Advice on round the world trip to include Australia and French Polynesia?
 

I am planning a trip to Australia in July 2025 to include Darwin, a train trip to Adelaide, then a couple of days in Sydney before travelling to French Polynesia. Getting to French Polynesia from Australia is surprisingly (to me) not direct and you have to travel via Auckland and flights are expensive.

I was wondering whether I could do this as part of a round the world trip but when I used the oneworld round the world tool I received the message that "oneworld does not fly to Papeete, Îles du Vent, PF (PPT) or any other city in French Polynesia". Qantas do fly to Papeete but I assume they can not be used on a round the world trip (they are still listed on the one world web site as a Founding Member of the oneworld Alliance though the relationship has obviously changed following the partnership with Emirates)?

Any advice on whether I can get this to work as a oneworld round the world trip...

French Polynesia is expensive: that's the way it is and has been for decades.

PPT airport from Wikipedia -->https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faa%27...tional_Airport
No Oneworld airline flys to/from PPT.
QF does not fly to PPT but codeshares on Aircalin & Air Tahit Nui. Hence cannot be used on *ONE* RTW

But the Onworld Global Explorer (distance based) does allow Qantas code-share flights operated by Air Tahiti Nui. However TN does not currently fly to AU. Used to in the past.Unsure if QF codeshare PPT-AKL on TN.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Tahiti_Nui

https://www.oneworld.com/world-travel
The OW RWT tool is very buggy. Only works on simple itineraries at best.
FT OW forum-->https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld-411/

Best to look for a separate ticket to Tahiti. Can be $$$$$ for the distance. Flight & hotel package may be better value.

Edit
DRW has no OW international flights. Only OW international flight from DRW is to DIL (East Timor) Need to go via PER, BNE, ADL, MEL, SYD. DRW flights can be expensive so in a *ONE* is a good option.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin...tional_Airport

If I call the BA Gold line will they be able to help book a Oneworld Global Explorer or am I best using a travel agent? I tried to build the itinerary (rather than using the tool) and PPT is not recognised... I will also delve into the FT OW forum


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...421e72708b.png

Look in the OW forum.
Starting in UK will be expensive. With BA issuing you may get hit with BA $$ surcharges.
Other EU cities have cheaper base *ONE4 fares.
First airline is generally the issuing airline, but ask in the OW forum.

I booked a DGLOB34 last year. As with everything BA, when it works it's great and when it doesn't it's a nightmare.

You need that fare for business class that includes QF codes on Air Tahiti Nui. I didn't do this, preferring QF codes on Fiji Airways (the BA codes weren't in place at this time). I don't believe *ONE4 fares allow non-OneWorld metal, *GLOB34 fares will.

The OneWorld forum on here is a good resource, take time to read it all. Ex-UK will be about £6.2k, maybe more. Oslo is £4.2k, it's very much worth going the night before and staying at Oslo, and still having £1500+ in your pocket. Fares are filed in USD, so there's no difference in € countries that I could find, and the saving from those wasn't sufficient to justify not going from the UK. Sweden and Denmark were north of £5k, Oslo was the clear winner.

Check the rules for overland segments, I haven't had to consider them, to know if this is a penalty you'll hit on your mileage or segment depending on your ticket. GCMapper is your friend for staying within mileage rules, but generally something like OSL-LHR-DOH-SIN-SYD-DRW//ADL-SYD-AKL-PPT-LAX-JFK-BOS-LHR-MAN-HEL-OSL is likely to be fine (check this, I haven't!!)

For booking, BA Newcastle are wonderful, expect a lot of HUCA. Sunday mornings at 8am were best. A couple of AA segments mean inevitable schedule changes thus free changes - really valuable for me during COVID when countries hadn't opened up yet. When such a change happened and I had 4 separate calls to South Africa and India, they made a massive mess that took Newcastle 20 minutes to just read the notes, cancel it all and rebook it 'neatly', so ensure you get them first. When you get a good person, ask if they can send you a direct email and that they'd be happy to communicate via email for any changes, it makes a big difference.

Finally, use the full mileage and allowance if you can! Plan that Euro trip on the side. Make an out-of-the-way detour, maybe from SIN on Malaysian. Check whether QF codes on Jetstar are allowed and you could do a little NZ exploring. These tickets make the world seem tiny, and they are addictive.

As this is only very tenuously linked to BA, we'll move it to the oneworld forum where there's more broader expertise in RTW fares, and the OP will therefore likely receive more focused advice.

/mod

Rules for the Global Explorer fares are available on the Oneworld website. Here is a link:
https://assets.ctfassets.net/m9ph4qv...l-explorer.pdf

hey, we have OW international flight!!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pres...tional_Airport

As to the rest, when I did this I flew LA SCL-IPC-PPT (sadly no longer OW), then SB PPT-NOU-SYD. Worked out very affordable. Beware of the international date line if you try to piece it together by yourself

OK OK ! Will amend post. :)
But when in Dili if wanting to fly OW would need to go back to Darwin.

I went to IPC on *ONE*, SCL-IPC-SCL on LATAM. Very interesting place

salt lake city??

Yes, there are QF*/TN flights to PPT.

Other than flights marketed by and operated by a Global Explorer participating airline, only QF*/TN flights are allowed (whereas JL*/GK flights are not allowed). Global Explorer fares do not otherwise accept codeshare flights operated by a non-participating carrier, even if marketed by a participating carrier.

Thanks for all the advice to date, I will need to do some more reading on the rules. Just one more question for now, I understand I can include PPT on a Oneworld Global Explorer, however, when I start planning a route the form on the oneworld web site does not recognise PPT??

You'll have to ignore the Oneworld website - it's too buggy anyway. Here's what I'd suggest.

Post your list of desired destinations in the correct order here, and somebody will suggest an itinerary that complies with the Global Explorer rules. Since you're not planning to travel until July of 2025, you won't be able to book anything anyway, probably not until sometime around July or August of 2024, so there's LOTS of time to play with the route before you need to act on ticketing the trip.

And because the "cheaper" starting countries change from time to time, it's entirely possible that today's "cheap" origin points might become more expensive in that time, or some new "cheap" origin point emerges. Again, there's no way of knowing this far out.

In the meantime, you can look for a capable travel agent who can issue the ticket when it's time. There are some UK TAs, like Flight Centre, who advertise that they can book RTWs, so maybe that's a first stop. Their website - Round the World Flights & Tickets | Flight Centre UK - seems to focus on Star Alliance RTWs but I suspect they could manage a Oneworld RTW if they've got anybody skilled enough to put together a Star Alliance one. The phone call is cheap, anyway.

However as with all things related to booking RTW trips, it's essential that you know the answers before you ask the questions, so start doing your homework now so that you'll be ready to take command of your trip when it comes time to book it.

OK, here is my desired itinerary:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f37544b643.png

I think this trip complies with all the Global Explorer rules (we can remove DPS if an issue)? Total distance just over 30,000 miles. A few questions:

1) In Australia we plan to travel to Darwin, take the Ghan to Adelaide, and return to Sydney, I assume we can not include a Sydney to Darwin and Adelaide to Sydney in the Global Explorer and will have to buy separate tickets within Australia?

2) We will travel business class, assume we will get full Tier points and Avios?

3) Assume we should book as far in advance as possible (when last flights released).

4) The Global Explorer is costed on distance travelled, what are the key distances and could we reduce the costs significantly by e.g. eliminating SIN and DPS?

5) Is there any way we can get an idea of cost using an online tool or do we need to go to an agent, I guess options are using BA directly (we want to be able to manage seats online), or go to an agent such as Trailfinders. We have come across https://www.flightcentre.co.uk/, has anyone had experience of them?

6) We are going east on our trip, I read that west was recommended (to help with jet lag), any thoughts?

Thanks in advance. I will be in the First Lounge in LHR on 4th, 14th, 26th and 28th August if any RTW experts are there on those dates and happy to have a chat ☺️

A few comments.
You need to count all flights & distances. Not just the departure & arrival airports you want to visit
Not sure if you have to include "ground segments". That is include things like DRW-ADL if you fly to DRW and from ADL
AUK is in Alaska. AKL in New Zealand (a common error)

BA do not fly MAN to SIN. So needs to MAN-LHR-SIN (as you noted). Or just start in LHR. Starting in INV means no APD

SIN to DPS on MH. Does MH fly that non stop? Or SIN-KUL-DPS.
Wikipedia for DPS does not show SIN-DPS MH non stop.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngurah...tional_Airport
SIN to KUL can be done by rail or bus.Or fly with a range of airlines
Anyway SIN-DPS would be a cheap cash ticket with many LCC airlines.

Map 1 segments
A map from the Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper

Map 2.
Tokyo to Vancouver on AA will need to be via LAX, ORD what ever.
Be careful with Tokyo airports NRT & HND.
CX also fly into YVR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancou...tional_Airport

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=c%3Ared...=bm&PW=3&DU=mi

Fares are distance based. So you can fly AU domestic flights provided you keep under the limits (26,000, 29,000, 34,000 or 39,000 miles)
Unlikely you will get under 26,000 miles. So that leaves 34.000 in D class (business)
.