Round The World flight ticket - anyone done it ?

Murphy_The_Cat

Coming up in the near(ish) future I've got one of those milestone anniversaries to celebrate with Mrs Cat.

After considering several things that we could do, I came up with the suggestion of a Round The World flight ticket and much to my surprise (& delight) it looks like its a goer.

So now I've got the very pleasant task of putting it together.

On a blank piece of piece of paper, so far I've got - RTW tickets are commonly bought on Air Alliance groups.  Star Alliance is very good, OneWorld can be very good and SkyTeam can be a  bit bleugh.  Start and finish at same point. Pick a direction and stick to it, no back tracking.  Time of year has big impact on where to go/what to see.  Don't try and go everywhere, realistically limit your stops to a manageable number and thats about it.

Line in the sand from the word OK - its Business Class, or you can forget it.

Soooooooo.  Has anyone on here done a RTW ticket trip ?  If so, how did it go ?  Any pointers ?  Any things to avoid ? Any regrets ? Any "if we were to do it again, we'd do this/not do this" type things.

I'm just trying to get a general feel for the logistics and requirements of the whole thing

Murph

p.s. I'm aware of what a powerful resource Flyertalk is - but sometimes they can go to the nth degree of detail with things and I don't need that (yet)

Doshwaster

My understanding is that with the growth of budget airlines, RTW tickets aren't as good a deal as they used to be especially when many have a lot of restrictions on changes, backtracking and stops per continent. So, unless you want to stick to a particular airline because of status and have a fixed route/schedule planned you may find you have more flexibility by mixing and matching. 
However, one good thing about RTW ticket sites is that they can give you lots of idea for potential route options.
STA Travel is a good place to start: https://www.statravel.co.uk/round-the-world-travel.htm

Voyager2002

Not something I would choose to do: I mean, how many destinations could you enjoy before you get bored with travelling? And a RTW ticket would involve flying across the Pacific, which is probably too long a flight to enjoy.

Rather, I would suggest a long-haul ticket that allows at least one decent stop-over.Then both the destination and stop-over point can serve as hubs, and you could get a regional air-pass based in either or both hub. For example, Oman Air would allow an unlimited stop-over in the Gulf on the way to/from the Far East, and they also offer a regional air pass centred on Muscat. Similarly, Ethiopian service a range of long-haul destinations via Addis Ababa with a free Addis stop-over.

TELLIT01

Voyager2002 said:

Not something I would choose to do: I mean, how many destinations could you enjoy before you get bored with travelling?

My answer to that question would be "A lot".  We have always loved travelling and, given the time and finances, would love to travel round the world at our own pace.

Murphy_The_Cat

Voyager2002 said:

Not something I would choose to do: I mean, how many destinations could you enjoy before you get bored with travelling? And a RTW ticket would involve flying across the Pacific, which is probably too long a flight to enjoy.

Rather, I would suggest a long-haul ticket that allows at least one decent stop-over.Then both the destination and stop-over point can serve as hubs, and you could get a regional air-pass based in either or both hub. For example, Oman Air would allow an unlimited stop-over in the Gulf on the way to/from the Far East, and they also offer a regional air pass centred on Muscat. Similarly, Ethiopian service a range of long-haul destinations via Addis Ababa with a free Addis stop-over.

congratulations, you win tonights award for the most irrelevant non- answer to a post.

 

bigadaj

I'd agree with doshwaster, might be useful for an idea of destinations and combinations. I did one in the early nineties when backpacking, made numerous ticket changes for departure though the destinations were fixed, so lost some flexibility. simplest form can be a return to new zealand out through asia and back via north america, or vice versa.

Elby

I did a round the world ticket a few years ago with my partner and we made our way from London to South America, Oceania, South East Asia, Middle East and then home. It worked out well price wise for us as the Santiago - Auckland flight was expensive to buy on its own at the time. Even though we bought the RTW ticket we used the stops as bases and travelled around a bit more by land from the 'base'.  This meant that we had a lot of flexibility and could do what we wanted as long as we were back in '...' city for our flight. As someone previously mentioned, there are a lot of budget airlines out there so you might get it cheaper doing it separately but this will depend specifically on where you want to go (certain budget airlines in some countries I wouldn't risk going with).

How much time do you have to travel? We were fortunate that we had a lot of time and therefore could make the most of the best seasons in different parts of the world. If you're quite short for time you will need to prioritise which parts of the world you want to be in at the 'best' time, and sacrifice the best weather in other parts. Nowadays I quite like being places in the 'shoulder' or 'off season' so this wouldn't bother me at all but might be something worth thinking about.

Ahh this will have me reminiscing now, I wish we could do our trip all over again. I loved the planning part of it too, enjoy! 

fifeken

Voyager2002 said:

Not something I would choose to do: I mean, how many destinations could you enjoy before you get bored with travelling? And a RTW ticket would involve flying across the Pacific, which is probably too long a flight to enjoy.

Rather, I would suggest a long-haul ticket that allows at least one decent stop-over.Then both the destination and stop-over point can serve as hubs, and you could get a regional air-pass based in either or both hub. For example, Oman Air would allow an unlimited stop-over in the Gulf on the way to/from the Far East, and they also offer a regional air pass centred on Muscat. Similarly, Ethiopian service a range of long-haul destinations via Addis Ababa with a free Addis stop-over.

With most of these tickets you have a year to complete so plenty of time to be not getting bored.  Tokyo to San Francisco crosses the Pacific in less than 9 hours, or further south stop off in Hawaii.  A long flight in international Business Class is not exactly a hardship.

OP.  Look at originating outside the UK.  Paris used to be a popular start point IIRC as the savings more than paid for a positioning flight.  If you want to spend time at home in the middle of your trip and effectively split it into two big trips, look at starting half way round and getting there cheaply, with the UK as an intermediate point where you can be at home, perhaps for several months.  Once you've decided on a preferred route, price it up individually and see if there is a decent saving with the same flexibility.

martindow

Murphy_The_Cat said:

Voyager2002 said:

Not something I would choose to do: I mean, how many destinations could you enjoy before you get bored with travelling? And a RTW ticket would involve flying across the Pacific, which is probably too long a flight to enjoy.

Rather, I would suggest a long-haul ticket that allows at least one decent stop-over.Then both the destination and stop-over point can serve as hubs, and you could get a regional air-pass based in either or both hub. For example, Oman Air would allow an unlimited stop-over in the Gulf on the way to/from the Far East, and they also offer a regional air pass centred on Muscat. Similarly, Ethiopian service a range of long-haul destinations via Addis Ababa with a free Addis stop-over.

congratulations, you win tonights award for the most irrelevant non- answer to a post.

 

I'm not sure why you think this answer is irrelevant.  Your OP is clear that you are looking for ideas on planning a journey and Voyager's suggestion looks a good way to explore a lot of the world. 

Kit1

We were meant to go on big trip in April but our plans changed like everyone's. We were not going exactly going RTW but were going to visit a few countries of our choice.  We talked to STA Travel and they were great and gave us lots of advice on how we could plan our trip and make it happen so may be worth checking them out.  

Murphy_The_Cat

martindow said:

Murphy_The_Cat said:

Voyager2002 said:

Not something I would choose to do: I mean, how many destinations could you enjoy before you get bored with travelling? And a RTW ticket would involve flying across the Pacific, which is probably too long a flight to enjoy.

Rather, I would suggest a long-haul ticket that allows at least one decent stop-over.Then both the destination and stop-over point can serve as hubs, and you could get a regional air-pass based in either or both hub. For example, Oman Air would allow an unlimited stop-over in the Gulf on the way to/from the Far East, and they also offer a regional air pass centred on Muscat. Similarly, Ethiopian service a range of long-haul destinations via Addis Ababa with a free Addis stop-over.

congratulations, you win tonights award for the most irrelevant non- answer to a post.

 

I'm not sure why you think this answer is irrelevant.  Your OP is clear that you are looking for ideas on planning a journey and Voyager's suggestion looks a good way to explore a lot of the world. 

Its irrelevant, because this is /was quite specific "

Soooooooo.  Has anyone on here done a RTW ticket trip ?  If so, how did it go ?  Any pointers ?  Any things to avoid ? Any regrets ? Any "if we were to do it again, we'd do this/not do this" type things.

I'm just trying to get a general feel for the logistics and requirements of the whole thing"

I'm not interested if its something that she would like to do or not.

I have no interest in her asking about my boredome threshold for travelling.

Her lack of knowledge about long haul flights crossing the Pacific has noting to do with what I was asking about.

If I'd wanted thoughts feedback about a multistop/open jaw trip, I would have asked about it.  But I didn't, I asked specifically about a RTW trip.

Thats why her answer is irrelevat to the post that I made !

If it was a school task, she would have got an "E" with the comment "please make sure that you understand the question, before attempting to answer it"