I was thinking of trying to simplify things. and have seperate database tables for each option. And the main way to greatly simplify things would be to force the customer to select the right delivery option (so that I wouldnt need to work out code to calculate the costs depending upon which country they are in).
So for example if they live in France...they would simply select "Europe" as their shipping options...if they live in the USA they would select "Rest of the World" shipping option.
Would you think the above concept would be far easier to code then the one you suggested? I think what I need to get to grasp with is where to place this code. IE I wanted these options (together with displaying the costs) on the checkout page) but then again the website wouldnt be setting any sessions for the delivery until a post is made on the checkout page - the only alternative is to put those options on the cart page so it creates the required sessions on the post to checkout. or the other option is to create the sessions on checkout post and then those delivery options would be displayed on the confirm page. (but i would still require the customer knowing what delivery costs they are selecting on the checkout page. could you give further suggestion the best way to impliment this as my head is fuzzy.
Chris