Help to plan a RTW itinery
 

Hello,

I am planning a RTW itinery, to see if I can fit in the places I dream of visiting, on a budget.

I have a few definate ideas of where I want to go, and a few 'would-like-to see' places as well.

I have seen the one world 6 continent ticket, but cant seem to make sense of all the rules in booking a RTX ticket.

I would appreciate any help, with the requirements below:
The must see places are in RED

Africa:
-Cairo (land trip to Amman)
- Nairobi (if possible, not important)
-Victoria Falls (would be very nice if can be included)
-South Africa (over Chrsitmas)

Asia
- India (can land anywhere, to see Taj Mahal (must see)... Goa & Rhajastan if possible)
-Nepal (if possible)
- Beijing (Great wall)
- Hong kong (not important to see, but to facilitate connecting flights, as below)
-Land sector from Hong Kong to Singapore(vietnam, cambodia, laos, bangkok, malaysia)
-Bali (would be very nice if can be included)

Australia
-Cairns (Great barrier Reef)
- Sydney

New Zealand
-Auckland (To faciliate transfer via papeete to Easter Island)

South America
-Easter Island
-Santiago
-Buenos Aires
-Rio
-Lima

North America
-Mexico (land trip to Guatemala)
- LA (or San Franciso - Land trip of the Western highlights, including Grand Canyon and Las Vegas)
-New York or Washington( and land trip to the other)

Europe
(nothing in particular, to see what can be added after the above is complete)

As a bonus, It would be nice to add some islands (Maldives, Mauritius, or carribean islands, if possible)

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!

Erm ... do you think you might care to tell us where you expect to start (and end) this 'itinery'?

oops! sorry!!

I currently live in Paris, France...so it would be easiest to start there.

Was also thinking of going home (to SA) for a the Christams period (2011) and then just starting from there...

Whatever works best.

Your biggest challenge with any RTW ticket is going to be fitting as many of your destinations as possible within the 16-segment overall limits of the ticket. You have to include segments that you need to connect to other places - for example you can't go Cairo > Johannesburg on any Oneworld carrier; you'd have to go via Madrid or London, so the Cairo - London/Madrid segment uses up one of the 16.

Similarly, any one-way land or surface travel (e.g. land at Santiago, continue from Lima) also consumes one of the 16 segments, even though you're not flying with it.

This is a common problem with 6-continent RTWs. By the time you've subtracted the 6 intercontinental segments you're left with just 10 flights to places that aren't intercontinental gateways, or less than two "extra" cities per continent. By hopping around any continent for more than 3 flights, you've effectively removed another continent altogether, if you get my meaning.

In doing your research I'd suggest looking at the various "air pass" products sold by Oneworld, e.g. the Visit South America airpass, and think about using the RTW ticket as a "backbone" for expensive flights (e.g. Easter Island) and using local airpasses, or cheap local airlines, for shorter trips, saving the 16 RTW segments for the long haul segments. Where could you go quickly/cheaply once you get to X continent?

It's a tough but fun process - good luck.

You should probably
start in South Africa (to reduce cost) and head to AMM

1. -xLHR or xMAD,
2. -AMM do the AMM-CAI as a side trip.
3. -DEL head to India (from AMM), do India & Nepal as a side trip.
4. -HKG head to Hong Kong and do the SE Asia part of the trip.
5. -SYD Once you are done head to south (try to go from HKG) and do Australia.
6. -SCL try to get on the direct flight to SCL.
7. -IPC head to Easter Island
8. -LIM and return to Lima
9. -EZE Fly to "deep" South America and do the rest of South America and return to the starting point.
10. -JFK (I think there is a direct flight) and do do the east cost you should also add MEX as a side trip (otherwise it will cost you about 4 sectors).
11. -LAX Head to the west cost,
12. -xLHR Return to Africa (a must) via London
13. -NBO

This will give you the ability to add three sectors when the side trips are most expensive.

Good lu

First thing to do, if you haven't already, is click on the above poster's (sagy) link to the spreadsheet that gives you the fares from various start points for your trip. The RTW fare isn't just a set price that you pay, rather a set of ever-changing fares that are MUCH less expensive from some places than others. Since you want to see South Africa, I'd start there. The savings will pay for your trip to get there, and then some. Also, go to the oneworld site and launch their itinerary planner and start experimenting. Find the latest set of rules and print them to keep handy while you plan--you'll be needing to check rules many times while you're plugging in cities. Excuse please of you're already aware of all this.

I'm glad to learn LA will begin to fly IPC-LIM in January! Mileage Monkey does not recognize it as a valid OW route.

Also, I don't think it's possible to visit both JNB and NBO on your OWE unless you start in one and end in the other as there is no way to connect between the two without leaving Africa.

By starting in JNB and going to Europe then TC3, you're caught you're caught by the "two European entry" rule - you can only transit Europe (specifically LHR) on the return and only if going to one of the named dead-end cities, NBO, DAR, EBB, ACC etc. (and DAR will probably soon be removed from that list as Comair now fly there from JNB.)

In looking at current prices, however, I don't think the OP saves much money by paying for a flight to and from South Africa to start the ticket. The price for an LONE6 (assuming it's an economy trip) ex-Egypt or ex-Jordan is only a couple hundred dollars (US) more than starting in JNB, and unless the OP wants to end back in Africa at the end of the trip, buying the ticket someplace in Europe might be cheaper all in. Plus, there are relatively cheap flights to Jordan or Egypt from France, so by starting/ending in the Middle East a couple of segments might be saved for use later.

Well, you're right about the flights, Gardyloo, but the connections to/from the BA service between JNB and LHR are simply terrible. They might not yank DAR after all.

It is a time consuming process to combine the places you want to see and the restrictions of these tickets.
I did several RTWs on OW in the past, currently most of my RTW travel is on Star.
The general strategy I am using is:
Let the RTW do the 'heavy lifting', e.g. all the long sectors or going to places where regular tickets are expensive (Easter Island for example). This will consume your 16 tcoupon limit. Avoid surface sectors, since the 16 limit is your most severe restriction.
Then look where you can buy extra tickets. Focus do do this in places where you can get in/out on your Star or OW RTW.
In Africa you typically find good fares JNB (do Victoria Falls etc from there).
In Asia BKK is a good place. Many options and inexpensive flights from there - this could cover Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos. On Star it is easy to do Europe-India-China-BKK-Australia. On OW you likely would make HKG into your Hub and do Europe-India-HKG and then sidetrips to China, Vietnam (UA has good fares HKG-SGN) and continue to Australia. Bali should be a bit more expensive then the other places, so include this into the RTW (from BKK, SIN on Star, HKG form OW).
Flights inside Australia are not too expensive. If you do a Star RTW you can either fly into one place and then buy a chain of OW tickets there or do a surface sector (will eat up one coupon) unless somebody comes up with a better idea. Easier on a OW RTW, since Qantas is OW.

If you move your starting point to JNB you should plan to go Africa-Asia-Australia-South America-America-Europe (stop) and then use the remaining ticket for a second vacation in South Africa (and use the return from your original positioning flight to get back from there).

NRT or ICN are also good starting points. Position there. Then do Asia - Africa - Europe - North Am - South AM - Australia - Asia (or the other way around).

On the Star tickets you can transition one continent more then once. The restriction is that you need and can do only exactly one flight between the 3 regions on this planet (Europe/Africa / N+S America / Asia+Australia). This makes it easier because you can do Europe-Africa(JNB)-Europe or NorthAm-SouthAM-NorthAm. But here you pay for the mileage (and these itineraries eat up a lot of miles).