Around the World Ticket

Consider a Ticket Around the World - Fodor's Travel Talks Boards

I have never purchased an RTW ticket before and would be happy to receive some information from those of you who do. We like to travel to Europe in September/Oct. (several choices compete for our attentiveness, either a Paris (14 night )/Amsterdam (5 night) travel companion or an Italy tour (5 night in Venice, three three night stay in smaller cities, 7 night in Rome).

We would like to have some spare times in Southeast Asia, at least a weekly in Bangkok and maybe 5 night in Hong Kong. Whilst I am conscious that some places are better to buy RTW passes than others, I am not sure whether it would make much sence for us to go somewhere to get our RTW tour started.

We' d want biz classes. Suggestions from those of you who routinely use regular ticket services would be very welcome. Garyloo's the authority on R.T.W. ticketing here. You can buy your ticket for RTW. Savings can be made, they offer you enormous greater flexibilty than most other ticket types, and they are a great way to earn FF mileage.

In order to reply to your questions about whether it would be worth flying somewhere else to launch your R&TW, the almost certain response is "Yes -- Japan. "A Star Alliance GTW ticket that allows you to cover 29,000 consecutive mile in business will cost you US$986 (+taxes/fees) when you begin your journey in Seattle.

Exactly the same ticket will cost $6232+ if you launch in Tokyo -- big enough for you? You not only get about $3750 less when you leave Japan, but you can also cancel your journey much more simply. You could, for example, make the Europe parts in one journey, then return home to Seattle and then make the Asia parts in a seperate journey.

Particularly now that one-way FF passes are available, it makes global economic sense to launch the RTW abroad. It is the basic concept of general scheduling that the world is subdivided into three areas for the purpose of using PTT tickets: America, Asia/Oceania and Europe/Africa. If you begin your journey in one area and then leave for the next, you must travel to the third area before you can go back to your area of provenance.

If, for example, you are starting in North America and then going to Asia, you must go to Europe/Africa before you go back to America. Star A RTW passes are calculated according to the number of kilometres - you can get a ticket that gives you 29000, 34000 or 39000 mile. Asiaa has a supplement on some of its departures, and Air Canada has a supplement on some of its departures to Asia.

A RTW ticket could be less expensive than the r.t. ORD -HKH-ORD ticket I was considering for next April! For Star Alliance RoWs of our US based businesses, Japan is currently the most favorable starting point once the JPY tariff is translated into US dollars.

Using your base route, a 29,000 nautical mil Star Alliance (we use the *A abbreviation) that starts in Japan would more than be enough; within that boundary, you'll even have enough âextraâ nautical miles to make inland trips in North America. You can use a portion of your award points for home trips or perhaps to take a winter getaway in the hot summer, as your return ticket is valid for one year.

You must be cautious about following the simple precepts like the one that only allows a single stop in a particular town, so maybe you are flying from Tokyo to Seattle, then after a journey in America, you will instead go back to Vancouver so as not to violate the precepts of a "stopover". In any case, one shoots then in September/October to Europe to his scheduled vacation there, then to Southeast Asia, then finally back to Japan.

You can see that you can use the one ticket for a whole bunch of travels, with up to three or four seperate âFerienâ (or, unfortunately, it could also be business trips) that are pressed into the ticket during the course of a year. A 29,000-mile virtual itinerary could look like this - http://tinyurl. com/orrdwgf - and include a âfreeâ journey to Costa Rica and New York sometime between your Tokyo destination and your European destination.

You could also go to California or the Caribbean â" all part of North America â" instead of Costa Rica. In contrast to *A, Oneworldâs RTW flagship Oneworld Explorer does not rank kilometers but rather continences. So the smallest number of continent you can put in an OWE are three â" North America, Europe and Asia, which is your route right now.

Whereas Japan is not the least expensive place in the world (in USD) to launch OEEÂ'Â'Â'Â'Â' Â' Â' BusinessÂ' classes (this differentiation stays at South Africa), it is rather decent now. Oneworld 3 Continent costs $90 less for a single 3 Dollar per 3 Dollar per 3 Dollar per 3 Dollar, $6143 +. The same 16 segment can do much more with the Oneworld flight simulator than with the Star flight simulator.

There is, for example, a current domestic road running in Japan, beginning with Japan and reaching the same destinations in Europe and Asia - http://tinyurl. com/mys4su9 - but with a stopover in Hawaii on the way back from Japan and a journey to Alaska in the summers before you travel to Europe. Oneworld, in North America, if you do not have your own Traveler' s Level, will upgrade you to First Year.

Use the Oneworld example above to simply purchase your American Airlines Platinum rating and collect up to 100,000 or more AA mileage that can be used on Alaska, Hawaiian or any Oneworld airline partners. Whereas some Oneworld operators levy very high mark-ups on fuels (in particular British Airways), *A operators such as Singapore and Lufthansa also do so.

Thus the âend resultâ for GT passenger passes can strongly differ according to the carrier and route chosen. For example, if you added a round trip to Europe the following year with the accumulated mileage on the prepaid ticket, the sum could be 20 or more business or first rate trips over two years for e.g. $7000 out of your bag.

So, for example, for about $900 more per capita outside Japan, you could buy a 4-continent one-world ticket and make a trip like this - http://tinyurl. com/muqxxpj - that involves a trip to Easter Island and Chile in South America. Like this - http://tinyurl. com/lsyuumm - with a trip to South Africa.

Alternatively, with Oneworld, if you could even go to South Africa (do you have a pile of United Meiles? âem use), the fare for a four continents ex-South Africa bus ticket is about $5,300+. Again, with the number of points you would purchase, consider the promise of 20 â" 22 business/first-class air travel over two years at an average equipment charge of three hundred dollars or so.

Thing is, once you get started, it's tough to stop. Ticket lasts one year, right? Narita back to the USA (no more work to be worried about!), then a plane to Europe via an eastern coastal town, a few intra-European trips, then on to Southeast Asia, finally in Tokyo (or could we end up in Taipei?) and then buy a plane home.

Where in here could we interrupt the journey and go home for a few month? Is it possible to make a One World Tour through my Alaska bankroll? Pros and Cons? Gardyloo, you brought up the ticket you used to buy me platinum for American. At United I would charge 150% of the real mileage for my golden position and a 25-50% discount on the Business Grade I pay, but it doesn't seem like I am adding up all those mileage.

They must end in the land where you are starting, and you cannot cross that land during RTW. Oneworld also allows you to make only two stops within your home continents, in your case Asia. Thinking about AA for kilometers, I would suggest you make a "platinum challenge" before the race.

Collect 10,000 extra qualification points in three month's time (not very difficult) and you' ll be starting as Oneworld Sapphire and earning 100% points and 25% cabins bonuses in your next flight in Executive Travel and 50% in First City. In North America, a 40,000-mile RTW with some AA segment (first class) can collect 100,000 redemption mileage without sweating.

Thou canst go in zigzags and concentrate again on the contents of thy breast in, say, Asia or North America, but not between, say, Europe and Asia. America is Area I, Europe and Africa Area II and Asia/Oceania with Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands) as Area III. You can, for example, cross North America between another continental area and South America (transit = 24hrs or less ) and then go back to SA in North America before proceeding.

Or, you can cross Asia between Europe and Australia/New Zealand before you return to Asia. Just two stops on the original continents of the One World are a dealbreaker for us. RTW ticket collection. This won't work this year - we already have our RT passes for LIH. We could begin later next year.

RTW ticket collection. Go to BKK, a few week in Thailand, that works with either *A or Oneworld. Keep in mind that the "continent of origin" is the starting point of the ticket, so you only have two stops - Bangkok and Hong Kong; you don't consider Tokyo as the ticket that begins when you exit Japan and ends when you go back.

Emirates is not available with either *A or Oneworld services - they are not in any airline group. Oneworld, London to DXB on BA or Qantas, then DXB-BKK via Doha on Qatar Airways, or simply reversing the order of BKK and HKG and DXB-HKG on Cathay Pacific, HKG-BKKK on CX, then BKK-NRT on Japan AL at the end.

But when I look at your travel plan, I wonder if an RTW ticket is the right thing for you. A ticket (the closest you can buy in your Blue Class) would still keep your trip several thousand kilometers on the track. Excluding Japan tax and charges, you'll probably see $7500 +/- charges per ticket.

Compared, you can buy Seattle or Vancouver to Europe for less than $3,000 for most of the year in Seattle or Vancouver seat quality seats, and Bangkok or Hong Kong to Europe for less than $2,500. For example you might be flying to Europe, visiting Holland or Italy or whatever you have, then - separately from the Seattle - Europe ticket, buy an independent Europe - Asia ticket, go to BKK, HKG and/or Japan, then back to Europe and use the Seattle ticket back flight share.

They could be ahead of us by tens of millions of dollars and would not have to spend a pile of FF-mileage to " take a stand " in Japan. Oneworld and *A both have RTW on-line reservation tool. An overwhelming number of North American tour operators have never even seen these types of product.

A number of specialised agents know something about them and in Europe, and Australia/New Zealand in particular, they are better informed about them. Don, yeah, we'd stop in Kyoto while our Japan stops on the way home. It looks to me like we still have a lot of segment for things like the Lihue detour.

As we travel to Kauai every year for three week, it would be great if we could include this in the RTW ticket. Usually it will cost us nearly $1000 per person for our RT bus ticket (we usually get free upgrade to 2 or 3 of four stages). Gardyloo, if I have been looking for SEA - somewhere in Europe - bid ticket price is usually in the 4K area.

As I normally use mileage for these journeys, I am not informed about how to get good Biz-rates. Choosing to use our RMT ticket will alter our entire journey scheduling experience. The best way to get the most out of an RTV ticket is on every website in the forums.

Most of the times I am inclined to spend travelling with one-way fares because I often don't know how long I will decide to go to a place. Don, yeah, we'd stop in Kyoto while our Japan stops on the way home. It looks to me like we still have a lot of segment for things like the Lihue detour.

Oneworld has a second RTW produkt, the "Global Explorer". "The GlobEx, like the Star GTWs, is kilometer wide restricted, with only one level of 34,000 mile available in our BPlass. The price is comparable with a 4-continent Oneworld Explorer, e.g. $7303+ ex-Japan. RTW rate looks even better as I was just looking for bidders in Amsterdam and CDG for next September - $8000 per track on United.

Fantastic information, a few puzzles, I think Gardyloo said about collecting the ticket in Japan, where would you collect the ticket, it is a One World Bureau or ???? As RTW fares can include ten thousand permute items - different airports or countries tax, different petrol supplements or other carriers' fees - it is not possible to give an all-in number.

Or you can use the Oneworld or Star Alliance on-line reservation tool, which will tell you the precise fare (which you can use with a debit card) once you have chosen a route and selected a flight. Think Gardyloo said he was going to collect the ticket in Japan, where would you collect the ticket, is it a One World Bureau or ?????

Now all RTW passes are distributed as "e-tickets", so you can simply show up and register at the airports as with any other e-ticket you have purchased now. In fact, fares are actually provided by a particular carrier, not by Allianz itself. For Oneworld, it is usually the carrier with which the first trip takes place; for Star alliance, in my opinion, Lufthansa will issue all RTW fares, whether or not they include a Lufthansa itinerary.

This case (picking up the ticket in Japan) was back when you had the opportunity to use hard copy ticket. Even if you don't have to collect your ticket, you have to begin your trip in Japan to get the Japan rate. It' just on-line, but for example, the bulk of my ticket was in Cape Town through the general distribution of American Airlines.

By faxing them a photo of my credential and charging them the ticket, the sales are processed in the source state, South Africa Rand. When you buy the ticket on-line for a journey from Japan, the fee of tens of billions of Japanese francs will appear on your monthly bill, which will be translated into your local denomination, with a little murida, of course, going to our good-natured masters.

A OneWorld ticket gets more complex because your on-line ticket simply doesn't work. When you start the journey in Japan, you could make the reservations and get the prices in the USA through the AA RTW counter, but you would have to find a Japan based firm that actually writes and sells the ticket.

You should be aware that not everyone can use your ticket for any RTW event. Savings can be made if you want to travel in either top or bottom flight, but both the applicable regulations and the available choices are complicated and demand a great love of detail.

Reading this article with great interest, my spouse and I discussed the possibility of conducting an RTW journey either in the end of 2015 or early 2016. To go out, MEM-JNB would do it on their own, then work back to SEM after 5-6 week and then stay at home for a months and proceed with the South America and Asia part of the itinerary.

OW bookings page quotes it in ZAR and shows that it is e-ticket capable, so it is no longer necessary to have a ticket broker in South Africa. For the above route the bus ticket shows 208.173 ZAR or about 18.000 $ and changes the US dollar. Schluckauf only tried to make a stop in BKK after BKG, but it said that I was only permitted 2 stop in Asia, namely BKG and BOM.

Straight inquisitive of those far more knowledgable than me, if this looks closely and you can do South Africa Book Abroad as it seems, can you ?? Even if you are not successful, don't be worried, you can still pay with a ticket, albeit with a little more work: Contact the issuing merchant for the payment method you will use for the ticket.

Explain to them that you will have some fees from South Africa and give them the estimated amount of the fee. If you have the AA approved rate, call the AA agent in South Africa. I' m going to begin by investing some work into this matter with a 2016 schedule. So, I'll get down to serious work in early 2015.

Q I have is how far in advance is it advisable to make a travel booking to get maximal air travel and what is the change procedure (mostly to data as compared to cities), since scheduling over many month always ends with a certain adjustment when the journey ends and adaptations are required?

You mean NRT, Tokyo, not NAR, which is in South America. Schluckauf only tried to make a stop in BKK after BKG, but it said that I was only permitted 2 stop in Asia, namely BKG and BOM. Assuming you do, your main concern is not that you only allow two Asian stopovers, but instead that you only allow four Asian departures on one continental route.

The only way out from Asia to South Africa is via Hong Kong, so you can add Bangkok after HKG would provide too many segmentation in Asia as you would have to go back to BKK to HKG. OW bookings page quotes it in ZAR and shows that it is e-ticket capable, so it is no longer necessary to have a ticket broker in South Africa.

For the above route the bus ticket shows 208.173 ZAR or about 18.000 $ and changes the US dollar. Straight inquisitive of those far more knowledgable than me, if this looks closely and you can do South Africa Book Abroad as it seems, can you ?? Unfavourable information is that using BA as the first carrier/issuer means that BA will raise automatic charges (misleadingly called âcarrier-imposed feesâ or some of these errors) on the entire ticket.

Reduced additional charges for airlines, but a little painful when it comes to ticket allocation, as the on-line toll rings when Qatar Airlines is called in. As a thought experimentation, I would also let "â" fall to "â" North America as a whole. There is a discrepancy between a five-continent RTW from South Africa and a six-continent RTW of over 1100 dollars.

They could just interrupt the journey in South America, go back to Memphis on their own, then go back and continue the journey. They would interrupt the journey in Bogota and then continue with a flight to Madrid, then to Paris, London and back to South Africa. Had you a few mileage points, you could make the BOG-MEM round trips easy, or it would be quite inexpensive with prepaid seats, probably less than the costs of the additional continent on RTW.

They can visit the Oneworld boards at Flyertalk - http://www.flyertalk. com/forum/oneworld-411/ - where the adaptation of these routes is common. I' m going to begin by investing some work into this matter with a 2016 schedule. So, I'll get down to serious work in early 2015. Q I have is how far in advance is it advisable to make a travel booking to get maximal air travel and what is the change procedure (mostly to data as compared to cities), since scheduling over many month always ends with a certain adjustment when the journey ends and adaptations are required?

For quite some while South Africa has been a "cheap" source nation, but there is no guarantee that it will stay that way forever. Even route and carrier can be changed at the last minute, e.g. there are always rumours that Americans could launch a MIA JNB as soon as they receive their 787s. Larger changes will necessitate reissuing the ticket for a lump sum of $125 plus any tax and fee changes.

Some of your proposals I like straight off the top of my head and I concur that a reversal of the journey might make more sense. Your proposals are not the only ones. Looking at the pricing (with Expert Flyer - a prepaid service) I noted that the latest Oneworld Explorer 6 Continent ticket purchased in South Africa has a basic fare of $340 more than a 5 Continent ticket purchased in Egypt.

It is far from my intention to suggest that you DO NOT visit South Africa - it is a great place; but if your JNB launch plan were mainly pricing driven, you could probably be saving cash - both on the RTW ticket itself and on the "positioning" cost - by considering launching into CAI, thereby removing Africa and its associated outlay.

A " fold " in the Oneworld Explorer rule is that if you come from a Mid-East land, you can land in any other ME land, such as Israel, Dubai or Jordan. It can give you additional versatility in scheduling different travel component types. When you don't mind getting the absolutely cheapest rate, but a kind of good deal, where else are there good places/regions to buy a OneWorld RTW-Ticket?

When performing my mock-up, with the exception of North America and using Bogota as a breakpoint, as you have proposed, I have no cases of AA flying in the 15 flight sectors I am looking for. Is this going to lead to a dilemma if I get AA on the ticket? Janisj: Japan is a very good place to buy a RTW at the time - as low as about $6,000 + taxes/fees for each of the 3 big alliance deals in IB.

When you don't mind getting the absolutely cheapest rate, but a kind of good deal, where else are there good places/regions to buy a OneWorld RTW-Ticket? A 4-continent economic ticket, for example, costs a lot: In business, there is a great deal to do with exchange rate fluctuation, and Oneworld usually adapts its rates once or twice a year.

Ticket sales are always in your country's main currencies (with a few exception, mainly South America and East Africa, including Israel, which is selling in USD), so variations in the Euro or Yen can make a big difference. Suppose you want to leave Cairo and come from West Europe or North America.

If you buy the ticket before travelling to AAI, and since it is an e-ticket, you have the acknowledgement in your hands when you get there (offside, let's say a cheap airline.) If you want, just remain "airside" - on the way - at AAI, then simply get on the airplane for your first trip.

When performing my mock-up, with the exception of North America and using Bogota as a breakpoint, as you have proposed, I have no cases of AA flying in the 15 flight sectors I am looking for. Is that gonna be a big deal getting AA on my ticket? The BOG situation (No North America Segments) you would propulsion finished Cathay Pacific, and they are proper to product with it.

Buy a ticket to A and fly it from her (pun intended). Not everyone can use one of the following types of ticket for your event. Like I said at the beginning of my first article on this subject: "RTW passes can be a good buy. Savings can be made, they offer you enormous greater flexibilty than most other ticket types, and they are a great way to earn FF mileage.

However, they can also be insanely complicated, and they provide about 11 million opportunities that can turn your head," janisj: "Japan is currently a very good place to buy a RTW - as low as about $6,000 + taxes/fees for each of the 3 big deals in your IB.

In recent weeks, the Japanese currency has further declined, with both the Star Alliance and Oneworld RoWs in the US dollar trading well below $6,000. As this topic has been taken up again, I just want to say that the persistently strength of the US dollar has now led to a 4-continent Oneworld Explorer Businessclass, purchased and launched in South Africa and priced at US $4360 plus tax and tolls.

One 3-continent that OWE purchased and launched in Japan now costs $5444 plus tax and charges. 29,000 miles of Star Alliance ticket ex-Japan now costs $5737. Oops, means to say that all of the above are for doing biz classes. wow - I just found this and am a total beginner about these things.

I' m planing a journey to South Africa (from the United States) next August (2016). I would like to be at least in businessclass on my travels abroad. When you can help me go in the right directions? Journey to South Africa in July/August for one months with security. In the next two years I would like to go back to Europe (probably Germany, maybe Amsterdam, maybe northern lights in Finland) and would also like to go to Australia/New Zealand.

Probably can earn points to reach South Africa with Delta or Virgin Junior IB. Now, just warning: If you go to South Africa for a whole week you will become seriously hooked, so it's probably a good thing to jump on the RTW train because you have to end up where you began, which in the case of SA means no harshness at all.

So if you could use mileage to get to SA at all, you could meet Australia on the way back to the USA (Florida, right?) or back via Europe and Australia on the way back to SA within a year, maybe something like this - http://tinyurl. com/o5kog79 - which brings visitors to Israel, Alaska and Hawaii.

Check your pail lists and begin to set targets. Now you can buy the ticket (while the USD-ZAR change is very cheap - unlucky for South Africans) and make changes as soon as it is made out at minimum expense, thus fixing the actual fare. - As I understand it, SA is the best starting point in J?

Yes, 16 segment and yes, "surface" segment counts, but not against the "per continent" restrictions, i.e. a maximum of 4 per continental 6 x 6 per non-North American (including Central America and Caribbean) service. One counts a continent when the bikes are touching it or, in the case of Europe - Australia, even when one flies over it.

While you can for example travel non-stop from Qatar (Europe) to Oz, Oneworld Asia is still one of the continents. Meanwhile, the "go to" ticket maker in Southern Africa, Mindpearl (AA's GSA), has ceased honouring non-South Africa based payment methods (I suppose the floating fork is destroying them with the sinking edge), so the only dependable ticket resource BA UNLESS is that you can get the on-line tools at Oneworld to respond.

Ticketeting via the on-line tools is carried out by the first carriers. When BA does the ticket work, they have a tendency to include a few hundred dollar petrol supplements (now referred to as "carrier surcharges" since BA was taken to the US District Court) in the ticket that Mindpearl/AA did not have. The Cathay Pacific is the lowest surcharge, so if you can get the RFW started with JNB-HKG and get the tools for CX to deliver the ticket, that's the best one.

But, really, a few hundred dollars on a $4000 ticket isn't such a big deal-killer, is it? So if you don't want to stay in Cairo, you can take a flight, go to the starting point for the first RTW section and zoome in, you're done with Egypt.

An issue that leaves SA with the option to go to Asia is the referral directly to HVAC, via LHR or via DOH. When I drive over LHR, does that consume my "Europe", part of the journey? An issue that leaves SA with the option to go to Asia is the referral directly to HVAC, via LHR or via DOH.

When I drive over LHR, does that consume my "Europe", part of the journey? Difficult workarounds exist that use Doha (Qatar) as a point of passage, but these are hindered by the fact that Qatar Airways cannot provide RTW passes (same defects ) via the on-line tools. Keep some of your Aspirin ready when you check the Middle East transportation regulations to/from Africa.

Was not so much interested in staying in Europe on the road, but wanted to maximise the amount of BA work. Clearly first in Asia, so it will spare you going through LHR for returns.