Hello,

I am planning to go on a RTW trip this summer for 3 months (mid-May to mid-August). Since I am a complete newbie, I have quite a few questions (some of them probably stupid) that I am hoping some of you could help me with.

1. I have looked at these forums and done quite a bit of research myself and this is where I stand right now. I have three itenary choices (in order of my preference):
a. JFK - AKL - SYD - HKG - DEL - ZRH - LHR - GIG - EZE - SCL - LIM - MEX - JFK
b. JFK - MEX -LIM - GIG - EZE - SCL - AKL - SYD - HKG - DEL - ZRH - LHR - JFK
c. JFK - LHR - ZRH - DEL - HKG - SYD - AKL - SCL - EZE - GIG - LIM - MEX - JFK

I am not sure if the 2nd itenary is valid since South America is slightly east of North America and then I am traveling west. Also between the 1st and the 3rd, I am only curious to know if there is any advantage of traveling in a particular direction (eastbound or westbound). My personal preference is westbound with the 1st itenary.

2. As you can see, I have at least 4 stops in South America. In Chile and Argentina I'll also like to go down to Patagonia (weather permitting) and in Peru, my main goal is Cusco. Since the oneworld ticket only offers 2 stops per continent, what are my options here apart from purchasing tickets for local airlines once I reach there?

3. Is it possible to squeeze in out of way destinations such as Easter Island and Gibraltar on the oneworld ticket? For example instead of flying from Zurich to London on the oneworld ticket, I could use the Eurail but then can I use the remaining stopover to fly to Gibraltar and back from London? (same for Easter Island from Santiago)

4. Is there any cost differential for purchasing this ticket from one country as opposed to another? I used the oneworld fare calculator and found a quote of $4900 (USD) from New York as compared to $3900 (NZD) from Auckland for the same itenary. If that is so, I should be able to buy a separate ticket from New York to Auckland and still save some money. But why would the airlines allow this?

5. Once the ticket has been issued, is it possible to drop some destination? For example, if due to time constraints I have to drop my last destination and fly straight to my original point, can I do that?

Thanks so much.

Cheers!

So many of your questions are answered in the sticky at the top of this forum that it seems strange that you claim to have read it. I assume in all this that you are considering a OneWorld Explorer ticket (this being just one of many types of RTW ticket).

1 In principle they all look doable, although some of the sectors you show would require 2 flights (this isn't a problem so long as you stay under 20 flights in total ad 4 per continet (6 in North America). There's no problem going East or West within travel regions (basically the world is in 3 regions: The Americas, EMEA, Asia & SW Pacific) provided that you only enter each continent once and cross each of the Pacific and the Atlantic once. Personally I find Westbound a bit easier on the jetlag.

2. You are allowed four flights in each continent (6 in N America) - except the continent of origin (which would be North America the way you have these currently) where you are only allowed 2 stops (but still up to you limit of flights if you wish.

3. See above - 4 stops per continent not 2. Obviously you can do separate side-journeys using other tickets or other modes of transport.

4. Yes you can. Market economics, supply & demand, and all that.

5. You would need to reroute the ticket at a cost of US$125 (possibly plus a service fee of US$30-50 depending on who does the reroute).


Can I suggest you have another careful reread of the sticky in this forum?

It sound like you are confusing the rules of different RTW products that you have been researching. For example some of the Skyteam products have a "single direction with no backtracking allowed" restriction, hence the concern with east/west; none of the OW RTW products have such restrictions. Based on the prices, you are looking at LONEx, which are cheaper ex-Australia, NZ and UK. For JFK origin you would be better off starting in UK, if you can live with the routing restrictions for UK origin (no hubbing through UK allowed, as cannot re-enter country of origin). Also, in showing routings you need to show the actual sectors, for example JFK-AKL is actually either JFK-SYD-AKL or JFK-LAX-AKL or JFK-NRT-AKL, or JFK-NRT-HKG-AKL, etc....rather an important difference, and the routing matters for the fare rules.

You need to re-read the stickies and get a better handle on the fare rules (e.g. OWE has unlimited stopovers per continent except for the continent of origin which is limited to 2 stopovers; OWE also has 4 free segments and up to 2 additional paid segments (6 free in NA), so can have up to 5 or 7 stopovers per continent). The fare rules are complex but allow doing a lot, including much of your wish list, so surely it is worth investing an hour to memorize the rules?

Thanks for the info. And sorry about my questions. I got confused by what I read on a few other websites.