round the world tickets

JuneBow

i am in the process of planning my "grown up gap year" and am thinking about round the world tickets presumably each airline has different rules, but i am looking for recommendations.
What is it best to avoid for example .
Also, do the, in general have unlimited stops, and i presume travel must always be in one direction?

blindman

JuneBow wrote: »

i am in the process of planning my "grown up gap year" and am thinking about round the world tickets presumably each airline has different rules, but i am looking for recommendations.
What is it best to avoid for example .
Also, do the, in general have unlimited stops, and i presume travel must always be in one direction?

Before you jump on the RTW tickets it may be possible to create your own itinerary using LCC and their one way fares.

Example here

RTW tickets can be complex and depending on your travel competence you may need to us a Travel agent:eek:

Personnaly I wouldn't but there is a lot to think about if you want to get the best value and experience from this kind of trip.

Flyertalk can get a bit OTT but here is a RTW newbie Q

There are loads of BLOGS about RTW tickets-Here is one of them

There are two types of RTW ticket (IIRC) one goes on number of legs-up to 16 (IIRC) and the other goes on mileage


Then there's the Airline alliance you fly with.


One world is BA, AA etc


Star alliance is Air New zealand, Swiss etc


Yes RTW tickets force you to go one way-Either E-W or W-E, no backtracking.



So your first choice IMHO is where do you actually want to go?

richardw

The big alliances are OneWorld, Skyteam and StarAlliance.
Their websites have rtw planners, so have a play and see what works best for your preferences.

agrinnall

blindman wrote: »

So your first choice IMHO is where do you actually want to go?

This is the key starting point. Some combinations of destination are difficult or even impossible with a RTW ticket unless you buy extra flights. And unless your itinerary actually takes in countries right around the world it may be cheaper and better to do a return to your most distant point with stop overs in each direction (you might need to include some open jaw flights).


I did a RTW and it worked OK for me but that was 28 years ago, things have moved on since then, and when I looked at the planners a few years ago it wasn't at all easy to put together a suitable itinerary (and I didn't do it in the end).

JuneBow

many thanks for these replies. Lots of stuff to give me a start.
I did think a rtw ticket just allowed you to choose your own destinations. Clearly I am wrong.

blindman

JuneBow wrote: »

many thanks for these replies. Lots of stuff to give me a start.
I did think a rtw ticket just allowed you to choose your own destinations. Clearly I am wrong.

It does but there are restrictions as mentioned above.

As I said you need to decide where you would like to go, then see if a RTW ticket is an appropriate choice.

Doshwaster

If you have an STA or Trailfinders near you it would be worth popping in for a chat to get some ideas as they both specialise in RTW tickets. Don't go you your local Thomas Cook.

Views on the value of RTW vary and their rules can be very complex and limited flexibility allowed. You could be better off doing it yourself with low cost carriers. It's only really South America, Africa and across the Pacific where the legacy carriers are still in control of the market.