Round the World Ticket

July 2, 2006 5:38 AM

Worldtripfilter: Is it possible to get fixed-price world trip tickets?

I've been told by numerous people that I am able to buy tickets that allow me to make dozens of stops around the world, as long as I'm travelling in a single direction. Is this true? I've searched high and low on the Internet (read: googled) and could only find airtreks.com, which as far as I can see doesn't offer such a service.

Any advice on the matter much appreciated. (I'm in Australia, FWIW, but would appreciate advice from anyone.)

posted by PuGZ to travel & transportation (6 comments total)

Yes. The airline alliances (Oneworld and Star Alliance) offer such products. The products vary greatly in price depending on what country you initiate your RTW in. For this reason many people will buy a one-way or round trip to Cairo and then start a RTW from there.

I very strongly advise reading and discussing your plans in the Oneworld and Star Alliance forums of Flyertalk before planning your trip. These guys are the experts.
posted by grouse at 5:51 AM on July 2, 2006

In addition to the RTW fares offered by the alliances, some airlines have their own tickets. In particular, Singapore Airlines (also part of Star Alliance) offers RTW fares that allow travel just on Singapore Airlines, or also on combinations of Virgin, Continental, and Air New Zealand. These tend to be cheaper than the alliance fares, with the trade-off that the options (destinations, flights) are obviously more limited. For some reason, I can only find a link from the US portion of SQ's website, but I would imagine they also sell these from Australia.
posted by blue mustard at 6:06 AM on July 2, 2006

My understanding is that Oneworld does it based on continents and that Star Alliance goes by mileage. I second grouse's advise on checking those forums.
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:07 AM on July 2, 2006

We used a RTW ticket on our last trip home to the States, mostly because it was only slightly more expensive than a return ticket from Sydney to Chicago and back. We did the research online and then took the printouts to Flight Centre, which have a policy of matching Internet fares. We ended up with a ticket from the "OneWorld" alliance which allowed us two stops in each "region" (where a region is a big slice of the world). We were even able to swing flying into one city in Italy and out of another. Checking the forums is good, but I also highly recommend talking to a knowledgeable travel agent. They'll be able to guide you through the red tape of these things.
posted by web-goddess at 2:51 PM on July 2, 2006

STA Australia has a section of their webpage devoted to round the world trips, including a flash route planner that calculates a price once you pick your cities. They usually have some brochures about it if you go past a branch, and are very helpful if you just want to go in and say 'I was thinking about doing a round the world trip, I (haven't got any specific ideas/want to go to x, y and z/ want to go to x and do something else exciting). You don't have to plan to book anything on the spot, just ask questions.
posted by jacalata at 8:10 PM on July 2, 2006

Also have a look at Airtimetable.

We used a combination of Oneworld tickets and discount airlines for a total of 38 flights so far (6 to go). You absolutely can fly in to one city and fly out of another with Oneworld. The Oneworld rules are complex but the Flyertalk members have it all figured out. Read carefully and take advantage. We bought our tickets in Egypt for almost half of what it would have cost in Canada.
posted by Hash at 8:57 PM on July 2, 2006