Round-the-world bargains
Airline alliances have made "seamless travel" the buzzword of the day. Advertisements trumpet the joys of hopping from one partner airline to another without any bothersome paperwork.

Fine in theory, though seams still exist. A customer wanting to fly one airline from from Country A to Country B, and a partner airline from Country B to Country C, may find that the second airline does not have the rights to pick up new passengers in Country B. And it often takes longer to change bilateral aviation treaties that it does to build international airports.

But good deals do exist for around-the-world travel if you make the right connections, as the German news agency dpa found in a survey.

It cited a ticket offered by Oneworld, which includes British Airways, American Airlines, Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas.

For 3,599 Deutschmarks (72,000 baht) in economy class, someone flying out of Germany has six months to stop in up to six cities in Europe, Africa, North or South America and Asia-Pacific. The business class fare is DM7,199. By comparison, a business-class ticket between Frankfurt and Hong Kong is DM8,012.

The eight-airline Star Alliance, which includes THAI, Lufthansa, United and SAS, charged DM4,199 for around the world in economy class. It allows between three and 15 stops with no more 29,000 miles flown. The upper limit can be raised to 39,000 miles if a flyer pays DM5,669.

An economical alternative is the Big Planet Tour offered by Air New Zealand, Ansett Australia and Singapore Airlines. For just DM2,599, the round-the-world traveller gets four stops; additional destinations-in Bali, say-can be booked for DM165.