Planning a world tour using oneworld metal
 

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice.

I'm currently holding a contest to pick 4-5 people to travel with me around the world. The contest launched a day or so ago and I've already got 30+ applicants. The positions I'm looking to fill are for a writer, photographer and someone who can edit video.

I haven't posted in a while but I wanted to figure out if anyone had any good ideas for booking group tickets, staying on AA/oneworld metal as much as possible (I'm EXP) and if there are any benefits to booking "Around the world" tickets. I'm not sure from what I've seen if there are any advantages to booking that kind of ticket versus just individual tickets.

I have about 6 weeks left to figure out the exact itinerary. I haven't decided if we're going East or West to start. We'll be starting out from LAX and leaving at the beginning of April. We should be on the road for approximately 2-3 months and hoping to hit all of Europe, Russia, Asia, South Africa (possibly a couple other countries in Africa), New Zealand and Australia.

Thanks in advance!

Rachel

With that small a group I doubt you'll qualify for any group discounts; in any event it really sounds like RTW tickets are what you're looking for, and you should peruse the sticky threads etc. in the Oneworld forum, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld-411/

One note is that if your timing would have you going to South Africa during the World Cup (mid-June to mid-July) you need to revise your schedule - things are pretty sold out.

I agree with the earlier comment on your group being too small for group tickets. In addition, you will need the names of those flying in order to purchase tickets. Some countries you may want to visit will have visa requirements. Your time frame (beginning in 6 weeks) seems doable at this point, but you need to get in gear. It seems that the first step would be to select your companions. Good luck.

As I said in my OP, I am currently running a contest to pick the winners of the around the world contest. I'll have their names before the end of March.

The tour will leave at the beginning of April and we'll be back by the first or second week of June so we won't have any issues with the world cup.

I'll check out the round the world tickets. The more research I've been putting in, the more I think that we'll be traveling around the majority of Europe in a tour bus since it's a lot more flexible than flying or taking the train which has it's limits due to schedules and flight restrictions on tickets.

I've also spoken to my company's lawyers and they don't believe that we will need work visas. Since we're not technically working IN those countries (ie taking jobs from locals) and the winners will be paid via a US company.

They're doing the research with some entertainment lawyers to make sure though.

I know that we will need tourist visas for some countries that we're going to but that won't be an issue as we'll still have more than a month to get those for the segments that require them. From my own travels though, I've never needed to apply for a visa before I came out. The only places I haven't been are to Australia/NZ/Pacific Rim. Once we finish the exact itinerary, we'll get to work asap on visa research.

We should have the complete schedule and itinerary nailed down before the submissions process closes on the 20th.

If you're interested in reading more about it (since people here obviously enjoy traveling) you can read about the contest here: http://news.bmezine.com/2010/02/10/i...for-a-contest/

It's for my tattoo/piercing/body modification e-zine.

I think oneworld Forum may be the most productive for your trip - a RTW fare would save you oodles of bucks, allow up to sixteen segments over a year's time, etc. etc. and the oneworld folks have some very knowledgeable members quite willing to share hints and knowledge.

I'd also recommend possibly avoiding Japan - since many tattooed people are released criminals and gang members, it is not unusual to get lots of nasty looks, personal animus and even bans from pools in hotels, etc. (E.g. pool at Hilton Narita has a sign stating persons with tattoos are not admitted to the pool.)

This sounds like very tight timing to me - names by the end of March, leave beginning of April. Remembering that you cannot ticket until you have the names, you will not qualify for any tickets that have a 14-day advance ticketing requirement, and probably not for any tickets that have a 7-day advance ticketing requirement.
Again, that sounds really tight to me. My experience has been that you need to get visas to get into countries, not to get out of them. Remember that you can't be sending everybody's passport off to get visas while you are traveling - you will need them. You might want to go someplace first where all nations have a consulate or embassy, and go to each one in turn. I would allow at least 24 hours for each visa, although you might get them faster. The Hague is good for doing this.

As I recall, Russia alone takes at least three days to process a visa, and obviously you will have to add extra time for shipping (unless you live in New York) and the uncertainty of Russian bureaucracy. I would consider a few weeks more than you are allowing a bit tight; the schedule you seem to be proposing (a week or two after you have names) is simply unreasonable for this endeavor.

I'd say you're sort of half right on this. Yes it's semi-unreasonable, but not with the services of an excellent expediting service. This sort of thing is common in the journalism world and there are services and fixers that can get passport issues sorted out in a hurry. For a fee, of course.

I don't know if it's at all possible to book travel without names in advance, but this has to come up very often for precisely these kinds of situations (contests, TV/journalism/promotional trips, and similar) and even though your group is small I wouldn't dissuade you from calling group sales anyways, who I am pretty sure do this regularly for larger groups.

I think if you're trying to combine deep discount fares with this trip it's *definitely* unreasonable, but as long as your expectations aren't totally in the "I want it all" department it hardly sounds impossible.

If you are looking for a well tattooed interpreter, then I am your man! JK

I am sure that you know what JDIVER said is very true. When I am in japan, I am very careful about who I show my tattoo to( I have a turtle shell style of body suit, so even with shorts and a t shirt on you can't see it). I have never gone to a pool in japan for the exact reason JDIVER stated.

On the other hand, people in Thailand love it! Some Thais believe that certain tattoos are magical and can provide a defense if you are attacked!

I knowni didn't help you flight situation at all, but I hope it all goes smooth, and I am sure the FT community will help!

For a price, I believe you can get same day or next day processing. You don't have to be in NY. I get mine from the consulate in San Francisco, though I haven't had the problem of needed an expedited one. Mine usually takes a week.

That said, if it's 6 weeks before travel date, and you aren't picking the people for a couple more weeks, that restricts the amount of time to get the visas. Of course, you could limit your travel to countries with fast visa, or no visa requirements.
You aren't getting anything from Group Sales for 4 or 5 people, or I would have been calling group sales for every family trip.
4 or 5 is not a large enough group.

As others have commented, a group of 4/5 will probably not work for 'group' discounts. As for RTW tickets, they are likely to be far more economical than individual tickets, which are likely to be insanely expensive by the time you're done (unless you're happy to take last-minute deals on UccaMucca Airlines or whatever happens to be available). If you want to stick to major carriers (and in particular oneworld), then RTW tickets are the way to go. Assuming you're visiting 5 continents (North America, Asia, Southwest Pacific, Europe and Africa) and flying economy, a oneworld RTW ticket ex-LAX will cost $5,100 + taxes (figure 10%-20%). For that, you get up to 16 segments, with a maximum of 4 in each continent (and 6 in North America but you probably don't care about that). You can change dates, times without penalty but routing changes will cost you $125 each time you change the ticket - you need to decide where you're going up front and then stick to it, if you can.

The oneworld forum is the best place to get advice on these tickets, so either post there or the moderators can move this thread there. The first thing you need to do is decide where you want to go. If you can't do that ("We want to be flexible and decide where to go next as we travel") then you have no real alternative to buying individual tickets, which is likely to get very expensive.

The cost of the oneworld RTW tickets are based on the number of continents but also on the point of origin, with some countries being cheaper than others. For example, that 5 continent RTW ticket is L2,529 (or about $4,000) ex-UK. You could, for example, fly to the UK on a separate (return) ticket, go whereever you want to go in continental Europe by train, then start the RTW ticket to get you everywhere else, and then fly back to the U.S. from the U.K. at the end. Lots of possibilities but the main criteria is deciding where you want to go (or at least coming up with a list of 'possible' places.)

I believe you are correct, sir.

So, this is two-and-a-half months of video and interviews with tattoo artists, piercers and body modification artists around the world? Uh, I think I'm tied up on those dates...

Again, check the OW forum, but the value of RTW tickets depends on the class of service. For any non-trivial itinerary they're excellent value in F or J. In Y, however, regular advance purchase tickets are (in my experience) more economical even if one happens to be going around the world - and you would have plenty of time to book these for all segments except the first. Segment-limited RTWs (OW Explorer) in the back of the bus become better only if you'll use many of the allowable segments within each continent. It doesn't sound like you will. I don't think a mileage-limited RTW (Global Explorer) would work out cheaper, either.

AA's RTW desk has helped many people sort this out. I'd give them a call.

Agree with all the other posts re timing, etc. (Good thing you're not going to Brazil.) As for group sales: they're not even in the picture unless you have too many people to book in one online reservation. For aa.com, that's a minimum of seven. I wouldn't waste time calling them. The EXP desk is your friend.

Particularly true for BRICs nations - many of their tourist entry visas are expensive and takes time to fill out paperwork as a reciprocity against what our country requires for these country's citizens.

Plus, not everyone maybe US Passport holders as well so visa requirements may vary from each person's nationality. For example, an US Passport holder needs a tourist visa to enter mainland China (No need for HKSAR only) whereas a Japanese passport holder can enter and stay in mainland China for up to 15 days without any visas.

Reciprocity retaliation? An interesting theory. Citation please.