I am working on a OneWorld itinerary for this summer that goes something like this:

JFK-TLV-HKG-PER-SYD-LAX-JFK

First Of All, can someone here give me some sort of idea of the ballpark i'll paying in? Also, does anyone have an agent in the USA that is good with RTW's that they could recommend?

Thanks a lot!

There is a huge amount of information already in this forum.

You can't fly direct JFK-TLV or TLV-HKG on any OneWorld tickets so you would need to go through LHR each time.

Other than that it would be a valid DONE4 ticket. You don't need a TA. Either book it online at the OneWorld website (http://www.oneworld.com) or through the AA RTW desk (1-800-247-3247).

It would be US$9100 + taxes & fuel fines.

Unless you have the patience of Job or are experienced in dealing with El Al, I'd recommend you find a TA in NYC that has an excellent relationship with El Al (and there are these TAs in NYC - Israel specialists) who can research and book a business-class RTW using El Al's and Qantas' joint RTW product.

You have to fly El Al over the Atlantic and Qantas over the Pacific, but your route would easily fit into that product, and the published price ex-USA is under $5000, v. $9100 for the standard Oneworld product (both plus taxes and fees.) Obviously since with the "QFLY" product you can only use El Al, Qantas (and I believe Air Pacific, the Fijian airline) your routing options are fewer than with the OW RTW products, but your route would work.

You have to book with the first over-water carrier, so in your case that would be El Al. I tried doing so a year or two ago, and found that nobody at El Al (a) knew of the product, and (b) was interested in the least in learning about it. Qantas, on the other hand, had no problem booking it, but that was going in the wrong direction for me. That's why I'd recommend the travel agent route - somebody that does a lot of business with El Al and has the patience to work through their "marketing" (oy) methods.

Otherwise, you'd need to modify your route to something like JFK-LHR-TLV-LHR-HKG... which is no bid deal, albeit around $4000 more than the alternative.

Thanks a lot!

Found this on the net, a bit old, but may be useful anyway:

http://www.elallosangeles.com/RNDWRLDLY-QF-FJ.doc

Very interesting indeed for your routing.

You can also go via Madrid on Iberia, and if you wanted to overnight (or use the Israeli border crossing) you could fly on Royal Jordanian via Amman.

Cmon give this person something beyond the ordinary...It's easy to count the number of continents and figure out the cost based on the list price. The more challenging ( and fun) part is how to more innovative on what is already common knowledge...Two obvious ideas that were overlooked (and I am surprised based on the handles that responded to this)

A) El/Al-Qantas- For the route this person is looking for, there is an EL AL Qantas RTW for about 5K plus taxes. Routing would likely be JFK TLV-LHR on LY and then QF to HKG-PER-SYD-LAX-JFK...As it is almost half the price of the standard U.S. RTW fare it is worth mentioning

B) If you want to stick with the One World product and are willing to pay $9,100 then you can get some more value by doing the following
1. One Way tkt on Delta or Continental to Tel Aviv at about $2,500
2. Start the Around the World in Tel Aviv which is $7,200 + taxes. While this works out to be slightly more in terms of cash, you get the added benefit of a flight back to Israel (via Europe) on One World for future use after this trip plus you get free flights in the U.S. to be able to use on AA.

Merry Christmas

He may also fly one-way JFK-LHR, the fares are cheaper and the OW RTW fares departing from the UK are the cheapest available in the market, EUR4,600 I think.

As a side note, El Al will start TLV-GRU nonstop in May 2009.

Rgs,