tlomonaco

We're doing a RTW trip this October leaving from NY and heading to Asia (many cities), Australia, NZ, India, Russia, South Africa, Morocco and possibly Caribbean or SA. I've researched the RTW tickets however, we want to do more stops in Asia than the RTW tickets provides so we thought the AsiaPass is the best way to go. Would like to hear some opinions on this.

Also, we wouldn't need the return flight back to JFK since we would be doing a RTW to get home. Is there a penalty for not taking the return flight home?

thanks!

drbala

As far as I am aware NO penalties. Your travel agent books the ticket and should be able to reassure you. I think it is a very good idea combining these two. I am sure you know that you can upgrade to business class on thre transpacific sector. Alas No mileage accrual.

WildRice

Perhaps if you list the cities that you're going to, it would be best to determine what is the best way to go.

No miles on Asiapass.

Where are you originating your RTW from?

tlomonaco

We thought it made more sense to go westward from JFK, starting in Asia on the AsiaPass and then beginning the RTW in Australia. Based on the cities we want to visit listed below, would you recommend a better RTW starting point?

So far these are the cities we plan to visit (recommendations/critiques welcome):

Africa - Morocco - Casablanca
Africa - South Africa - Cape Town
Africa - South Africa - Johannesburg
Africa - Tanzania - Kilimanjaro
Africa - Zimbabwe - Victoria Falls
Asia - Bangladesh - Dhaka
Asia - Cambodia - Angkor
Asia - China - Bejiing
Asia - China - Hong Kong
Asia - China - Shanghai
Asia - China - Wanli Changcheng (Great Wall of China)
Asia - China - Xian
Asia - India - Agra
Asia - India - Bangalore
Asia - India - Delhi
Asia - India - Jaipur
Asia - Indonesia - Jakarta
Asia - Japan - Okinawa
Asia - Japan - Tokyo
Asia - Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur
Asia - Nepal - Kathmandu
Asia - Russia - Moscow
Asia - Singapore
Asia - South Korea - Seoul
Asia - Thailand - Bangkok
Asia - Vietnam - Da Nang
Asia - Vietnam - Hanoi
Asia - Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)
Australia - Brisbane
Australia - Melbourne
Australia - Sydney
Australia - Perth
Australia - Cairns
New Zealand - Auckland
New Zealand - Christchurch
New Zealand - Queenstown
Europe - Germany - Berlin
Europe - Holland - Amsterdam
Europe - Malta
South America - Argentina - Buenos Aires
South America - Brazil - Rio de Janeiro
South America - Ecuador - Galapagos Islands
South America - Peru - Machu Picchu
Easter Island

We'd like to end the trip somewhere relaxing like an island in Caribbean or Hawaii.


We've been to Europe a number of times so could probably pass on Europe for this trip if it doesn't quite fit. We have never been to Asia and Australia so we'd like to spend a lot of time exploring that area. Let me know if there are additional cities that should not be missed.

We also have Platinum status on AA but planning to purchase coach RTW tix.

thanks!

Viajero

Considering that the OWE fare restricts you to only TWO stopovers in your continent of origin, and Europe is not a desired area for this trip, perhaps you should consider starting it precisely there, in Europe.

Austinrunner

Is Moscow considered to be in Asia for oneworld explorer purposes?

Viajero

Europe.

christep

Another possibility is the OneWorld VisitAsia pass, but unfortunately many of the cities you list in Asia are not served by OneWorld airlines (or only from long haul which means taking other means either in or out), including Dhaka, Angkor, Shanghai, Xian, Agra, Bangalore, Jaipur, Okinawa, Kathmandu, Da Nang. Note also that there are limitations on having Malta and Moscow on the same OWE (you would have to get to Moscow from somewhere other than the UK, e.g. HEL).

Of course many of these are doable by other routes (e.g. the Delhi Agra Jaipur triangle by train is by far the best way IMO)

To visit all those places looks like it would need 3-4 months on the road to do it properly... is that what you had in mind? Otherwise I would strongly recommend splitting it all up a bit.

Unterwegs

You will be running in all kinds of limitation with the RTW tickets (number of flights total, number of flights per continent etc).

One possibility would be to split the trip up into two or three RTWs, one OW and one Star and possibly also a Skyteam, find out which airlines are going between what places and then look at it like at a big puzzle.
Try to get the long and/or expensive sectors into the specific RTWs.

Or try to find out where you can buy seperate sectors inexpensively and use the RTW for the intercontinental and otherwise long sectors.

It is fairly inexpensive to buy seperate flights in Australia. www.travel.com.au should be a good staring point for one way tickets.

In Asia use Bangkok or Hong Kong as a starting point for the china flights. www.zuji.com (for HK) or www.bangkoktickets (for BKK) should give you an idea. Domestic flights in India are also typically not too expensive. Use the RTW or a seperate BKK-DEL/BOM-BKK to get there.

Malta you can find as round trips from Germany.

Berlin, Amsterdam and Frankfurt can be done by train.

It takes weeks to figure all that out.

My suggestion: First find out how you can squeeze as many places into the rules of a RTW.
Then try to find out which places you can go to from the stops in the RTW using the local websites (after you got an idea what is available at reasonable cost locally).


Also flights in the South Africa area (Zimbabwe) are easy to find (www.travel.com.za)

QF ExLurker

As stated above, you cannot have so many stopovers on a single RTW in any alliance, so a lot of it will have to be bought separately (air or surface).