RTW – when to use??
 

-----

Can you explain more what you're trying to do? For example, flying SE Asia-Paris-SEA-Lima-SEA is not possible with an RTW, because of the "no backtracking" rule.

An RTW is "worth it" only if it serves your objectives and costs less than alternatives. If you're planning on flying SEA-Paris-Lima-SEA, an RTW is quite possibly the cheapest option, and thus may make sense even if you can only spare a week. (Whether that amount of travel in such a short time is fun anymore is another question.)

I'm a novice at RTWs (thinking about one; never been on one; fairly new FT member; etc) but, from what I understand, you don't have to use it just for a single trip.

For example, you said you wanted to go to Paris and Lima and I assume from jpatokal's post that you're based in SEA. You could do on a RTW:

SEA-Lima-Paris-SEA (with additional stops as required)

and book a Lima-SEA-Lima ticket so that you break up the RTW. You therefore get out of it separate trips to Lima (twice) and Paris.

As jpatokal says, you have to compare the cost of that ticket and the RTW ticket to the cost of just buying a return ticket each time.

-----

I think a RTW may be cheaper if you want to go to (say) two destinations and one of those destinations would normally be relatively expensive to fly to ?

For example, HI wants to go to Easter Island. LHR-x-Easter Island vv is most of the cost of a RTW but, with a RTW, you only deduct the mileage required to get to/from Easter Island.

I think you can only get to Easter Island on OW. Any ideas what expensive destinations are possible on *A which would be a good for a RTW ?

@ Canista, as you are based in the Sout East Asia it might not be as attractive as for European based travellers (they can include expensive additional trips like Europe-South Africa-Europe, Europe – UAE – Europe, Europe – Teheran – Europe). Consequently you have the option to make extra trips to South Pacific and within Asia before you fly around the world. Here is an example for a CRWSTAR3 (but not designed, approx 37.5K miles):

Trip 1: BKK-xSIN-SYD-AKL-HKG
Trip 2: HKG-NRT-SIN
Trip 3: SIN-LHR-LAX-BKK

?????

I thought Canista said he was 'located in SE Asia'.

cheers,

Henry

Here's an example of putting something together that allows for a vacation on an RTW that might be cheaper than a normal ticket buying cycle:

Buy a RTW that stops somewhere FROM where tickets are a bargain, then use that ticket to get home, using the second half to pick up the RTW later. Or even better, get that second cheap ticket to somewhere else with a stopover at home (maybe even in both directions?) This obviously requires a lot of research but can be great, especially in the Business or First classes where the ticket price differentials in SE Asia are really striking.

Here's an example. BKK is the cheapest RTW origination in SE Asia (at the moment, unless it's changed recently). You could go: BKK-CMB (Colombo, Sri Lanka), take a vacation along the way or in Colombo. Then, use a CMB ticket from Sri Lanka to the US that allows stopovers in BKK to get back to BKK (this is assuming BKK as a base, it's the same from any Asian hub and if you're not in one you just have to add a segment on a separate ticket). Then you can go to the US on vacation sometime, come back, stopover in BKK AGAIN (depending on airline, this is possible on some ex.CMB tickets), and then next time for a vacation, use the last segment to get back to CMB, and pick up the RTW from there.

You could repeat this from other places, going back home each time, or just do this once and fly most of the rest of the way around the world after that first time, depending on how many vacations you can get in a year and such. But it's one way to structure a RTW for vacations. The pricing will still sometimes be good enough to make it work, but not always, as you guessed. I've now helped about six people with RTW planning, and bought two myself, and in four out of the six cases it was the best option for them, in the other two they were better off with some nested tickets and creativity.

This might be a very creative approach, MKE-MR. But most likely I am not able to follow your creativity:

Essentially you are suggesting Canista should buy a RWSTAR in BKK and fly to CMB and nest the ticket there. Then he buys another ticket and fly from CMB back to BKK for a rest (=stopover). Late he flies from BKK to the West Cost for another vacation and back home for a rest (= stopover). With his forth coupon he flies to CMB for another vacation and uses the second coupon of his RWSTAR for a trip to SIN.

If these are your ideas, let me ask three questions:

1. What’s the ticket price for CMB-oBKK-LAX-oBKK-CMB (=2 stopover in BKK)?
2. What’s the ticket price for BKK-CMB-BKK and BKK-LAX-BKK ?
3. Why does a RWSTAR come into play?