Hello everyone,
I have been reading through the forum today and have been very impressed with all the info you guys seem to have at your finger tips.

I am planning a RTW trip leaving from MEL in March 2003. I have a rough idea of where I'd like to go, but have had real problems using the oneworld RTW trip planner (that date issue - it won't give me quotes. Also it doesn't list flights in cities which should be covered)

My rough plan was along the lines of :

Melbourne - Santiago then travel overland in Sth America. Would rather fly out of Quito, and into Guatemala City, but I can't seem to make this work. The closest I can seem to do is Lima - Mexico. Lima wouldn't be too bad, but I'd rather fly into a more Southern part of CA from there.

Then Mexico City to San Francisco (either flight or overland, depending on price), fly to NYC, fly to London. I'm planning on spending time there for work. Then I'd like to come home via India. (I'd like to do a couple of side European trips, but I think it's prob easier going from London to India.)
Not fussed as to cities to fly in and out of in India. Then back to Melbourne.

Does this sound feasible? Or hugely expensive? I have been looking at STA Travel's RTW options, and I quite like #18, which is similar, but comes back via Bangkok. Price for that is only about $2500 AUD plus taxes.

Any thoughts or feedback on this idea? AM open to suggestions ; )

Thanks!

In general your route is certainly feasible. Because you have to fly on the routes the member airlines operate, you'll find yourself taking unusual paths sometimes - for instance, Central America is regarded as part of North America for RTW purposes, so going from Quito to, say, Costa Rica may entail a flight from Quito to Miami, then Miami to San Jose, rather than a direct flight.

If you keep track of your alloted/used continental segments (6 in N. America, 4 in all others, not including intercontinental flights, 20 flights total) then you'll be fine.

Melbourne-Auckland-Santiago (S. America) - (Miami) - Central America - USA - San Francisco - Europe - Asia - Oz is fine.

And welcome to FT!

Welcome to FT.

Questions and answers on this forum are often about OneWorld Explorer xONEx (segment - continent based) or OneWorld Global (mileage based) tickets. Many people here (as opposed to the general public) also want to maximise frequent flyer points & status earning, so we go the long way where possible.

STA Travel's RTW option is likely to have been put together by them, so questions about this product may not be able to answered by FT'ers. Some of these travel agent RTW�s are good value depending on where you want to go (see also www.bestflights.com.au)

Thanks for your help. I guess I'll keep trying.

I would check with STA as to whether or not this is actually a "suggested intinery" or infact a set route that must be followed.

I had a RTW ticket last year and flew SYD-SCL then through SA. then to get to Costa Rica I flew LIM-MIA-SJO. Flights in Latin America are extremely expensive especially once they add on the gringo tax, I looked at flying LIM-SJO with TACA but it was going to cost AUD$1000 one way.

There is a great OW RTW initinery validator tool somewhere try doing a search for it.

There is no reason why you can't fly into India on BA then fly home on QF direct or CX and stop over in HKG.

Agree with Mwenenzi bestflights is an excellent site.

Currently residing here .

Erm, although Back to the Future is actually on the television right now here in the UK, I'm not entirely sure its possible in real life