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Planning your trip in Round the world flights
Planning your trip in Round the world flights
Planning for a RTW trip requires quite a bit of preparation.
The probably easiest and, at the same time, most exciting way to plan and book your Round the World trip is Star Alliance's Book and Fly tool:
Some ways to get the maximum value from your ticket are:
Use a mileage calculator to maximize your route. The Great Circle Mapper is an excellent tool, but be sure to set the display to "mi" (miles), not "nm" (nautical miles).
Use direct flights whenever possible. Be flexible with dates; routes off the beaten track are often not flown daily.
Start your trip from a low-cost country. RTW pricing depends on where you issue the ticket, so you can achieve significant savings by starting from places like Bulgaria, Sri Lanka or Thailand. As an example, in April 2005, a Star Alliance RTW3 in First would have cost you $16,509 if purchased in the United Kingdom, but only $7,929 (a savings of 52%) if purchased in Tonga.
- The famous Canadian exception means that RTWs sold in Canada cost the same as at the point where the trip begins. For example, that means you can buy a ticket in Canada for an RTW beginning in Thailand and pay the much cheaper Thai price. Of course, you have to get to Thailand in order to start the RTW but the extra ticket you need will probably cost less than the difference in the RTW fares; in other words, you still save money.
- The United States is one of the more expensive places to begin a RTW trip (due to a combination of geography and lack of demand for such tickets compared to other countries). If a Europe is on your itinerary, it is often up to a thousand US dollars cheaper to buy a ticket through a UK travel agent starting in London. You can do this via email and over the phone, and purchase a cheap one-way ticket to Europe to begin your travels. To return, just make sure your routing goes through the US and don't take the last leg back to London.
Start your trip in low season; in some cases this lowers the overall fare drastically.
Consider flying business class (or, for a real splurge, first). Yes, you'll pay about twice as much for the ticket ? but business class usually costs 4-7x more than economy, so it's a comparative steal, and it makes all that sitting around in planes so much more tolerable. Also, it gets a larger baggage allowance; for some travellers it may be better to pay once for business class than to get hit for excess baggage on several legs of the trip.
Join a frequent flyer program before you fly. With all the miles you rack up from your RTW, you'll earn enough to make another trip for free when you get back.
Watch out for taxes and surcharges. These are not included in the base cost of the RTW, but can easily add up to hundreds of dollars, and some countries (e.g., much of Europe) are much more expensive than others (e.g., most of Asia). Also, don't forget the cost of visas, if required.
When choosing your destinations, consider whether an RTW is the best solution for visiting them. As a very rough rule of thumb for gauging costs, assuming a 29,000-mile ticket for $3000, one mile of an Economy RTW costs (on average) around $0.10.
Consider some offbeat, once-in-a-lifetime destinations. For example, regular flights to Svalbard, Easter Island, or much of Oceania and Africa are horrifically expensive, but virtually free (only miles needed) when using a RTW ticket.
Consider taking non-alliance airlines for routes less traveled. As an example, suppose you'd like to fly from Dubai to Athens. You'd be hard-pressed to find a good route with most RTW tickets, as neither Emirates nor Olympic participate in the major programs, and would have to detour through a hub like Frankfurt, racking up over 4000 miles (~$400). On the other hand, direct flights on non-allied airlines cost as little as $196.
Consider taking discount airlines for return excursions. For example, Bangkok-Singapore return would set you back 2000 miles (~$200), but on this heavily competed sector full-service carriers regularly offer fares under $100 and low-cost carriers promotions can be under $10.
Some tips to consider if you need to squeeze in a few more miles:
Use Metropolitan Area Airport Codes instead of airport-specific ones. For London, LON covers Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and London City, while for Tokyo, TYO covers both Narita and Haneda. SIN-TYO clocks in at 3294 mi while SIN-NRT is 3324 m ? a difference of 30 miles.
Stops on the same flight don't count. If ticketed so that Tromsø doesn't show on the ticket, a flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen is 1255 mi, not 1292 mi, even though there is a stop at Tromsø. (Note that the Star Alliance mileage calculator does not handle this correctly.)
You (usually) don't need to start and end your journey in the same city, as long as you end up in the same country. For example, starting in New York City and ending in Los Angeles, then using a cheap, separately purchased one-way ticket to get back to New York (e.g. JetBlue, Southwest, ATA) would free up a few thousand miles.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Round the world flights
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Round the world flights - updated May 2024
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Round the world flights Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.