RTW Ticketing
 

Does anyone have any comments/experience with RTW ticketing? My wife and I are planning a trip for next summer. We would like to, of course, maximize the miles and usually fly Delta as we are in Atlanta, but would consider anything else that makes sense. I know that British Air has RTW tix, but do not know much else. We would like to do an East-to-West route with Amsterdam,Bali,Tokyo, Fiji being our must-do's.Any comments/tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

Ken

Under the the oneworld and the StarAlliance forum you find everything you want to know about their respectiv rtw-tickets - also the links to a fare-comparison-sheet (by contries of origin)..

rtw-price-comparison sheets:

oneworld: http://www.geocities.com/osointer/oneworld.htm ©by hsi.chang

StarAlliance: http://www.informationlab.com/rtw.htm ©by Dorian

Ken

What you are trying to achieve can be done on *A's RTW ticket. I have put together a possible routing based on your "musts".

ATL to IAD - UA
IAD to AMS - UA
AMS to SIN - SQ
SIN to DPS (Bali) - SQ
DPS to SIN - SQ
SIN to NRT (Tokyo Narita) - SQ or NH
NRT to AKL (Auckland) - NZ
AKL to NAN (Fiji Nadi) - NZ
NAN to LAX - NZ
LAX to ATL - UA

*A offer four types of RTW tickets all based on mileage:-

Starlite - 26,000 miles - is only available in Economy. The other fares - 29,000 miles, 34,000 miles and 38,000 miles - are available in First and Biz.

The routing I have given above totals 30,638 miles. Depending on your budget you may want to rethink your "musts" and get under 29,000 or use the extra 3362 miles of the 34,000 ticket to take in some other locations. From Fiji it is possible to use Air NZ to reach Tahiti or some other South Pacific Islands. Another alternative is to fly from NRT to Sydney and from there to Auckland.

I hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by Gaza (edited 06-27-2000).]

Ken,

The Delta comment in your original post seems to have gone unnoticed. I am also a loyal Delta flyer, and I have tried on at least four occasions to book long international trips as RTW using Delta and its RTW partners, Singapore and Swissair (yes, still!). Unfortunately, it's difficult to get to lots of desirable places. And Delta's RTW arrangements are very strict about no upgrades, even on Delta flights, which makes no sense to me. Last but not least, in four calls to Delta's special RTW desk, I have encountered rude and uncooperative reservations agents. I can't explain it, I just report the experience!

In summary, you would be wise to go with other airlines.

Bruce

Didn't ignore Delta comment, just could not see how he could achieve his "musts" by using them and their partners.

My understanding is that the SR / SQ / DL RTW is one of the most price-competitive out there. PLUS it includes two of the best airlines in the world (I'll let you decide which they are!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif)

the 'cheapest' fare StarLite is unfortunately not offered for trips starting in N-America.

Don't know if it helps but BA has direct London-Atlanta flights twice a day.

Find a comprehensive library with Consumer Reports Travel Letter from August 1998 (unfortunately comprehensive, library and Atlanta don't go together). They have the most extensive report on RTW that I have seen.

Basically there are the *A and 1W mileage based tickets, and two/three airline combinations (DL, SR, SQ being among them) which are somewhat cheaper. The two/three airline combinations have two broad price ranges--one for North Atlantic/Pacific and a different/more expensive one for South Atlantic/Pacific (essentially including South Africa and/or Australia).

Fiji makes this a "South Pacific" trip.

My advice:

1. Read FT and if you can find it, the CRTL story.

2. Try to find an OAG (Official Airline Guide). I know that Atl/Fulton County Public Library doesn't have it. With it, you can look up the cities and see what airlines they have in common.

3. Find a combination of airlines that covers your cities. Remember that flights within Europe are fairly cheap if bought in advance (i.e. if one combination takes care of your Asia needs but doesn't get you to AMS, take it and get from wherever you end up gateway-wise in Europe to AMS. You can leave open jaws in RTW ticketing.

4. If you end up going with *A, and don't have a travel agent you want to use, I can recommend Elizabeth Beavers at the United City Ticket office at the Sheraton-Lenox (right in the lobby across fm Lenox Square). She's terrific.

5. If you do it yourself, the protocol is you call the airline (say DL). You get to the international reservationists, then say "I want a RTW ticket". They then take your dates and cities, give you a record locator, and tell you that it is going "to the RTW desk" or "to the rate desk". 24 hours later you can call back and find out the results. You then can tweak the dates/particulars, and resubmit. You usually can't talk directly to the RTW specialists, but this system works pretty well.

Good luck--please email me if u need help as I'm in ATL also.

jl

Thanks for the help. Gaza, thanks for the effort, but we really want to stay with Delta. I think that the benefits will pay off for us later. My wife nor I fly for business so we rack up our mile with our vacations and this seems like a golden opportunity. Jamiel, I'll try to locate that article and start there. It does seem, however, that due to Delta's limited partners at this time, that it might be more difficult than I thought. Thanks all.
Ken

Shouldn't the new Skyteam alliance have a RTW fare ? Quick glance at their web site shows that this alliance will service all of your interested destination. Call Delta, and if you do find out if they have a Skyteam RTW fare, post them here.

Ken

Presently Fiji is in political turmoil. The elected Prime Minister and his ministers are under arrest and some rebels have power. I would advice not to visit the island right now. Though they should be treating tourists well, who knows how the next government may view Americans?

It's funny that you mention the problems in Fiji. I read the the tourist industry has been really suffering right now because of it. Once it resolves itself, I bet there will be some great deals there for a nice vacation. We have our eye on that for any deals in the near future. The same thing happened with leisure travel to Turkey after that earthquake a while back.

Even though I think the three-airline SR/SQ/DL RTW package is extremely inconvenient, compared to the many airlines of Star and oneworld, for Ken, I do have a RTW coming up that would be perfect for this combo.

Can you please post or e-mail the Delta RTW desk so I may call them?

Also, can you earn SkyMiles on a DL-booked RTW with travel on SQ/SR, even though you can't normal earn miles on these carriers?

Not so sure if it is like this anymore. American has a dedicated RTW desk for oneworld RTWs. You have to wait a while since it is only staffed by a handful of agents and each customer takes a long time (I was on the line talking to an agent in excess of an hour), but the agents are very helpful and not at all rushed.

Apparently from bdshobel, Delta has a RTW phone desk too. I have no experience with Star in this matter.

I have many CRTLs saved, but unfortunately I don't think I was subscribed at that time. If I was, I'd be happy to photo copy it and send it to Ken and whoever else. Sorry http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

TOTAL OMNI!! I have discontinued by subscription with CRTL several months ago. It appeared to me that it went to a heavy-leisure travel base from its business-travel base. It used to have great stories for business travelers and stuff, but now it is very leisure-travel oriented. For example, how to get deals on "adventure trips" and cheap airfare, etc. Coincidentally or maybe not so, this change appeared to happen after Ed Perkin (editor) left to join the Assoc. of Travel Agents.