderstorms so the ANC flights were canceled. I HAD to be in Seattle, so I talked to the AA people at the counter, they phoned Ft. Worth, and they put me on an Alaska nonstop to Seattle; I asked for and received "original mileage credit" for the unflown route. (I did have to surrender the two separate segments, but no loss.)

So the airlines have more flexibility than they let on. In your case I'd ask the RTW desk if issuance as a 17-segment paper ticket might be possible. or else do a dummy 16-segment booking and hope for SFO-MAD to reappear by the time you're ready to fly. They might be able to annotate the PNR to waive a re-issue fee if it does.

Any thoughts on where the cheapest place is to purchase the RTW product these days country wise ?? Thinking of doing for 2019.

It varies according not only to the country of origin, but the number of continents touched. For 4-continent tickets, the cheapest origin point in economy seems to be Norway (US$2505 plus taxes/fees) followed by the UK ($2772) and any of the Euro countries ($2895.) For business class, Japan ($7077) is followed closely by Norway ($7108) and Israel ($7200.)

Of course it's important to remember that the ranking might change if you're flying to more or fewer continents (3-6) and there can be very big swings once taxes and fees are added. The tax/fee thing hinges on your choice of carriers and also stopping points, as Oneworld needs to calculate the particular airport, security, and departure taxes that apply to your itinerary. The total of these taxes and fees can easily be as much as 20-30% of the ticket cost or as little as 10-15%, depending on the details.

Also one should factor in the "positioning" or "access" costs. While a 4-continent business class ticket starting in Oslo might be $7077, versus one starting in Toronto or Vancouver for $8112, getting to and from Norway at the beginning and end of the trip might eat up a lot of the potential savings, if you get my drift.

And 2019 is the distant future for airfares of any sort. Things change. Remember, the tickets are good for a year, so if your 2019 travels were to be complete by a year from now, you could buy the ticket now and just wait. On the other hand, maybe exchange rates spike or tank, making things cheaper later this year. Some early birds get worms, others get cats.