I have read a lot of trip reports of RTWs and though I want to stop at most of the destinations, I wanted to see how much something like a 7 day RTW cost in F.

I chose oneworld and priced it on the AA website:

DFW->LGW (AA)
LHR->SYD (BA) (stop in SIN)
SYD->NRT (CX)
NRT->DFW

and it came out to be $25,557.

How do folks afford to go on such flights? That's a cheap car, a few years of college, or a nice down payment on a boat.

$25,557 is actually a pretty good deal. Most FT'ers are billionaires, after all.

You cannot price out a RTW on aa.com. The price it gave you was as if you were buying each leg seperatly.

A F RTW on OneWorld, ex-USA, costs $9600, $10400, $11300, or $13200 for 3,4,5, and 6 continents respectively.

It is also important to note that the length of the trip (as long as its under 1 year) does not change the price of the ticket. Taxes are extra.

Yeah, I should have reworded the title and post to "A trip around the world", not a formal RTW.

The reason I call it a round-the-world is because I have a friend who is doing it but he booked all of his tickets for cheaper than what he could find on any of the alliance's websites. His trip will take a month and will cover 4 continents.

Most FT'ers are billionaires? Now I kind of feel inadequate... No wonder no one wanted to eat breakfast with me in DFW.

Please do post his routing. Was this in First? All on OneWorld flights? Most one-way First flight are very expensinve, and definietly would cost much more then ~$10000.

What are you looking for during your week long round-the-world? Is this for business or pleasure? There are other RTW products that are cheaper, but use less airlines.

Something like:

would cost $7275 in First on Emirates and United. Without the SYD portion, it would be $6257 and you could then add the NRT portion and also BKK. You can also add more desintations, side trips from DXB, etc. Depends on what your looking for.

. **hands Hartmann a billion dollars**

People looking for rock-bottom airfares find them by using agents called consolidators, who have arrangements with airlines to sell excess capacity at low prices. Not to disparage the product - I spent many years seeking out those kinds of fares - but the airlines with excess capacity are sometimes third-world carriers. Not always, and that's not necessarily bad. You can probably buy a decent rtw from a consolidator for around $2500 in coach class (although it's been a long while since I've looked).

At the other end of the price scale, you should be quick to befriend anyone willing to spend $25k on airfare for an rtw-like trip. They are very likely to be foolish with their abundant fortune, and perhaps some of it might come your way.

I haven't seen many consolidator fares for F travel, although gatewaylax.com had some good fares to asia in C on United.

Plus most RTW products (as offered by the 3 airline alliances) usually have a 10-day minimum before returning to one's originating country. That may force you to consider other options.

I tossed out the consolidator option in case OP happened to be a person with a more practical budget, and an interest in traveling the world even if not in the front cabin.

. A practical budget...say like 25k RTW?

My friend that I mentioned earlier has the following routing:

CO - IAH-EWR
AI - JFK-LHR
TK - LHR-IST
GF - IST-BKK
KE - BKK-LAX
DL - LAX-IAH

All for $1900 (in the back).

But with inconvenient routing and on arguably 2nd tier airlines (at least for on-time performance and Y comfort). There is a reason for heavy discounting. The LONE3 pricing is more than competitive with that ticket.

I'm not sure what your point is. The list of airlines indicates that your friend bought his ticket from a consolidator, and you can do the same thing if you want to, and if you don't mind long trips in coach, chances are you'll have a great time. There's nothing wrong with any of the airlines on the list.

The kinds of tickets usually discussed in this forum cost a bit more than $1900 in coach, but give you more travel benefits. We can visit 20 cities instead of 5, racking up miles equivalent to two trips around the world in the process if we care to. We have a year to finish the trip (your friend may also have a year).

Much of the time we have our choice or two or more carriers who'll take our ticket if our plans (or theirs) change; chances range from none to slim that an airline will endorse a consolidator's ticket to a competitor should the need arise.

As I suggested in an earlier post I've flown around the world half a dozen times on consolidator fares, and have no regrets. If the $1900 trip suits your friend just fine, there's no reason to spend a dime more.

In your first post you mentiod he flew in F?