Please help a first time RTW traveler ...
 

Hi everybody ... so I'm graduating from school this december and will be travelling for 6 months before starting work this summer. My home-base in New York, but I am buying a roundtrip NY-London ticket so I can take advantage of lower RTW fares in Europe (and allow for two visits to london ... one on each end of the journey). If you expert OneWorld RTWers could help me confirm the itinerary, and let me know if there is anything you would suggest (tricks of the trade?)

London - Delhi - Guangzhou (by land to) Beijing - Bangkok - Peru - Easter Island - Buenos Aires - (somewhere near Patagonia) - New York - Washington DC - New York - TelAviv - Greece - London

I recognize that I need to fly through north america (JFK??) to get from Bangkok to Peru, I need to fly through Santiago to get to Easter Island and I need to fly through Madrid to get to TelAviv. Is this all doable? Am I breaking any rules? Any/all help is greatly appreciated, and any hints/tips to make the journey better are welcome.

Thanks,
Daniel

No, it is not doable, and you are breaking the most important rule -- you cannot leave your country of origin a 2nd time. So when you arrive back in LHR, you can fly up to 4 more segments within the UK (to MAN or EDI, for example), but you cannot leave the UK. Purchasing extra segments within the continent of origin is also not allowed. In practice this means if you originate from another country in Europe (not UK) you must use 1 or 2 segments to get to/from LHR, so you cannot do both Greece and Israel legs from LHR. Might be better to originate in Japan; in any case, I guess you need to rethink your routing, or plan on buying some extra tickets to fill in the missing legs that aren't allowed on the OWE.

Alternatively buy your ticket after April 2007, when RJ joins OW and you can fly JFK-AMM (though that may not be the best way to get to Israel). However you state leaving in December, in which case you are limited to the current 8 OW airlines and cannot book flights on RJ, MA or JL.

Something like this would work:
LHR-DEL-HKG//PEK-HKG-BKK-HKG-(x)JFK-<S America>-JFK-WAS-JFK-MAD-TLV//ATH-LHR
Not sure the best way to do your S American destinations - you might need to buy two extra segments in addition to the 4 allowed to fit it in (which is OK so long as you stay under 20 air segments in total).
As number_6 says, you can't reenter the UK until the end, but you could fly to TLV via MAD, and then you'd need to make your way separately from TLV to Greece.

... or use LAN's South America AirPass which, for the the places the OP wants to visit (Patagonia, Lima, Buenos Aires, but not IPC), can be cheaper and does not take away any of the 20 segments.

two questions
 

first, is the easter island leg possible as part of the South America trip (meaning I would fly jfk-buenos aires - santiago - easter island - santiago - buenos aires -jfk.) during one of the stops i would buy the Lan south america air pass.

two, am i allowed to do ground legs in two continents (as suggested in the previous post which included an intin with land travel in china and europe.

thanks,
daniel

Yes, but IMO a better use of the 4 SA segments would be JFK-SCL-IPC-SCL-LIM-EZE.

Yes.

There is no limit on surface sectors within a continent, but trans-oceanic surface sectors are generally not allowed (as always, there is an exception, but it is not relevant to you). Having surface sectors might make you ineligible for an e-ticket and force a paper ticket, but that isn't bad. IPC is very isolated and there is very little there (almost no hotels, restaurants or tourist infrastructure). Just a beautiful part of the world that is hard to get to (and an excellent use of OWE).

Not to rain on your parade, but this is one of those instances when it probably makes sense to NOT buy a RTW ticket. Just because you want to go around the world does not mean it makes sense to buy a RTW ticket. My last RTW trip did not involve a single ticket but simply combined several one way tickets purchased along the way. The significant advantage to this was that it provided ultimate flexibility. Nearly as significant was the fact that the total itinerary: JFK-MAD-HEL-BKK-NRT-JFK cost $1750. This included business class in ANA on the BKK-NRT-JFK legs. If I had gone economy on those legs the fare would have been $300 less.

You'd be amazed what you can come up in terms of cheap one-way tickets in places like Madrid, Bangkok, etc. I look at your itinerary and it just seems to me that someone in your situation would benefit highly from the ultimate flexibility to do as you please along the way. I suspect you could very easily cobble together your itinerary as you move along cheaper than a RTW ticket.

Well I respecfully disagree. Some of the destinations (Easter Island stands out) are not easily visited with one-way or local tickets (and IIRC not the Lan pass either.) In general the addition of S. America works against such make-it-up-as-you-go plans, but YMMV.

While it's true that LONExs are well priced ex-UK, the no-transit rule hurts where LHR is the origin airport.

But note that Finland is (according to WBT's spreadsheet) only a couple hundred dollars more for an LONE4 than the UK, and in fact AY's (unique in OW?) route to CAN helps with the OP's itinerary. There are still several open segments where either there's no OW service or not enough continent coupons for the whole menu, but these can be covered relatively easily with one-way tickets or even trains/buses.

For instance, the following hits most of the OP's spots, with one or two surface/S. America pass or OW tickets added:

HEL-CAN//PEK-HKG-DEL//BOM-BKK-HKG-xLAX-LIM-SCL-IPC-SCL-USH//EZE-JFK-WAS-LAX-LHR-TLV-MAD-ATH-HEL

AY's service from ATH to HEL is seasonal and on all-Y config. planes, but so what? USH-EZE is around US$300; I'm assuming the OP could make his/her way overland from DEL to BOM to connect to the BKK flight, etc. etc. I also made up the N. America itinerary; numerous riffs possible. I'd take the train from NY to DC myself, rather than Eagle or fussing with airport hassles.

It's a lot of real estate for the price.

So, pulling it all together, the target itin looks to be: LHR-DEL-HKG//PEK-HKG-BKK-HKG-(x)JFK-EZE-SCL-IPC-SCL-LIM-JFK-WAS-JFK-MAD-TLV//ATH-LHR

I switched EZE to the front end of the trip because I will be there in April-May, and Argentina gets cold earlier than Peru. Other than that, this is directly from the above posts.

If I were to do this plan, are there any specific optimizations you all would suggest? I've read a lot on these boards about taking BA or Cathay long-haul instead of AA, and about fuel surcharges and the like. Are there any specific tips of hints you have about these flights that would reduce cost and increase enjoyment (best carriers? best flights? best way to take advantage of codeshares?)

In regards to previous comments that were made about using One World for this trip ... a big part of the reason I'm doing this is because it allows me to book all my flights at once without the hassle of cobbling together a bunch of one-ways from consolidators. Unfortunatly, I have very little flexibility outside of my time in China and South America. I'm planning on meeting people in various parts of the world (my dad in india, my gf in thailand) and i need to be back in the states at a specific time in May. The reason I am originating in LHR is that my gf and sister go to school there, and I'll visit them on the front and back legs of the trip. In any case, your suggestions and insights are appreciated nonetheless.

Although I am not 100% familiar with the product rules, a variation on a theme might be to use an LGLOB39 if you decide you need more flexibility in terms of routing or stopovers:

LHR-DEL-HKG//PEK-HKG-BKK-SYD-PPT-IPC-SCL-EZE-LIM-JFK-WAS-JFK-MAD-TLV//ATH-LHR

comes out at 38,288 miles, although I imagine you would pay a reasonably significant premium over an LONE4 for that flexibility.

If you do not fly LA to South America the AirPass will cost you more. See lan.com for details.

I would rather fly LA than AA to South America, and CX any day over AA. And as viajero said if you don't fly LA to SA then you will have to pay more for your Airpass.

If you're short on segments, don't use JFK-WAS-JFK as a NYC-WAS RT can be had for ~$120, and AA isn't the best way to do it (US or DL have real planes, AA has RJs). Since you're NYC based, you probably knew that already, though; just seems like a waste of two segments.

Michael