*A RTW
 

Hello

I'm wondering if someone can point me in the right direction for a *A RTW fare in business class.

I'm looking to fly from Sydney to Dubai then to Frankfurt, then back to Sydney via North America (just for the hell of it). The alternative is buying a SYD/SIN or BKK/DXB/FRA/SIN or BKK/SYD fare, and that is quite expensive.

Any suggestions for where/how to buy this RTW fare? Any things I should do/not do? If it makes a difference I am happy to originate the RTW in Singapore.

Thanks.

A great way to prepare for a *A RTW is using the book-and-fly tool that is on the *A website. You can easily make your own route, get pricing, pick the available airlines and even book your RTW.

The Business RTW comes in 3 prices depending on the number of miles you are flying. Starting from SYD will probably be an expensive one, the pricing is also determined on the country where you start your RTW. Japan and South Korea have been some of the cheaper starting points in Asia.... so an RTW starting there might be your best option, combined with maybe an award to position yourself there.

And you can use an RTW for a whole year, so it would be viable to get back to SYD and then take that last leg to Asia to close your RTW at a later date. You really need to get the best value out of it, otherwise you might be better of using one-way awards in programs like Lifemiles with miles you buy..... No miles earned but a lot cheaper when making just a few stops.

Good advice.
Keep in mind that the aid RTW tickets allow 16 sectors and are fairly flexible. They are usually a good deal if you plan more than 3 or 4 stops and start from one of the cheaper places.
Otherwise a regular return ticket SYD-Europe with a stop and some paid side trips (depending on your stopover points) might be better.

Just for fun I've tried a few departure countries in Asia+Australia.....

You will probably use the 29k miles option:
SYD - AUD 12.109
SIN - AUD 12.800
BKK - AUD 12.145
NRT - AUD 7.431
ICN - AUD 9.766

Plus about $1500+ in taxes depending on where and how many stops you make.... So pricing from Japan isn't bad, but it's not the bargain it once was. Could be worth it though when you need the flexibility and make a few additional stops where regular tickets are expensive.

Compare that to a SYD-FRA RT in business of around 4000 to 8000 AUD. RTWs are not the good deal any more they were several years ago.

yeahi did 6 rtw trips starting from Australia
 

years ago when the usd was strong i did this every year for 6 years straight from Australia. first one was $1300 usd then finally ended at $3600 usd back in 2005. but mine was mostly on oneworld. I did it once on star.

any chance to check *A rates on Ipad (no flashplayer) ?

Not that I know of.... 3rd party apps like KVS and maybe Expertflyer (webapp) might also contain the rates from different countries.

Helpful find.
The Japan solution doesn't look bad at all. After all we are talking of J.
Particularly if you can fly the last SYD-NRT segment months later.
But I second what said. The new form of competition, even within alliances, slowly confined the RTW tickets to a graying option.
Having enough months ahead for a planning, you for sure cross the path with offers and promotions to take advantage of, and start piling up flights.
Any other side flight from the main route needs anyway to be purchased separately, hence sometimes the RTW option becomes less charming.
I would focus on the main 4-5 segments that constitute the body of the trip, and build the ramifications (if in your plans) later.

What you do need to factor in is that if you are doing an RTW that takes a while your plans might change.... Then the change fee is a relative small price to pay to change your remaining flights or even do a complete reroute. That's something most other offers or promotions won't have.

And I don't really understand your point about any side trips, 16 flight segments and the ability to have 3-5 legs in a single region make most routes possible.

When I did it, RTW had to be only in one direction. Not detour allowed (something likely to happen for example in Africa). Things may have changed, with more flexibility.

With *A RTW's you can fly any direction within a region..... for example in the US you can fly 5 segments, so you could do xxx-BOS-SFO-JFK-LAX-HNL-xxx. So plenty of opportunities for "side" trips. They will only eat up your miles.