Cheap round the World Airfares

It was also co-author of the Consumers Union's yearly " Best Travelling Deal " campaign. At MyBusinessTravel.com, Perkins' corporate traveller tips are a website that helps small businesses and self-employed professionals find the best value for their corporate travellers. Mr. Kerkins was a charter publisher of Consumer Reports, one of the country's most authoritative travel magazines, from which he retired in 1998.

Also wrote for Business Traveller magazines (London). Perkin's travelling experience has resulted in a number of TV shows such as ABC's "Good Morning America" and "This Week with David Brinkley", "The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather", CNN and a number of TV and Radios. Prior to writing Consumer Reports travel letter, Mr. Kerkins worked for 25 years in research and consultancy in the field of travelling, with responsibilities that ranged from developing domestic tourist strategy to developing computer-based tourist business model.

Perkins was a native of Evanston, Illinois and he and his spouse live in Ashland, Oregon. An experienced readership who had been reading about "cheap circumnavigations" asked me how to find a set of cheap one-way RTWs. Readers noticed on each of the routes that one-way streets almost as expensive as roundabouts.

Readers weren't interested in any package - just the fares, please. A number of tour operators specialise in the creation of individual RTW routes. International Air Brokers International (800-883-3273), Airtreks (877-247-8735), Join Us Travel Group ((888-741-7300) et World Travelers' Club (800-693-0411) ; tous avec Sitz à San Francisco. RTW routes are created to order, sector by sector, by compiling a range of discount ticket sets, some of which they buy off-shore.

Minimum RTW route pricing starts at around $1,500, but the lowest ones generally have few stoppages. Most of these low-cost choices also leave the United States from the West Coast and head back to the East Coast or the other way around, so you can get your own ticket between your hometown and these gateway cities.

Fuller routes, up to and personal travel in the same US city, begin just over $2,000, and even these can have some brief loopholes. $2,500 will buy you a really beautiful route, even in Africa or South America. Note, however, that these ticket types are generally quite inflexible: restricted timings, dramatic cancellations or changes in punishments, and so on.

If you would like a binding offer, please e-mail or call us with your desired travel details and the agent will respond quickly. Out of the four, only Airtreks offers an on-line journey Builder. For a more agile ticketing experience, all three major multi-national airlines are selling RMT fares at a cost that allows many travel opportunities within sensible overall boundaries.

Miles are either calculated according to the number of miles or the number of continences you travel; mileage-based ticketing is more convenient. Currently, an RTW Star Alliance Eco-License ( United, Continental, US Airways and more than a dozen overseas partners) RTW travel costs slightly less than $4,000, plus most tax, for a 26,000-mile itinerary.

Star Alliance offers a comfortable on-line travel planner and price machine on its website. Three continents in the OneWorld Plus Partner Agreement cost $3,900 for an RWT travel on three continents; $4,500 for a 29,000-mile travel; and One World displays rates. The SkyTeam (Delta plus Partner) does not have an on-line rate plan calculation, but rates should be the same.

However, for many travellers these fares are quite rigid and the independents have better offers. If you rarely show off on anything, consider doing RTW in your businessclass. And if you don't like to sit in an economic chair all day, go west - you can create full RTW routes without having to spend the nights in the sun.

To minimise your accommodation expenses by taking long-haul trips over night, head east - you can book three or four night stays on the plane. RTW could be the journey of a life. You ever go on a world tour?