Wow.

Now this is leading to something like what I had hoped to learn!

First, the distinction about taxes versus surcharges is certainly spot on, as indicted by mwenenzi, and I apologize for implying differently. I do not know for certain about the make-up of the "taxes and surcharges" on the StarAlliance trial itinerary because I did not pay enough attention, but the OneWorld itinerary, originating in Jordan had something close to $800 in surcharges. The first segment was, of course on Royal Jordanian. I was on the OneWorld website, so does that mean that RJ is (was) the issuing airline? It seems moot since Gardyloo has clarified that Jordan is no longer the bargain origination country that was a few years back.

I did spend hours late last night, coming up with an itinerary that met most of my criteria - - specifically, ALL non-stop flights (while outside the US) - - i.e., except for the flights originating from and returning to Louisville (my home airport). It also has NO "bad" departure nor times (hour of the day) while outside the US (for example, before 8 am or after 10 pm.

It might be said that this itinerary does NOT have all that many foreign destinations for a RTW trip, but its hidden bonus is that I was able to work in family visits to Portland (OR) for 2 nights, then Los Angeles (19 hrs, both on the westbound travel FROM the US, and a stop of 25+ hrs in Boston on the return from Europe to the US. About the only compromise was having to cut Amsterdam to just 23 hrs, in order to qualify for the lowest tier [note to Gardyloo: 26,000 miles and only five actual destinations ("stops"), that is, greater than 24 hrs; the 29,000 miles level is actually one tier up on Skyteam].

So, it felt like a fairly good deal. It would be based on simply canceling for a refund, our existing trip to Taipei, with the $350 penalty per passenger.

The itinerary, for what it's worth looks like this.


DL: SDF (08:55) => (09:58) MSP (11:20) => (13:02) PDX, stay 2 nights
DL: PDX (19:05) => (21:30) LAX, stay 1 night (19 hrs)
CI (777): LAX (16:00) => (21:05) TPE (Taipei) +12 hrs; stay 4 nights
CI (A330): TPE (11:00) => (12:45) HKG, stay 3 nights
SU (777): HKG (11:40) => (17:20) SVO (Moscow) -6 hrs; stay 4 nights
This is a Garuda Indonesia code share, operated by SU (Aeroflot)
KL (737): SVO (13:30) => (15:55) AMS, -1 hr; stay 1 night (23 hrs)
DL (767): AMS (14:55) => (17:03) BOS, -6 hrs; stay 1 night, 25+ hrs
DL: BOS (18:30) => (21:20) ATL (22:10) => (23:41) SDF

This is admittedly rather whirlwind. 17 nights on terra firma (3 of those in the comfort of family) and 1 night slept in the air LAX => TPE.

We would consider adding 7 days, scattered throughout the middle, even if we added no additional destinations. As it stands now, the family time is on Thu-Sat for our PDX daughter and Sat-Sun for our LAX daughter; likewise Sat-Sun for our Boston relatives. Weekdays would not have worked as well for those (brief) stays.

I recall reading on a post elsewhere about a RTW journey that lasted seven weeks and it contained the tally of hours spent in airports and on aircraft at just over 170 (literally one-seventh of the total trip duration or 14.7%). Our ration is fairly similar, though slightly lower: only one 90 minute connection and one 50 minute connection (both domestic), so 2.5 hrs total connecting and flights of 2+3.5, 2.5, 14, 2, 10.5, 3.5, 8 and 3+1.5 hrs or 50.5 hrs flying; adds up to 53 hrs out of 18 days total travel = 12.4%

But, the news flash is that Gardyloo really delivered the golden goose with the recommendation about trying a Japan departure. The base fare is literally just about half, at $USD 5269 (638,400 JPY) and the taxes only add another $184 per passenger. There are NO surcharges. This is versus $USD 9626 plus $313 taxes per passenger for the itinerary listed above.

The two itineraries are NOT AT ALL identical, but in my mind that really does not matter. They are both VERY good. That's all that matters.

It goes like this:

DL (777): Tokyo NRT (16:40) => (13:44) MSP, -14 hrs; 90 min connection
DL (Embraer): MSP (15:20, same day) => (18:16) SDF

then wait about 10 months

resume with:

DL (MD88): SDF (16:55) => (18:20) ATL, 2 hr connection
DL (A330): ATL (20:15, same day) => (10:40) AMS -6 hrs; stay 5 nights
KL (unspecified): AMS (21:00) => (16:20) SIN -5 hrs, stay 5 nights
GA (737): SIN (11:50) => 14:35 DPS (Denapasar Bali), stay 5 nights
CI (unspecified): DPS (15:40) => (20:55) TPE (Taipei), stay 2 nights
DL (A330): TPE (11:05) => (15:00) Tokyo NRT - - this ends the RTW trip

The only logistics left to tackle is to make a change on our existing Taiwan roundtrip, which will now look like this:

SDF => gateway city => TPE, still this September, whenever the dates exist that have the "full M" class seats (for SkyMiles upgrade).

(I might still do the SDF => PDX, overnight => LAX =>TPE on CI, as I indicated on the initial Skyteam RTW itinerary)

Stay there 5-6 nights, the TPE => HKG, stay there 3 or 4 nights
Then TPE => NRT as if we are headed back home...

...except schedule the NRT => US in 8-9 months down the road as our return from the RTW.

So, we two trips for (very nearly) the same price as simply refunding the existing TPE trip and buying the US-originating RTW.

It isn't so much about it being CHEAPER, but rather reducing the sensory overload, of so many destinations in one trip - - and the toll it takes to be away overseas for a trip extended beyond 15-20 days. This way, we can enjoy Taiwan and Hong Kong this fall in about 10 days, then sometime in 2016, have our actual RTW trip - - with more time to plan it before we go - - and some rather different destinations (trading in Moscow and getting Singapore and Bali instead).

With both itineraries we are more-or-less skipping all of the Middle East and South Asia. It might mean we never get there. Oh well. It's a consequence of too few offerings by SkyTeam.

So, question Gardyloo: is the price reduction out of Japan similarly great on OW and/or SA? Because it might be worth the exercise to see what flights and destinations I would choose with their different airline options. So many decisions!

Finally, this brings me back to my original question!

It seems like there should be a table (or a series of tables) that can lay out the following information

Economy tier 1 (just as an example)

+++++++++++++++++++ Skyteam ++ OneWorld ++ StarAlliance

Most expensive +++++++++ $xxxx +++ $xxxx +++ $xxxx
countries of origin(list 1 or 2)

USA ++++++++++++++++++ $xxxx +++ $xxxx +++ $xxxx

Less expensive +++++++++ $xxxx +++ $xxxx +++ $xxxx
countries of origin(list 1 or 2)

Least expensive +++++++++ $xxxx +++ $xxxx +++ $xxxx
countries of origin(list 1 or 2)

{It's HARD to create a table on a forum like this!]

...and then repeat the table for Economy tier 2, Economy tier 3, etc

and likewise for Biz class tier 1, tier 2, etc

and (for those few interested): First class, tier 1, tier 2, etc

It's no small amount of work, and it would have to be updated with some regularity. But users could fill in updated info, as they plan trips.

The overwhelming number of choices does make for a fair amount of apples vs oranges vs peaches vs pears - - but knowing what countries fall into what levels of (higher and) lower cost is the critical piece of information. It seems like there ought to be a place here on flyertalk where such a compilation could "cross alliance lines".

Many thanks to gardyloo and to all lurkers who read this!

Best,

Rex in Indiana