I'd like to start planning a trip around the world from Jan 2008 - Jun 2008. I've been in the process of signing up for credit cards and accumulating miles so I hope to do a lot of this trip using those. The trip will be something like this:
NYC - Beijing- Bangkok - Dhaka - Mumbai - Karachi - Istanbul - Warsaw - NYC

I'll be planning trains and other transportation to move around those areas. I may need to add one or two cities to the itinerary.

I'm trying to find the tools that will help me figure this trip out. I searched through the tools from the other forum. Is there tool/site that will let me know who flys in/out of every city? So once I have my locations setup I can see what airlines fly those trips?

I think star alliance has an "around the world" fare too, which I'm curious how many miles I'd need for that. If anyone's planned a similar trip let me know what resources you used.

I'm currently building miles with Delta, United, Hilton, Starwood, and Marriott.

Thanks.

Yes, Star Alliance has around the world fares... as do the other alliances. You may want to put your question to the experts in that forum...

Understand that Delta and United are in different alliances... so you probably want to quickly decide which alliance you will work with... and focus your miles earning on that alliance.

Also understand, you cannot book the award until you have miles available... and some of your locations have little award availability to begin with... so beware of waiting too long.

Good Luck.

William

perhaps you could start at the airlines sites....put in as much as you can of your itin in the multi city area and see what flights come up....while you're there, look at the award info....

note that you buy an around the world fare....perhaps there are also awards...

note that 2008 is too far off to get sked data for many airlines, so just pick out dates in 2007 to get a feel...

If you decide to buy a round the world ticket rather the cashing in miles (which can be quite a bit of miles for example 200,000 miles for economy on united) you might want to buy a one way ticket and start in Bangkok. I've never done it myself, but apparently you can save quite a bit of money on a round the world ticket by purchasing it in Thailand as compared to the U.S. A travel agent that's been recommended here is www.chawlatravel.com, but I have no personal experience with them.

Quantas also offers an around-the-world fare.

There are many websites written by people who have done RTWs. Some of my favorites:

http://home.comcast.net/~gardyloo/
http://www.ourlifejourney.com/rtw_2001.htm
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/theglobaltrip/
My absolute favorite -- the photo slide shows make you want to pack your bag and go this minute!

There are many other blogs by RTW'ers at:
http://www.bootsnall.com/rtw/05-01/rtw-blogs.html

A couple of my other favorites I lost when I switched computers, unfortunately, but there are many great ones and hopefully others can direct you to them.

For planning help, I'd start with:
http://gc.kls2.com/
http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-...tml?id=1245021
http://www.bootsnall.com/tripplanner.shtml
Also, I'd go the trip report forum and search on RTW to get trip reports and tips from others.

Good luck -- and keep us updated!

That would be QANTAS and perhaps the OneWorld round the world fares would be better - check out the one world forum for advise.

E

If you go with Delta (SkyTeam), here's the scoop on their round-the-world tickets.

http://www.skyteam.com/EN/benefits/around01/index.jsp