Plan your own round the World Trip

Design your own itinerary around the world.

Recently we finished a research where we purchased 3 routes around the world from 8 different RTW ticketing vendors. Below you will find a commentary on the German Institute for International Business (DIY) way of purchasing airline travel cards while on your RTW trip. January 2010 I resigned my position, selling everything I had, and purchased a one-way fare from Los Angeles to Bangkok.

This was the beginning of a one-year world expedition that took me to 20 different nations on 4 different continents. It was a great experience. As I set off on my journey, I had a hazy plan of the goals I wanted to attend, but it was very important for me to be flexible as well.

One of the major factors why I decided on DIY was its versatility and cost. And I knew that I'd been gone for over 12 month. And even if you're thinking of a short trip, you never know what might come of it. Take a gig in a pub on the Mekong and stay in Laos for a few month.

Maybe you are discovering your newly discovered passion for iceclimbing in Norway and want to survive the overwinter. But the point is that with long travels, the emphasis is on versatility. I travelled around the world on 12 planes linking Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the United States.

So far I haven't found a single fare for a round-the-world flight on the same route that can outperform it. I averaged out buying the ticket I used about 2-3 month in advanced for long-haul and until the last moment for short distance outings. Below you can see a list of my flight dates.

Altogether I took 12 planes and travelled 4 different continents. Slightly more than half of these departures (7 out of 12) were on low fare airlines and were shorter routes. My long-haul services were all operated by regular airlines. I had to fly from Bucharest to Kos, Greece, which was my most costly trip on a mileage rate base.

That was probably due to two factors: first, I got the night before my departure; and second, the route from Athens to Kos was with a small propeller aircraft. If I had wanted to make some savings, I would have been able to travel through Southeast Asia without any problems (without the Bangkok-Krabi and Bangkok-Phnom Penh-Bangkok planes and the Indonesian trip from Denpasar to Yogyakarta).

If I' d left out those planes, I would have spared $245 in flight costs. And the best thing you can do to meet your budgeting is to be agile. Timing agility and a specific goal go further and help you safe more cash than any other number of hour you spend looking for the best rate on the Internet.

A possible trap for independent bookings is the tendency towards enormous surcharges with long-haul one-way prices. And I found out that this was the main issue with flying between the USA and Europe. You can sometimes make some savings when you buy a reimbursable round-trip fare with second stage reimbursement itinerary.

Here you can view your total travel cost for the month for more information. They can also learn more about their adventure, travel, mountaineering and cycling tours around the world on their website RollGlobal.org.