Welcome to FT
TakeTwo
Originally Posted by
TakeTwo
I've been avidly reading these forums to figure out how to get the most bang for my buck on a trip around the world. Thanks to the insights here I've splurged just a bit extra in order to get a business class ticket, by cutting its price massively from what it would've cost straight out of Japan, where I live.
A few things that saved me a lot of money:
- starting in Johannesburg (this one was massive)
- ending in Dakar instead of Joburg
- skipping Asia completely
- avoiding London (huge airport taxes)
- trying different codeshares for same flight
Oddly I found that a lot of LAN flights stop existing after April 3.
I'm still tweaking it but would be great to get any input anybody might have. So far I have:
JNB-SYD-AKL-SCL-LIM-EZE-GRU-MIA-MEX-surface-CUN-DFW-YVR-JFK-HEL-MXP-MAD-DKR
I have no particular need to go to DFW or MIA but there were no direct flights so thought I'd check them out.
Again, thanks for the amazing advice.
What do
you mean by "most bang for my buck"?
Knowing this will help us advise you better
London:
- usually entails flying BA and paying its extortionate fuel surcharges
- usually entails paying the extortionate British APD (Air Passenger Duty)
but both can be avoided - don't fly BA; fly from London to somewhere nearby (low APD) or just transit London (<24hrs = no APD)
Skipping Asia
- saves you a continent - if you do want to go to SWP (Australia and NZ)
- but you could fly JNB-HKG...Nth America, skipping SWP
- and this would allow you to break the RTW into two
- first part JNB-stops in Asia-Tokyo
- second part Tokyo-Nth America-Sth America-Europe-Africa
I presume you're ending in DKR to avoid flying BA on the last segment, but you'll need to weigh the positioning costs against the BA fuel surcharge
- is Japan-J'burg return cheaper than Japan-J'burg + Dakar-Japan
I suggest ...SCL-IPC-LIM instead of SCL-LIM - more miles and you get to see Easter Island
