Round The World Flight (Or Multi-City) From London

JC_Maven

Hi

I have searched the forum for relevant threads but found none.

I would ask for advise on a CHEAP round the world flight but i seems to be having trouble even FINDING one.

So your assistance would be greatly appreciated

Route is:
London
New Zealand
Bali
Costa Rica
Ecuador
Los Angelas
New York
London

5-6 stops over 4 continents.

To clarify. I am having trouble finding a round the world flight for my route. Do you know of any?

Thanks,

Josh

lisaloo1977

Hi,

I have travelled on 3 RTW tickets and each time i have had to keep going forward and not doubling back on myself. This is possibly why your having problems.

You could always try ringing the likes of round the world experts or STA etc and asking if this is the case?

Sorry i cant be more help, but the above is from my personal experience.

Edited to add, if you mean Bali first then NZ, it should not be a problem!! It will just be a case of getting a company to work it out for you.

You could always try Kayak, but think you would be possibly cheaper doing it through one of the many people who do it day in day out.

richardw

There aren't any cheap flights to New York anymore due to rises in departure taxes, so it is highly unlikely that you'll find a cheap RTW ticket.

Consider doing Bali, Ecuador and Costa Rica as separate side trips.

Airport websites can greatly help your planning by looking at which airlines fly there from where and how you can simplify your trip.

Moonchild

Put Bali before NZ - or it's not a RTW, and you'll spend a fortune.

If you remove Ecuador & Costa Rica you have one of the simplest and cheapest RTW tickets. They are not the easiest place to reach from Oz/Nz - i.e. the quickest way from Auckland to San Jose is via LAX and Mexico (or somewhere else) which is over 16 hours flying time to give you context of distance.

So, as Richard states, look at a simple RTW for your other destinations (speak to a human being) - i'm sure you'll end up on a Singapore Airlines / Air NZ / Virgin ticket, and then start looking at adding Central America as add-on flights from the US.

CountryGoose

Yes - this can be done - though it will take some work.

Easy Way: Go to Trailfinders or STA and get them to work it out for you.

Harder Way: Do more research yourself on the three main alliances: OneWorld, Star Alliance and Skyteam. All three sell RTW tickets, and the first two allow you to plan routes on their websites.

Oneworld allow backtracking within a continent - so UK, OZ, Asia ( you can transit Asia once more on the way to/from Oz), S America, N America and UK with your destinations is OK. The challenge will be to find the flights.

Virgin and Singapore Airlines also run The Great Escapade (google it) which may cover most of your route, though you would need to fill in with other flights. (Notably LAX-NYC and South America)

If planned well, a RTW can be a great source of airline status and miles (for you next trip!). I suggest a look at Flyertalk (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/global-airline-alliances-391/) This is a link to the alliances fora where you will get lots of help if you do your homework first, read the stickies and ask for constructive help on your proposed routing.

You will also find that it may not be best to start your RTW in the UK, other places in europe or elsewhere may be a cheaper place to start a ticket.

And a final point: Air NZ will sell you a ticket LHR-HKG-AKL-LAX-LHR for a very reasonable prices, and they are a good airline in economy. You can fill in a lot of your itin on LCC flights in regions from those hubs. DPS is about 4 hours from HKG.

JC_Maven

Thank you for your responses, i have used your advice with great results!

lisaloo1977 wrote: »

Hi,

I have travelled on 3 RTW tickets and each time i have had to keep going forward and not doubling back on myself. This is possibly why your having problems.

You could always try ringing the likes of round the world experts or STA etc and asking if this is the case?

Your round the world experts recommendation was fantastic, i have got the nicest agent and she is helping me piece this mess together!

Yep i now understand how Bali won't work so i am doing that with a local carrier.

richardw wrote: »

Consider doing Bali, Ecuador and Costa Rica as separate side trips.

Airport websites can greatly help your planning by looking at which airlines fly there from where and how you can simplify your trip.

Yep i am now doing these as separate side-trips. Thanks.

I tried the AA website using the Multi-City function but i couldn't get this to work. Am i right in thinking AA won't help if i input places like New Zealand and Bali?

Moonchild wrote: »

If you remove Ecuador & Costa Rica you have one of the simplest and cheapest RTW tickets. They are not the easiest place to reach from Oz/Nz - i.e. the quickest way from Auckland to San Jose is via LAX and Mexico (or somewhere else) which is over 16 hours flying time to give you context of distance.

This was very helpful. I will book a LAX-SJO return instead of a NZ-SJO. Thanks.

CountryGoose wrote: »

If planned well, a RTW can be a great source of airline status and miles (for you next trip!). I suggest a look at Flyertalk (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/global-airline-alliances-391/) This is a link to the alliances fora where you will get lots of help if you do your homework first, read the stickies and ask for constructive help on your proposed routing.

The flyertalk recommendation was invaluable. That is definitely one of the best forums i have ever seen. Also i am now looking into AAdvantage. And so i go down further into the research rabbit hole...

JC_Maven

Ok, due to the helpfulness of the respondents and a travel agent, i now have a much clearer idea as to what i should do.

RTW Route:

London
New Zealand
LAX
(Across land posssibly)
New York
London

Local Carriers:

NZ - Bali (RT)
LAX - Costa Rica (RT)

I am trying not to use many acroynms but if you have ever been on flyertalk, the acronym concentration will melt your brain. You get used to it.

I have some questions about AAdvantage and air miles but i don't know if that is more flyertalk material rather than general?

Simple version of the question is:

How can i make sure most of the flights will contribute to my AA miles? Do i have to use Quantas for New Zealand?

If i leave for NZ in December, will all my miles disappear in the new year?

Also feel free to critique to latest route, i know it still needs work.

Thanks,

Josh

Doshwaster

JC_Maven wrote: »

I am trying not to use many acroynms but if you have ever been on flyertalk, the acronym concentration will melt your brain. You get used to it.

I have some questions about AAdvantage and air miles but i don't know if that is more flyertalk material rather than general?

Simple version of the question is:

How can i make sure most of the flights will contribute to my AA miles? Do i have to use Quantas for New Zealand?

If i leave for NZ in December, will all my miles disappear in the new year?

Flyertalk is certainly one of the most acronym-laden forums I have used but they are usually very helpful, if a little geeky.

To get the most from AA Miles you should be flying on Oneworld operated flights. However, if Air NZ is cheaper than Qantas then it may not be worth the extra money to get the miles.

I'm no expert on the AA miles scheme (I'm a BA miles man myself) but you shouldn't lose miles at the end of the year they just keep on accumulating. It's the miles which count towards elite membership which expire as that is calculated on miles per calendar year. (BA is different as "eliteness" is calculated on tier points not miles)

CountryGoose

JC_Maven wrote: »

Ok, due to the helpfulness of the respondents and a travel agent, i now have a much clearer idea as to what i should do.

RTW Route:

London
New Zealand
LAX
(Across land posssibly)
New York
London

Local Carriers:

NZ - Bali (RT)
LAX - Costa Rica (RT)

I am trying not to use many acroynms but if you have ever been on flyertalk, the acronym concentration will melt your brain. You get used to it.

I have some questions about AAdvantage and air miles but i don't know if that is more flyertalk material rather than general?

Simple version of the question is:

How can i make sure most of the flights will contribute to my AA miles? Do i have to use Quantas for New Zealand?

If i leave for NZ in December, will all my miles disappear in the new year?

Also feel free to critique to latest route, i know it still needs work.

Thanks,

Josh

Route: Include a stopover in HKG on the outbound, and travel around from there. Plenty of LCC from HKG.

Airmiles: The jury is out on when the bmi (British Midland) Diamond Club scheme will be folded into Miles and More. Whilst it survives, it offers great spending rates on business class fares. Air NZ is in the Star Alliance (Along with TAM for Brazil/South America, US-Airways, Singapore, United and Continental) so you may want to put your miles with them and look at building status and miles in the bmi programme. Otherwise, go back to flyertalk and look for an alternative programme, or just accepted that you miles may be pulled into Lufthansa's scheme.

AA is good as it offers a challenge for status, but you need to fly One World carriers for that to make sense.

lfc321

Also, on maximising AAdvantage points: you should take an AA flight NYC-LON. You don't earn on BA transatlantic flights (or at least you didn't last i heard - could have changed)

richardw

All AA and BA operated flights also have BA and AA codeshare flight numbers across the Atlantic now, so you can get AA miles on BA operated flights.