Okay. I want to purchase a Star RTW ticket of some sort next year but it's for a prolonged trip, about 9 months. I know that, in the normal case of airline tickets, they ticket something like 330 days out. Does this mean I have to wait until 330 days before the expected end date of my trip to purchase the ticket (which would be two months advance)? What happens if I then want to extend the length of my trip while on the road?

You have 1 year from travel date to use up your ticket. Not from the date of issue unless you change your original departure date.

Say you decide to issue a ticket for travel in July 22nd, 2003. If you issue the ticket in Sept 01,2002, and if you stick with the original departure date, your ticket is valid till July 22, 2004.

However if you change your departure date, ie to a later date after your ticket has been issued, if the ticket does not have to be reissued, you're still stuck with July 22, 2004. But if you have to reissue your ticket for any reason, then your expiry date will be 1 year from date of issue which will be Sept 2003.

yes - it is one year (=365/366 days) - and you can't extend the validity/expiry date.

It looks like Star will have more partners somewhen in 2003 to choose from for rtw trips.

But I believe that it is price-wise to buy the ticket as soon as possible.

Okay, this leads to a lot more questions. I apologize in advance, and should probably just call a Star agent, but thought some people here might know off the top of their head. I've read through the rules and stuff already.

My trip isn't until next year. I was planning on buying a ticket out of South Africa, since they seem reasonably cheap, it's somewhere I want to go, and I can get there on frequent flyer miles. From what I understand I can do this from the U.S.

Now, this is a long ways off. My first international segment isn't go to be until, oh, mid- to late-October of 2003. Travel will run through late-March 2004. It doesn't seem feasible to book tickets now, since schedules are bound to change, but how early would folks recommend I do it? 6 months before departure?

Also, I see something in the Star rules under Advance Reservation, for ticketing worldwide outside of US/Europe/etc., that "reservations and ticket issuance must be made at any time prior to departure for sectors up to including the first international sector. Other sectors may be booked at any time." What do they mean by resevations? When do you have to pick what countries you want to fly, and on what dates?

Also, later I see a section on Penalties for Changes. That whole section confuses me, the way it's formatted in the other thread. What are the rules for travel out of Africa? Do I have to list my cities when I purchase and then ticket them later, hoping the routes are still in effect so I don't get a change fee? Also, when it says $75 fee for a reissue, is that per city you change, or can you rebook everything entirely, picking new cities, for one $75 fee?

A final question has to do with cancellations. It says for travel originating outside North America, no penalties apply prior to departure. That doesn't sound right. If I'm ticketted, and decide not to go (or to postpone) for some reason, I can get a full refund?

You may leave segs "open" (except for the first intercontinental).
So you book say FRA - MEX on LH xxx for October 2nd, and then MEX - MID (Oct 3rd) MID - MEX - LAX (Oct 10th) All these flts are booked and ticketed. You then just leave the rest as open bookings like LAX - BKK - SIN - FRA. There is no fee added if you then ticket the very same routing after six mo's. There will be a fee of 75 $ if you change that route to LAX - NRT - HKG - BKK - SIN - FRA.
There is kind of trouble waiting: if the tix of the first segs are used those open bookings and the attached file key are (kind of) lost. No way to find it. So you need to contact a TA or the issuing airline with your original ticket to create a new booking. To avoid this I suggest to have a fixed booking for the very last segment, which in most cases will be a transfer anyway. Chnaging this would just be a date change without any fee involved.