I've been reading up on Round the World tickets for the last few months, including the FAQs here, and I am still fairly confused about this stuff. I finally figured that I am probably looking at this wrong, and maybe I should ask here either for resources or clarification.

Looking at One World Explorer tickets, it appears to me that I can pretty much get a better price on the tickets by buying the segments separately. An example of my known Itinerary in 2005 is as follows (with home being either the LAX, SNA or LGB Airports):

Home-JFK-Home-YVR-Home-MSY-Home-JFK-Home-MAD-AMS-Home-HNL-Home

Now I realize that much of these trips are domestic, North America trips. But the total cost of airfare for these trips in Coach (with a few domestic upgrades) is $1,800, or in F for $2,900. Assuming that I added in a stop or two in Asia, and did some of the North America trips on separate tickets outside a ONE ticket, and started my itinerary somewhere like Cairo or Bangkok, I would still be paying a minimum of $3,500 for coach or about $6,000 for F, right?

From a purely mileage perspective, you can buy trips separately at about a cost of 3-4 cents per mile. Can a ONE get you a lower dollar-per-mile ratio? It seems to me that, at 3 cents per mile, a ONE ticket would have to cost $1,500 or less to be worth the price (it seems that it's not likely to get more than 50,000 q-miles on a round the world ticket). Or is the cost of these tickets beside the point?

Obviously, I need to learn more, but I'm not sure where to look for the info.

I'll tell you why a OWE is valuable to me. A OWE allows me to fly FIRST class on long haul flights on the world's finest carriers. I don't have to agonize over finding award space available; I simply call up and ask for A inventory seats - which to date, I've had 100% success in getting for the dates I want to travel. I can fly over Christmas - or any holiday - there are no blackout dates.

I'm top tier on UA and AA, and routinely fly upgraded biz using my SWUs and VIPs. But that's nothing compared to the luxury of the first class cabin on international carriers. Back in the good old days - just two years ago, when we could get 36 segments on our 6 continent RTWs - I did a rough calculation of what it would cost me to buy the flights for which my $5K RTW ticket covered. It was over $100K. I dont' have that kind of money - but once in a while I can squeeze out the $5K (or $6K, where the 4 continent AONE is running ex-CAI these days).

I'm not looking at miles earned - although those are nice. I'm looking at the pure, unadulterated joy of flying in the best cabin in the best carriers in the sky. It is a joy.

I've been out of touch with rtw consolidator fares and the like since the day I took my first first-class ride on Singapore. Even without beds, they made it pretty much impossible to get me back to the rear of the bus without leaving a lot of claw and heel marks along the way.

But I believe the OP has a valid point. Back when I haunted the consolidator ads, I was aware that doing the same thing solely on respectable carriers would increase the cost by 50% or more. But I didn't mind the likes of Air India and nearly-bankrupt Pan Am too much, and at least in those days consolidator tickets were almost as flexible as OWE's, albeit without significant cross-carrier endorsement rights. At least they were good for a year, and changing travel dates invoked no penalty.

So if thrifty travel is the highest nail, OWE's probably don't come close to winning, especially if it's measured per trip instead of per mile.

But move up the food chain a bit and the picture changes. If very-comfortable travel (i.e. business class or better) is a requirement, there's no contest. Biz consolidator fares used to be very hard to find, and methinks there's a much bigger difference between Cathay biz and say AI biz than between their coach products. Depends on how you value the various elements of the experience, of course.

And even in coach, you can make the case that OWE is the greater bargain by using the ticket to its fullest. Segment-limited fares can go a long way, pun probably intended. I'm not sure what the record mileage for a 20-segment ticket is (imo pure MR's should be excluded and the perpetrator forced to wear a funny hat, but that's just me) but, spread out over the allowed year, it makes for a lot of happy travel. With, as noted above, a lot of freedom regarding schedule.

Bottom line, though: plan out the trip you really want to take, specify the cabin comfort and schedule flexibility you want to buy, and go price shopping.

I haven't done any of the math, but I'm wondering how you'd do just the Home-MAD-AMS-Home part for $2.900 in F (let alone the other 5 trips).

I agree with SanDiego 1K that one has fewer worries when flying in the front of the bus. Paid, though discount, premium fares gets better service from the ground staff (IMO) than those flying on an upgraded ticket. Plus the miles are between 50-60K miles times 1.5 which gets one very close to EXP the easy way. In the QF FFP one can earn oneworld emerald for 2 years with one ticket, if you like/use the QF FFP.

And for me, the AA RTW desk is super. Depending upon the situation, better than the EXP desk. For complex questions, I have a favorite agent that will handle my queries without a sweat and who I can request if I want to do so. Now, I must admit that the business class OWE are better value for AA, while the first class OWE are probably better in other airlines' FFP.

Check PresRDC's posts in the AA forum, Exec Plat with personal travel only? on how to do it with little time off from work.

To add an Australian perspective, the economy class OWE's are definitely good value in this part of the world. This is especially true if you're looking to include South American travel, which is generally a hideously expensive part of the world to get to from here. Certainly if you just wanted a simple trip there's a Lufthansa ticket available in Australia for under AU$1600 (US$1100) that gets you from Sydney to a number of places in Asia, then to Europe via Frankfurt, then onto US or Canada and then back to Australia. But if you're looking to go off the high traffic routes, then that's when the OWE comes into its own.

For my LONE5 trip it was approximately 50,000 miles, and a cost of US5c per mile. That was going places I actually wanted to go as well, not just to clock up the miles. Including destinations that only have monopoly services, such as Easter Island and Ayers Rock, it saves you a lot over single ticket prices. So from this part of the world anyway it definitely presents significant savings, from other parts of the world (such as the US) where the LONE's are higher priced and regular return airfares are lower then that value proposition wanes.

Perhaps you should look at ONE as a way to travel RTW and not just US domestic with a bit of pond hopping. Perhaps you should buy some of your US domestic tickets in Europe with a back to back transatlantic tickets if price is your main option and Y travel domestically is OK.

By including AMS and MAD in your plans, you miss out the joys of Higher Intermediate Fare destinations like London in your plans with the RTW allows. You may also be using NW and IB whereas the better carriers are not being used for some of the trips.

Just thoughts.

Other pluses of RTW:
1) You can change date of travel without penalty;
2) You can change routing for only $75.00 fee;
3) No fear whether you will/won't get that upgrade - you are guaranteed.
4) When flying on B/C RTW, you can upgrade AA flights with VIP's. I did LHR-LAX in First with Julie Andrews 2 seats away in July.
5) The Q-point and mileage bonuses are great, especially if you are EXP.
6) The RTW product really is good if you enjoy foreign travel. I usually go to New Zealand every year, so even to buy economy round-trip ticket probably would set me back close to $1,500 - $2,000.

(Off-Topic) Try doing business with whichever random AA agent answers the phone instead of asking for their star, and report back. I think it presumptuous to ask for her so I don't, and so far have experienced indifference and rudeness (although staff tends to be familiar enough with the rules.)

Actually, on that particular trip, I am flying AA from LAX-LHR, then connecting to BA with a trip running LHR-MAD-LHR-AMS-LHR. The whole trip (leaving LAX on May 27, returning June 11) cost $696 during a fare sale, with a 50k-miles upgrade (J on the AA legs, and I think F on the BA routes).

Edit: The remainder of the domestic trips are on AA.

OK, you've convinced me that you are misinformed and/or confused.

First off, BA does not offer F on its routes between London and Madrid or Amsterdam.

Second, the 25k (in each direction) upgrade from an economy fare would indded upgrade the AA flight, but it would not upgrade the segments operated by BA, even if it's an AA-numbered (code-share) flight.

In any case, to be fair one would value the trip at at least $1200, since the 50k miles are worth at least a penny. And the op isn't being deceitful, just hasn't found out that in Europe the airline marketing departments don't have the nerve to call their business class 'first class' as we do here.

Other costs/benefits not included in the equation: OWE offers near-certainty of travel in the chosen class, as opposed to upgrades, earns another $300 worth of miles if anyone is counting, and would earn the traveler AA plat status, albeit on this trip a bit late in the game. I guess the homeward leg would be the trigger, and earn the plat bonus.

ONE tickets are not booked in Q,W,Z classes so you would earn more miles on your trip and thus more free flights.

me and my partners last AONE4 was not mile maximised nor status but we still have earnt enough miles to get 2 x free biz tickets to the US on BA (amex voucher) and a free biz ticket to Asia

i paid $6,000 p/ticket so if i ws to go round the world again (as elite status) i would be earning near to 1 free rtw for every 3 booked, so depends on how you look at it
or in excess of 160k miles per trip which is a free tick in F to US ,
i would assume you would value that at a few thousand dollars

so for every 6k i spend i would value what i gain in points and status lounge access etc etc.. easily worth another 6K,
so the cost (to me) then makes more and more sense.

with planning you can get 20 flights with 60k miles for 5k approx in J, so would you think $250 a flight in J is expensive or cheap?

Right. I just had my secretary book and upgrade this trip through AA's Plat desk, so I was booked LAX-MAD-AMS-LAX and was then told that my routing was through Heathrow and using BA planes. On the upgrade, I was told that I was upgraded to Business Class on the AA flights, and to the front of the plane on the BA flights (I assume that they are codeshares, but I don't know yet because I haven't seen the tickets). I assumed that the words "to the front" meant first class, which is why I said that I think it was first class on BA. And I have no idea how exactly it was arranged. I just know that it was arranged, and $696 was deducted from my credit card account.

But all that is beside the point, which is when a One World Explorer is worth getting. Clearly it's not a bargain thing. What I am getting here is that it is more valuable when you use airlines other than AA, who have better and more expensive First Class Cabins, and you fly a lot internationally.

I would think it was expensive or about right for domestic, cheap for international. But I don't know that I could do 20 flights and take all that time off work, so it might not be possible for me to maximize the value of such a ticket.