Originally Posted by
Gardyloo (Post # 16)
This is an important and not widely understood characteristic of RTW tickets. The prices vary hugely, often by as much as double in country X compared by the same trip, but with a different start/end point, originating in country Y. For example a 4-continent business class Oneworld Explorer ticket (allowing more or less the same route as the OP's plan) has a base price of US$11,071 starting and ending in the USA (same as the CRWSTAR2 fare for Star Alliance), but US$8127 starting and ending in Canada, $5546 from Japan, or $5475 from Norway. . . .
You can't see RTW fares on ITA or other OTAs, only on GDSs and opaque services like Expert Flyer . . . .
RTW tickets book into specific fare buckets - L for economy and D for business class with Oneworld RTWs; with Star it's M, H or Q for economy and D or Z for business class. There are many occasions where the airlines hold back seats in those fare buckets, often seasonally. . . .
Thank you for this extraordinarily descriptive and explanatory post. Where one starts a round-the-world (RTW) trip really does make a price difference. Good old "supply and demand".
