Originally Posted by
andreirublev
I have sort of a subjective/philosophic question about the Circle Pacific fare and I wouldn't mind hearing experiences and opinions from folks who have taken a Circle/RTW trip before.
I was originally looking at a DFW-LAX-MEL-SYD-DFW itinerary, which in discount business (I) would run about $8500 before taxes. Then I noticed the existence of this Circle Pacific, which in D from the US appears to be about $9300 -- so for less than $1000 more, I could tack on NRT-KIX-HKG or start from LAX and maybe tack on HKG-BKK-KUL (or any number of permutations) and still be under the 22k mile limit.
This would be leisure-only trip for 2 weeks (can't be flexible on the 2 weeks). Having never been to any of the places on either itinerary, were you happy cramming in a lot of destinations in a short period of time, or would you have preferred more time in just one continent?
Thanks.
Obviously those are personal questions; two weeks including travel time (call it 2 days in each direction counting day/night and date line just for US/Australia, call it 4 days if Asia < > Oz are included) means 10-12 days of "functional" time. If you can visit a place and see a lot in 48 hours, then hitting five or six cities is okay. If you want to see more of a place (and possibly sleep in beds instead of on planes) then it would probably be too much. Hard to say. But remember that BKK-SYD is almost 5000 miles, so not exactly a puddle-jump in time terms.
At $9300 plus taxes, however, I'd be inclined to look at RTW fares instead of Circle Pacific. If, for example, you flew relatively cheaply to Europe, you could conceivably start a 4-continent RTW in someplace like Poland for under $8300 plus taxes, or around $7000 - $7300 in the "near" Middle East. Then fly east - to Asia en route to Oz, then home... and still have six North America segments and a couple of European ones remaining, which you could use over the space of a year.
In other words, do your Australia vacation (via one or two stops in Asia) then travel for pleasure or leisure around North America - including the Caribbean, Central America, Alaska, whatever - before ending the trip in Poland (or, cheaper, Israel, Egypt or Jordan) sometime within the next year. Use miles to get to Europe in the first place if you have them, optimize your route and maybe hit EXP with all the EQP, and your money stretches even further. If you're looking at $9300 plus tax for a DCIR22 from North America, vs. $7200 plus tax for a DONE4 from Israel or Jordan, could you get yourself from DFW to TLV, AMM or CAI and back for $2100? (Short answer, "duh.")
So for example, use miles, DFW AA ORD RJ AMM, which would take less time than going to Oz. Spend a few hours in the lounge at AMM, then start the (paid) DONE4...
AMM RJ BKK CX HKG QF MEL QF SYD QF DFW. (Then pause the trip and go back to work.)
Then, later (imaginary) DFW AA ANC AA DFW AA YVR CX JFK AA DFW AA MAD IB IST BA LHR RJ AMM, then miles home. There are literally thousands of permutations on this theme. IMO way, way more bang for the buck than the DCIR22.