hi,

this september i hope to travel round the world going

london - washington - las vegas - los angeles - sydney - gold coast - (maybe tokyo) - london

the travel agent mentioned that theres a round the world ticket, and that i have something like 7 flights for one set price and these flights can be anywhere

has anyone tried anything like this before that could possibly enlighten me as to the situation? ive tried googling but all it comes up with are fixed itineraries, where as mine is an itinerary based on what i want to do

does anyone have any info or site/prices or just about anything would be nice


many thanks if you can help, its much appreciated

Lots of information about this can be found at
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=391

The OP can also visit www.staralliance.com or www.oneworld.com for RTW details, routings, pricings, etc.

Greetings thisguy and welcome to FlyerTalk.

Many FlyerTalkers are very familiar with Round the World (RTW) offerings. A majority of RTWs purchased are Alliance based. The three alliances (Star, SkyTeam, and OneWorld) allow RTWs on all of their airlines thus provided a great range of flight options and destinations.

But, alliance based RTWs are more expensive then some of the more limited tickets, like the Virgin Atlantic and Thai Airways RTW as one example.

Pricing for RTWs also depends on the country from which you depart from. It is no secret that UK departures are pretty costly. Some people will fly to Mauritius, Egypt, or Thailand and start their RTWs their for savings as high as 40%- 50%.

In your case, I would recommend the Emirates and United Airlines RTW ticket. Although it is only two airlines, the cost is also lower then that of a fullblown RTW which wouldn't really do much for you since your not flying to that many places.

Using the Emiriates (EK) and United (UA) RTW, you could route something like this:

You would have to purchase the additional ticket to the Gold Coast. The EK/UA RTW also allows for two sidetrips from DXB (Dubai). The sidetrips range from India to Maldives and other destinations throughout the Middle East and Africa.

The price, departing from London, in GBP is $2254 in Y (Coach Class), $3826 in J (Business Class), and $5492 in F (First Class).

I would also recommend checking out this Wiki site on RTWs.

From many reports, one can also save a chunk for RTWs originating ex-CMB.

I've done the circumnavigate the globe thing twice. Each time I have bought a series of one-way tickets based upon where I needed to be and when. Never did the trip intentionally, its just that my schedule had me closer to home going West than returning East.

I do know that an actual around the world ticket is controlled differently than most. Last year I had an RT ticket from IAD to SIN & back. The outbound (through NRT) was cancelled and UA had me booked on an outbound through Frankfort then my original return through NRT. When they tried to ticket it the system rejected it and I was told because they were not allowed to convert my ticket to an around the world ticket.

Very true. I think its kinda $ getting to CMB from USA. Maybe from Europe or other Asian countries it is easier. I wasn't too impressed about Colombo to say the least.

Having said that though, not sure about the latest safety situation for travelling in/out of CMB.

@:-). I didn't feel too safe. I purposely routed BKK-DXB-MLE instead of BKK-CMB-MLE, although much longer, just not to have to go through CMB. Unfortunately, our DXB-MLE flight was..diverted to CMB! Luckily we were only in CMB for ~8 hours.

If traveling in economy class, the UK is actually one of the cheapest origin points in the world. In business or first class, forget about it.

One place for discussion about budget RTW travel (and I'm assuming that here) is the Gap Year/RTW forum on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree - http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/ca...s.cfm?catid=58.

Much of the discussion of RTWs on Flyertalk centers on premium-cabin travel and mileage-earning issues. If your interest extends to those topics, then the "Global Alliance" section of FT is the place to go lurk. Read the sticky threads first, or else you'll become overwhelmed by details, details, details.

And another welcome to FT!

thisguy,

Are you planning to travel in Coach, Business, or First?

many thanks for the help guys,

i will be travelling economy i was directed here from tripadvisor.com

but that gap year site looks like it could help me a lot as well

i think im going to go for the oneworld global explorer tier 2 (�1,389) though im not too sure how much tax would be on top of that

thanks again for the help

hi guys,

yes unforutnately it would be economy. That gap year website looks great, so ill probably post a few messages there and see if anyone can help

that oneworld package looks ideal, i think ill go for the global explorer tier 2 for 1,389. Though im not too sure what tax would be added to that i hope it wouldnt be that much

my itinerary at the moment is:

london - washington - las vegas - sydney - tokyo - london

which is pretty daunting as im not a very experienced traveller

Many thanks anyway, for all your help

You're living the dream, man!!!! ^
Although I hope to do this in first class someday. There just never seems to be enough time.
For my personal tips on surviving seemingless endless hours in coach, I invite you to check out my blog entry from 19 January (you'd need to scroll down a ways): http://blog.myspace.com/bobstravel

Enjoy. I'm jealous.

i had a similar idea to that blog, however i was going to buy the domain name wheresjake.com so that people would remember it easier

(basically whenever they think "where's jake?" they can log on and see how im doing)

and then just direct the traffic from wheresjake.com to a forum or blog

i mean domain names are only like 8 quid a year and it would be fun (that is if i could find internet cafes etc in all these places)