A RTW ticket with flexible dates?
 

I'm planning on taking a 4 month trip around the world and was looking at getting a RTW ticket (start in D.C. and then head West), but I don't really want to be stuck along the way with departure dates that are set in stone.

Does anybody know of any flexible RTW tickets? If I get a business class ticket can I change the dates w/out incurring any fees?
Is there a better way to do this??

Thanks for any help!

Most RTW tickets let you change the dates for free, even when you are allready flying. And changes to the route for only a small charge... but normally you will have an idea where you want to go :-).

And you can run the risk that flights are full (for the seats with an RTW rate), but if you stick to routes that have frequent flights you will probably be ok.

Welcome to FT, schmittzj!

All *A RTW tickets allow date changes for free. Routing changes however cost money. But of course it can happen that a flight is sold out in this booking class. For some exotic routes, this can be weeks at a time if you are unlucky.

Welcome aboard, schmittzj!

What do *A RTW tickets book into for First and Business? A and D/J, respectively?

Mostly A and D/Z respectively, but it varies by carrier, so see here for the exact fare classes.

Awesome. Thank you for all the information, I really appreciate it

As others have said, be mindful that the airline will need to have seats available in the proper fare class to accommodate any changes. IME, SQ is particularly tight with capacity for RTW tickets in business class. On one RTW, I was trying to get from Switzerland to SIN using SQ and I had to route through CPH as all seats from all other major SQ European departure cities would have been waitlisted.

You can change every flight except the first one - the first international one, I think. To change that requires a new ticket.

However, it's a time-consuming struggle to make changes while underway. Airlines deliberately make it difficult, for example if you call United they connect you to their stinking ICC (Indian Call Center) with whom there is no possiblity of communication.

Even if you go to an airport and have the agent make the change, he/she is always put on hold for a long time - hours maybe - by the rate desk who frequently will return with an egregious wrong demand for extra payment which you then have to dispute, again waiting hours.

Some common howlers:
"You can't change the date of this sector"
"you can't change the airline for this sector"
"changing the date for this sector requires re-ticketing / incurs a re-ticketing fee"
"you can't change the cities visited"


If you have a good TA (Travel Agent) they should be able to do the changes for you even after departure, and this is the best solution.

I agree. Having a good TA helps a lot, especially when you possible have routing changes. You can do it yourself, but be prepared to spend a lot of time/calls until you have the changes done. But you need an experienced TA.

Well, I just did that 3 weeks ago. I changed 8 of my 12 flights including the first one and there was no discussion at all. Just send a list of my new flights to Thai (my RTW is ticketed on them) and 2 hours later I got the confirmation that my first flight leaves NRT on 20:30 instead of 15:30.

You can change the first flight but this leads to a re-pricing. So if the price has gone up for example you will need to pay the higher price.

That's what the current T&C say:

So I guess that changed the rules not too long ago. They make no exception for any changes with these T&C or do I miss something?

I changed the date on my first RTW flight (ICN-xxx) on my last two RTWs without a problem (and without a fee), but was not able to reroute my first flight.

I think (but I am really not sure) that the first flight issue comes from IATA rules and not the individual fare rules. You can change it but it will lead to a re-pricing. Which often will be zero but it can have significant effects.

Lufthansa rtw service pretty good
 

I booked a star rtw off the website , which is booked by lufthansa (even if you don't have a lufthansa sector)...
They were able to give me rebooking quotes (tax adjustemnts) by email within a day of my inquiries, and rebook immediately when I phoned them. They would just email the ticket along.
however, they did say they wanted 2 days notice for changes, so you might still run into trouble if you are trying to use it as a very flexible ticket.

Still, for the money (ability to reroute for $125 fee) it's really quite a deal.

Shawn