East bound from ORD.

Star Alliance or One World?

First or Business?

How does the RTW work? Do all segments have to be booked in advance?
Or can I book, say ORD to ZRH, and then last minute while in ZRH decide and book next segment then?

I'm particularly looking for true 180 flat bed seating, at least for most of the segments.

Thanks for any advice.

Do you have status on any carrier? Are you wanting to fly F or C? Have you developed a routing yet?

No longer any status, but 100,000 Delta/NWA miles.

Don't care whether F or C as long as I can mostly get flat bed.

Thinking about ORD/ZRH/LHR/ then onto Cairo, Mumbai,Hong Kong, Tokyo, SFO to ORD.

Star or OW?

Depends a great deal on routing and mileage earning preferences. All check into SQ only RTW fares. They are significantly less than the alliance fares in F and J, but can only use SQ, so you would have to make your way, for example to JFK and could then fly JFK-FRA-SIN-HKG-SFO and would have to get back to ORD on your own.

First or Business?

The difference is typically about 3-4k so that is a personal decision. International F on airlines such as SQ, LH, BA, CX, NH, JL, QF and LX is generally excellent with much better lounges, food and seating than J.



How does RTW work?

Most are 7-day advance, book first international flight and must be out of the U.S. for 10 days. There are change fees for itinerary changes and inventory is pulled from restricted fare buckets so even if there are F and J seats to sell, they may not be available for RTW fare based tickets. Check both the *A and OW web sites which have detailed FAQ


Flat Bed Seating (relevant only to J):

OW - all BA, CX long-haul fleet and QF A380 and RJ A340 will provide this
*A - nearly all UA 744, specific SQ 777 type and routes, A380 (you will need to check restrictions), specific LX A330s, SA and NZ long-haul fleets will provide this

BOTH ALLIANCE WEB SITES HAVE VERY GOOD RTW PLANNING TOOLS THAT WILL HELP YOU PLAN YOUR RTW TRIP WITH VARIOUS ROUTING OPTIONS. THEY WILL ALERT YOU IF YOU MAKE A CHOICE THAT IS OUTSIDE OF THE FARE RULES. YOU CAN THEN EMAIL THE ITINERARY FOR A FARE QUOTE AND RESERVATION.