Advice for first RTW trip please!
Hi all,
I am being made redundant soon and I would like to do RTW trip to start as soon as it happens. I have been gathering information on these forums and playing with the Oneworld explorer online tool until I have found two itineraries I am happy with, but the rules are so complicated I am still really confused about a lot of things.
The two itineraries I'm contemplating are
Itinerary 1 - LON - BKK (via HKG) - CNS (via SYD) - SYD -IPC - SCL - BOG -MAD - VLC - LON
Itinerary 2 - VLC - LON - BKK (via HKG) - CNS (via SYD) -SYD - IPC - SCL - BOG -MAD - VLC
Both itineraries have similar prices. The most convenient one is itinerary 1, the problem is that I don't know yet what date I will finish work, it will most likely be April or May but I will find out only a month in advance, so I would need to wait until I get my notice to be able to buy the flights. Itinerary 2 is a bit more inconvenient as it means having to get separate flights to and from Valencia but solves the dates problem.
If any of the more experienced flyers in here would be kind enough to solve some of my queries it would really help me decide between the two itineraries and when/how to get the ticket:
1 - Do prices for rtw tickets tend to fluctuate a lot? I've been trying similar itineraries over the last few weeks and they haven't really changed much, but I'm worried if I leave it for a few weeks before the trip it will became a lot more expensive
2- If I start the trip from London, would I need to book it with Cathay, that operates the first flight I'm taking? As I'm based in London it may be easier to book it with BA, but I don't know if that would be possible, as I'm not taking any flight with them.
3- As the flights are all quite long I was considering business class to make both the flights and airport waits a bit more comfortable, but the DONE4 is more than twice the price of a LONE4. As each flight is with a different carrier,would I get enough miles if I join a frequent flyer program to make it worth the extra money?
4- How easy is it in reality to change flight dates? And if I decided to change, for example BKK-CNS would I need to contact the ticket issuer or the carrier for that flight? For what I have been reading in theforums I get the impression some airline staff are not very familiar with the rtw rules and I'm worried to chose the dates and then have trouble changing them, particularly as I have a few flights with LATAM!
Apologies for the long post and many thanks for all theinformation I have already found in here to help plan my trip!