Sorry, I'm new to this. How do you buy a RTW ticket and what exactly does it mean? Does it mean you can fly anywhere on 3 or 4 or 5 continents depending on which you choose for the same price that's listed? But how do you do it? Who sells them?

You can buy this ticket either from the airline directly or from a travel agent.

A good way to get some background might be to pull up some old threads here on this topic, read the individual postings, and then post some specific questions of your own relating to things you still don't understand. These tickets can be pretty complicated and the rules change quite often.

The basic limitation is that you're only allowed a certain number of segments (4-6) on each continent, and aren't allowed to pass between continents more than once. If you need more segments you can buy them. I was going to post a link to the rules but it seems to be broken - hope you can find it.

It may also surprise you that the thing you're buying - an RTW ticket - has enormously different prices depending on which country you start from. Not surprising the US is the highest. Potential savings are reduced by the cost of getting to your "starting" point, and the need to actually complete the trip back to that point within a year. (Else they have the right to charge you point-to-point instead of RTW.)

I haven't checked recently but if you intend to travel RTW in coach, you probably can do better buying tickets from consolidators. In that case you have to be careful of the consolidator's reputation, and avoid being put on 3rd world airlines unless you like thrills, but in our puppy days we enjoyed several trips in that class of service.

Also note that besides the two alliances, the airlines offer RTW deals in concert with just one or two partners, and if these suit your needs they can be less expensive. (Not necessarily.)

RTW tickets (not necessarily the consolidators offerings) are valid for a year. They are capacity controlled, but you're free to change flight dates as you wish with no cost. Changing routing has a cost and can be a nuisance.

Thanks for the information. I'm still not sure what airline I buy this from or how I tell them what I want. I have only been looking at consolidators thus far but since we want to go to some odd places, maybe this is the better way. How do you buy them in a foreign country? We could get ourselves to UK, it looked much cheaper there.
Is there a way to hop back to a continent where you've been?
Thanks

You can buy your ticket from a travel agent or any of the alliance airlines. American would be a good choice if you are going to use Oneworld (United if you are going to use Star Alliance).

Here is a link to the fares for Oneworld fewmiles.tripod.com/oneworld/owe.html . There is a link on that page to the rules for the fare. Note that the rules talk about originating in Australia but other than that they are pretty generic and apply to all originations. Be careful with the fares as some of them are out of date. Check out the prices for Canada as that may be your best bet for a lower cost origination.

With Oneworld you can buy your tickets in the US regardless of where you plan to originate. With Star you must purchase the tickets in the country of origination -- usually through a travel agent in that country.

In general, you cannot return to a continent where you have been. The exceptions, as explained in the rules, are only for in transit (i.e. no stopover) returns to get to another continent (e.g. when travelling from Australia to Europe you must go through Asia so the in transit is allowed but you cannot stay longer than 23 hours and 59 minutes).

You say you want to go to odd places. Both Oneworld and *A have many partners that fly to just about anywhere you can think of. You can download a flight planner from the Cathay Pacific WWW site that has all of the Oneworld flights in it to see if they fly where you want to go.

[This message has been edited by ExMo (edited 06-17-2001).]

Thanks Exmo for the info. This is incredible. Never heard of this in all my round the world airfare search before. Since I dont want to follow the standard rtw route it may be the better deal.
If you buy your tix in the US to originate in another country do you still pay the US price or the price of originating in that country? Looks like UK prices are MUCH cheaper.

Also, can you tell me, must you only fly in one direction within the continent you are in, or can you fly west, and then east, and then west again, for instance?

Smonday

I agree that the UK is one of the cheapest places to begin a Oneworld Explorer- this only holds true for Economy Class. Remember though that you need to also consider the price of a ticket to get from the US to UK to begin your RTW. I trust it will still work out cheaper for you.
If you are in the US and want to originate in the UK, you can buy the ticket at UK prices. The agent will simply convert this into USD.

Yes, back-tracking is permitted WITHIN a continent. Backtracking is not permitted BETWEEN continents other than where the exceptions described by ExMo apply.

Salt.

A couple of other things to consider -

On Oneworld you are limited to 4 flight segments in each continent except NA whose limit is 6. You can buy a maximum of 2 additional segments per continent The intercontinental segment does not count so that allows you to visit a maximum of 5 cities (7 in NA) as part of the basic fare. However, you are only allowed 2 stopovers (stays greater than 23 hours and 59 minutes) in the continent of origin. Thus, if you start in the UK, your stops in Europe/Middle East will be limited.

Your trip must end within 1 year in the country of origin. Therefore, if you start in the UK you must go back there within 1 year. If you don't, you will be liable for the standard point to point fares for your trip.

Thanks for the help. Yes it would be a problem not to be able to include stops for Europe/Middle east. I hadn't understood that the continent of origin could not be included. Still worth considering. What is the Star alliance? Do they go to as many places?

There are several ways around the 2 stopover rule in Europe. First, there are a lot of cheap intra-European fares that you can buy. Second, if you fly to the UK on a Oneworld carrier you can use the Visit Europe pass described here.

Star's carriers are United, Lufthansa, Air Canada, Singapore and about a dozen others. *A RTW fares are mileage based with some stopover rules in total and by continent. You can check out the fares and rules at www.informationlab.com/rtw.htm . Move on over to the Star forum here for more information.

Exmo, does the continent of origin count as one of the continents? Also, could I start in Europe, go to Asia, come back to Europe and use the Europe pass (but I would be in a stopover place obviously longer than 24 hrs) and then go on to continue the RTW ticket for Africa?

Yes, the continent of origin is counted as a continent.

I believe you would have to use the Visit Europe pass either before leaving Europe for Asia or after returning from the last intercontinental RTW segment. As you note, you are subject to the in transit rule when passing to/from Africa via Europe. Also, I think this Europe-Asia-Europe-Africa-??? might be considered backtracking or violate the one in transit per continent rule unless you can get out of Africa without going back through Europe.

smonday, how long do you expect to travel, and what class of service are you looking at? And where do you live?

John,
We are travelling for 14 months, though unfortunately we already have our South America tickets, so when we return from ther in Dec. it will be 7 more months for Asia, Europe and Africa. We want to travel cheapest class, and we live in Calif.
Stella