Help Required with first RTW Please !
 

I hoped that you could all help me with some suggestions on my first RTW trip which I am planning at the moment. I have read many many many many :D threads and am much better informed now, but also much more confused :confused: with all the options ... These are my constraints / desires:-

- Will likely be a DONE3 (?) for cost reasons. Looks like the best places to start this would be either Sri Lanka or BKK ?
- Travelling with a friend, and will only have 2 weeks or so :( , due to work commitments.
- Will travel in Jan or Feb 05
- We will take an econ ticket from LHR to the start of our DONE3
- Would like to visit HKG, SIN (?), KL, Tokyo in Asia
- Then would want to go to South America (in time for the Rio Carnival) - any suggestions on best routes and/or stopover before / after Rio ? - Chile / Argentina ?
- On return to Europe, would likely stop that trip there after our 2 weeks travelling, and recommence the final legs of the RTW ticket later in 2005 around Europe and back to origin.

So essentially we would likely be in Asia and SA (2 continents) only for the 2 weeks, with the Europe (3rd continent) section and return to origin later in the year. Is this possible ?

What would your best suggestions be to maximise the experience (and miles etc. ;) ) in the short period of time that we have ? I'll be likely using my BA FF card FYI.

I look forward to your comments and recommendations. ^

Thanks !

John P.

If you want to include South America then it cannot be a DONE3. You need a DONE4, minimum.

From Europe, best place is Cairo, Egypt.

Viajero,

If we went in the other direction, thru LHR to Rio, could we then use a DONE 3 ?

Guy Betsy,

Is Egypt still the cheapest even with the CMB or BKK fares so low ?

Thanks,

John P.

No, because once you get to Rio you cannot get to Asia without 'touching' (buying) a fourth continent (NA or SWP).

For European based travellers, Cairo is still better than CMB and BKK. If one starts in CMB or BKK, you can have only 2 stopovers in your continent of origin (Asia in this case). If you want to visit HKG, SIN, KL, & NRT you won't be able to do so if the ticket is bought in CMB or BKK.

Hi John!

Good to see you're taking this idea forward, as you said you might when I was doing mine :)

Re your initial thoughts, I really think you need to question your reasons for starting in Asia. You mentioned costs but, although I haven't checked for a while, my understanding is that CAI is still the cheapest, even after the price increase early this year.

But there's more to it than that. If you want to see HK, Singapore, KL and Tokyo, then you must start outside Asia. The rules concerning what you're allowed to do are completely different in your continent of origin. Instead of being allowed 4 sectors within each continent (6 in NA), in your continent of origin you are instead allowed 2 stopovers. The intention is that you use these to get to and from a suitable inter-continental gateway, but I'm not sure to what extent that intended usage is enforceable.

Anyway, you will not be able to visit these cities in any normal sense if you start in BKK (say). You may get away with contructing a little MR at the start and/or end of you itinerary that takes in these airports, but you can only have two stopovers. I doubt if this is what you intend.

A good reason for starting in Asia would be if you want to use your OWE to visit somewhere like DXB which, as I'm sure you'll have gathered from this board, counts as Europe for OWE purposes.

Hope this helps and trust the real experts will correct anything I've said that's not right!

As others have mentioned, you'll need a DONE4 for this trip. The lowest prices in Europe are still to be found in Cairo, although there's a whole clutch of countries that comes close: Turkey, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria are about 50 GBP more expensive than Egypt at current exchange rates for a DONE4. There's not much experience yet with starting a RTW from any of these locations, but they would have the advantage of keeping a LHR-DXB-LHR mileage run open, which CAI precludes.

The routing for NRT, SIN, BKK and KUL is going to be tricky. The real problem is KUL, as I think you can only get there from HKG. You could do something like WAW-LHR-NRT-HKG-SIN-BKK-HKG-LAX-GIG-LHR-DXB-LHR-WAW, but I don't see how you could fit in a trip to KUL. Your best bet would be to buy a separate ticket for BKK-KUL-BKK, which may be cheaper than doing the SIN shuttle. You've still got plenty of segments to spare with the above, especially in the Americas. You could fly back GIG-SCL-LIM-MEX-LHR for instance and still have segments to spare. Or LIM-JFK-LAX-ORD-PHX-LHR to add some mileage. Unless I've miscounted, that would still leave three segments to be added... perhaps add a stopover in GRU? GIG is so much nicer, but if you're there anyway...

So then we have, assuming you start in WAW:

WAW-LHR-NRT
NRT-HKG-SIN-BKK-HKG-LAX-GIG (using the transit clause)
GIG-SCL-LIM-JFK
JFK-ORD-PHX-LHR
LHR-DXB-LHR-WAW

That's going to be a little tricky, if not impossible, as there is no direct OW flight LAX-GIG that I can see.

I could have sworn I'd seen one before posting... of course, I can't find it now either. :confused: Anyway, one could reroute HKG-JFK-(GRU)-GIG.

The best way to include KUL would be to use eitehr a separate ticket or the train to get from KUL to SIN something like this:
LHR-NRT-HKG-KUL//SIN-BKK-HKG-<NA>

I've never taken the train, but I have heard bad things about it. Apparently it takes forever on poor tracks. I think there are bus services as well, and LCC's flying out of a Malaysian airport just outside of Singapore (the name of which eludes me at the moment). But even the SQ shuttle is not very expensive, and is probably the most convenient way of getting there.

Great !
 

Thanks for all the help so far ! ^

WAW sounds like a realistic start point, particularly since we would like to do the DXB trip later in the year .... (and also the facts that it is closer than CAI and served by cheap Aer Lingus flights direct from DUB)

The KUL trip can be arranged by train / bus / separate ticket - that's not a problem !

The route on WearyBizTrvlrs post sounds like a good one :-

WAW-LHR-NRT
NRT-HKG-SIN-BKK-HKG-LAX-(GRU)-GIG (using the transit clause)
GIG-SCL-LIM-JFK
JFK-ORD-PHX-LHR
LHR-DXB-LHR-WAW

Any other comments / recommendations ?

Would there be any benefit(s) to doing GIG first i.e. WAW-LHR-GIG-onwards ?

Thanks again,

John P.

Note that there's no LAX-GIG flight as Viajero pointed out, so you need to fly via JFK instead. You still have some North American segments to play with, so you could do JFK-SFO-HNL-ORD-MIA-DEN-LHR for instance.

You can certainly do GIG first, and often flying west is easier in terms of jet lag than flying east.

Sorry, no can do. :)

(no backtracking from HNL)

Trips me up every time... definite signs of senescence here. :(

Thanks for catching that. :)

Two weeks is tough
 

Firstly, two weeks is tough on the body, I used to do two RTWs a month. Are you really going to see what you want to see doing this much so fast?

If start with how many days you want to spend somewhere, it may fall into place again. Saving the LON to Middle East/longer Europe is a good idea for later.

Gaza is trying the same thing on the BA site for ex WAW ticketing and is having trouble with BA as they want a Polish credit card.

Ex IST is popular. The reason that Egypt is popular is both price and the longhaul-ality(?) of the status points that you get for starting there in comparison with the Club your-rope product awards for status points. You could Ryanair to the UK and then get a cheap charter ticket to CAI...

For exiting Asia to US, you could try going out of NRT on AA. This would allow you to come in somewhere closer to KUL. Say LHR BKK and then BKK-SIN surface KUL then KUL-HKG-NRT. This would save a coupon, require only a one way fare to KUL and the surface is allowed under routing rule 8. Oh for the days of the QF flight between SIN and KUL that I used to use twice a month. This link may be interesting:
http://www.kiat.net/klia/airlines.html

The suggested routes have not got a US transcontinental sector if you are on a mileage run. What you really need are a set of 2000 mile sectors to get the status points as you burn the North America 6 sector limit. Suggestions?

As for South America, Viajero, is that sign requiring "no import of sperm" still in SCL customs? It may be a good Catholic Irishman we have here who may need to talk to the Pope before any stopover.

All the best

Spotwelder

Last time I looked, yes, but will recheck for you in a couple of weeks, when I go to SCL. I feel certain, however, that unless your intentions for visiting the country are a bit on the wild side, the Chilean Department of Agriculture will be quite happy lo let you pass without let or hindrance.

We'll have to see how we can possibly comply :D :D

No seriously, thanks for the help to date - As we don't have over two weeks, the cities that we definitely want to visit on this trip are:-

HKG, SIN, NRT, HNL(new request), MIA (possibly?), GIG(for Carnival), Possibly SCL or LIM, and DXB in Europe on second trip.

The others are nice to do, and will contribute greatly to the miles, and we'd like to do as much as poss (comfortably) within the time.

Looks like we are at:-

WAW-LHR-NRT (All seems fine - well it is easy at this point ;) )
NRT-HKG-SIN-BKK-HKG (can we go from HKG to HNL and onwards to NA, MIA and then onwards to GIG (maybe via other SA city ?)
We would therefore complete our NA legs before going to SA and take the BA GIG-LHR flight back to EU.

Would probably like to use WAW to depart as it is easiest to get to from Ireland ...

I look forward to your thoughts !

John P.

No. HNL can only be done from Australia, on the way to North America, or v.v.

Thanks Viajero - let me consult with my friend and come back to you guys on our latest thoughts ....

We really appreciate your help on our first RTW !! ^

John P