Originally Posted by
SDandi
...
As far as itinerary goes, here are my thoughts...keeping in mind that I just started looking at all of this this week:
MPM - manila- singapore-sydney- LAX (this is home, so I would stay a few months before taking off on part 2) from here either Buenos Aires or straight to Paris (a couple of months in Europe and maybe fly back to California on miles) pick back up in Paris and then end in MPM or JNB.
Do people ever do it like this or do they do the entire trip at once?
Based on the thread you directed me to, it sounds like the great fare may be gone soon. But, if I have understood correctly, It is not too difficult to make changes if I want to lock in that fare now and tweak it later?
As
Himeno said, people often break their RTW tickets at home. Some even have short trips from/to home during that break (more on this below).
Your itinerary looks something like this
MPM-xDOH-MNL-HKG-SIN-SYD-LAX-SCL-EZE-MAD-CDG-MAD-JNB
The xDOH means just a transit there, no stopover; that way you can have your European stopovers at the end of the trip.
There are no Oneworld flights MNL-SIN, LAX-EZE, EZE-CDG or CDG-JNB so I added in connecting flights.
Your ticket will be a six continent Oneworld Explorer, so expect to pay ~USD4,500 – 5,000 for business class.
Your itinerary uses 12 of the allowed 16 segments.
So you could use the extra segments to:
- Have flights within Asia, South West Pacific, South America, or Europe (you are allowed up to 4 flights within each of these continents, but remember you are limited to 16 flights overall), OR
- Have trips within North America during your break back home; you are allowed up to 6 flights within North America (there is a restriction on trans-continental flights) – so perhaps trips like LAX-MBJ-LAX, LAX-BZE-LAX or LAX-SJD-LAX
If you want to do that sort of thing, but the 16 flight limit becomes a problem then think of doing some of the following:
- Instead of MNL-HKG-SIN-SYD do MNL-KUL-SYD and train or bus from KUL down to SIN and back
- Instead of EZE-MAD-CDG-MAD-JNB do EZE-MAD-JNB and train from MAD to Paris and back
FWIW, I expect the fares to increase on Sunday night
.
The general rule is that changes to ticketed points (meaning dropping or adding points) incur a USD125 fee (one fee for all the changes you are making at one time); and simple changes to a flight are free (such as changing the flight number, date or time).
HOWEVER, there are special provisions if you want to make changes BEFORE departure (meaning before you take the first flight on the itinerary) – if you want to do anything to that first flight or you want to change ticketed points then if the fare has INCREASED since you purchased then you must pay the new fare.
Since we all expect the ex-MPM fare to increase soon, you need to be fairly certain of that first flight.