RTW Ticket - Discount needed... Help...

daz_free

Hi guys,

I am looking to get a round the world ticket as i'm off on my travels. I've contacted most the companies which appear for "round the world flights" on Google's 1st page and they all quote the same price of £958 (World discovery plus ticket) + tax. With taxes the price is £1276.

I wonder if there is any way to get them to just slightly drop their prices? Maybe if I could get hold of a discount voucher for any of the companies (sta travel, roundtheworldflights.com, travelmood.com etc...) or even if anyone has any knowledge or experience of haggling on the price for RTW ticket. Any advice guys, I would love to get the overall cost down by £75 to £1200.

I'm buying the ticket this week so I'll really appreciate any advice and would use it and report back if I did eventually get the ticket for £1,200.

Thanks,

Darrell

alanrowell

Have you tried pricing single tickets - and have you checked https://www.whichbudget.com for cheapo airlines.

RTW tickets will normally be with the major airlines so if you are willing to use more eccentric routes you might be able to reduce the cost

Also have a look at the "round the world" forum on Lonely Planet's Thorntree

Sam_Bee

The price of the World Discovery is set by airlines, so you won't get them to drop their price on them. Neither are they making £75 on the tickets, so they won't cut them that much.

STA have a cheaper, more simplistic RTW for students under the age of 26. Or, you might be able to get 2x one ways cheaper.

Why don't you tell us what your route is?

daz_free

OK, I thought the travel agents may be making around £100 gross profit on the ticket and there may be margin to haggle on the ticket. What do you suspect is their mark up on the ticket?

My route is:

manchester - london
london - bangkok
singapore - cairns
sydney - santiago
santiago - buenos aires
buenos aires - rio de janiero
rio - london
london - manchester

Many of the places I am travelling overland, for example bangkok to singapore is overland.

Leaving around 15/11/07 and the price is £958 (ex tax). Also anyone got any ideas how to get a cheap backpack? Tried ebay but not many on there.

Sam_Bee

They will be making around 7% in the flights. As I said the RRP is set in stone by the airlines, and the sheer work RTW tickets are would mean it's pointless to reduce the price, so they won't (and as I mentioned the airlines don't want them to). They make most of their money on insurance and additionals, that's where to make your savings....

If all those flights are included I would snap their hands off - there used to be (back in the days when I sold RTW tickets!) loads of restrictions on South American flights on World Discover tickets. It's better value than it used to be. If you were doing London - Bangkok - Sydney - Fiji - LA - NYC - London you would have the chance to get money off. But I think what you've got is great value. However, I invite others to prove me wrong for the routing - i'd love to see it done cheaper, but I don't think it will be!

BTW - and again, entirely my opinion again - cheap Backpacks? False economy. Don't buy off e-bay, go to a good shop and test them, spend £100+ on one that supports your back properly. Judging by your route, you will be doing lots of trekking etc, probably with quite heavyish loads. It will make a huge difference when you're half way up the Inca Trail!

P.S - one problem with your routing - you're flying over one of the best countries in the world - Indonesia! Overland from Bangkok down to Bali, and you can get a Qantas flight to Cairns from there. From Penang / Singapore get a ferry / cheap flight to Medan, head to Bukit lawang Orang Utan Sanctuary, Berestagi, Lake Toba, Lake Maninjau, Bukkitinggi, overland to Jogya in Java, climb Merapi, see Borobudur & Prambanan, overland to Bali, chill out in Ubud, party in Kuta, and if you have any time left, head to the Gili Islands. Bypass Malaysia and Singapore if you're short of time! Just my opinion though!

daz_free

Thanks for the advice Sam Bee it6s great.

Not too fussed on visiting Malaysia so may take your advice. I can get another flight from bangkok to bali, do you reckon i do that?

Sam_Bee

It depends if you are the party type or explorer type of backpacker. The World Discovery Tickets won't (or didn't used to) include Bangkok - Bali, but will include Singapore - Bali on Qantas.

But you miss out on the overland Sumatra / Java / Bali part which is the best bit! I'm sure you'll be heading to Southern Thailand. From there, get to Penang (train to Butterworth is a great trip). Then from Penang get a cheap flight or ferry (about £25?) to Medan. Then follow the itinerary above!

If you just want to party, fly straight to Bali. You'll be missing out though, the rest of Indonesia is great. You'll be missing out on Orang Utan sanctuaries (Bukit Lawang) the world's passion fruit capital (berestagi!), the worlds largest inland lake (Lake Toba - stunning place) - my favourite chill out place (Lake Meninjau), the cultural capital of Indonesia (Jogya), and the uber-stunning largest Buddhist Temple in the world - Borobudur http://wikitravel.org/en/Borobudur). Oh - Indonesia is also exceptionally cheap!

Donnie

I agree with Sam.... better Indonesia than Singapore(I wrote this hours ago, but forgot to post it).

I've a friend doing a similar route, though leaving in October.

JoseChungsDoomsday

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2007/06/23/etrtw123.xml

this was done for £800, if you stick to buget airlines you will have no problems.

shockingmoment

Try Travelmood.com. We bought four RTW tickets for August 07 - they were the cheapest - Qantas most of the way. BA from LAX to LHR/MAN - worst sector of the lot! Flights worked well, no issues, except...... ransom (sorry departure) tax $25 pp leaving Auckland!

Just bought 4 return flights with Emirates to Indonesia, March next year - again Travelmood cheapest. Sale on at the mo.