VCy From Cyprus, joined Dec 2012, 202 posts, RR: 0 Posted (4 months 3 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 2054 times:
Hey guys!
So, I have started my research to plan my round the world itinerary in the near future. I was wondering if any of you had the experience of a round the world holiday that you could share (e.g airlines, fares etc). Additionally, if anyone knows any good round the world product, e.g one world explorer, then you are very welcome to share your thoughts. I would also appreciate it if anyone knows if it's possible to book a round the world holiday with all Virgin group airlines (Virgin Australia, America & Atlantic)?
Azure From France, joined Dec 2012, 198 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (4 months 3 weeks 21 hours ago) and read 1960 times:
I've been around the world but that was on a..boat
However I have always wanted to do another one by plane and have found out that Skyteam offers a good tool (their Round the world planner - see link below)
Depending on your country of residence, Emirates may also offer this possibility, in cooperation with Air Tahiti Nui. Check out their website !
Now this is fun !
UA787DEN From United States of America, joined Dec 2012, 291 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (4 months 3 weeks 21 hours ago) and read 1828 times:
SQ paired up with Virgin Australia to fly round the world. I think its possible to book a Virgin group round the world, fllying VX across the US and connecting somewhere in Asia on the way down to Australia.
Oneworld has the highest overall star rating out of the carriers and is often one of the cheapest. (No, I am not biased, look at my username)
Play on the alliance websites. Look at fares and airlines. I've seen a fun note on the Star Alliance website when I selected an SQ A380 flight, down at the bottom really tiny, "$500 aircraft surcharge." If you want to go through CDG and FCO then Skyteam might be the cheapest. Playing on the websites is the way to go.
Azure From France, joined Dec 2012, 198 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (4 months 3 weeks 20 hours ago) and read 1702 times:
Quoting UA787DEN (Reply 2): If you want to go through CDG and FCO then Skyteam might be the cheapest.
ST might be the cheapest option from AMS and BEY too, this latter being so close to Cyprus.
Actually your choice of airlines / alliances will certainly depends on where you want to stop during your trip.
But please let us know what you find out
You bet!! i've been in every alliance's website trying out different routes
Quoting UA787DEN (Reply 2): Oneworld has the highest overall star rating out of the carriers and is often one of the cheapest.
I really like OneWorld because of Qantas and LAN. I want to add South America and Australia to my itinerary, that's why but i think Star Alliance has an advantage in Asia, with Singapore, Thai, ANA, Air China, Asiana and EVA Air soon, whereas One World only has Cathay Pacific, JAL & Malaysia Airlines. SkyTeam from my point of view is very weak in Oceania and South America.
Quoting Azure (Reply 3): ST might be the cheapest option from AMS and BEY too, this latter being so close to Cyprus.
My problem with ST is that they are weak in South America and Oceania i might be starting my trip from London
Longhornmaniac From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 3094 posts, RR: 48 Reply 5, posted (4 months 3 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 1684 times:
oneworld Explorer is a very good RTW ticket. I traveled on its award companion, the oneworld Award last year, and had a fantastic time. Oneworld, IMO, has the best distribution of carriers, making it easy to move from point A to point B just about anywhere on the planet (save most of Africa). If you intend to go to South America, the LAN Group is just leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else on that continent.
The absolute first thing you need to do is nail down the places you want to go see. Until you do that, don't worry about airlines or alliances, because where you want to go is going to dictate the best options for you.
To a somewhat lesser extent, what cabin you want to travel in can also play a role. If you're going economy, it shouldn't matter much, but if you want to go in a premium cabin, it might behoove you to tailor your itinerary a bit in getting the best bang for your buck in terms of premium service.
Also, all the tickets (as far as I know) have a maximum number of segments (16 seems to be a common number), with pricing based on the number of continents you travel to (and "continent" is a loose term, not necessarily geographically defined). Restrictions on number of segments per region, stopovers/connections, and open jaws, are also common. As such, using these very valuable segments in areas that you can very easily travel overland, including LCC air travel, is not necessarily the best idea (that is to say, travel within Europe and SE Asia). In my opinion, this also takes away some of the appeal an alliance like *A has, because their main strength is definitely in Europe, which isn't particularly helpful for the purposes of an RTW ticket.
Another thing to keep in mind, depending on where you purchase the ticket (that is, where you start your RTW trip), you can save an absolute boatload of money.
For example, currently, a 4-continent oneworld Explorer RTW in F is $8,500 when purchased in South Africa. The same ticket purchased in the US on AA is $14,900 (the same purchased at LCA is $15,277). That's basically a 45% savings. Of course, you have to factor in the cost to get to and from the starting/ending point, but you could easily find flights from the US (or in your case, Cyprus) to JNB that would be considerably less than $6,400.
Longhornmaniac From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 3094 posts, RR: 48 Reply 6, posted (4 months 3 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 1679 times:
Quoting VCy (Reply 4): I really like OneWorld because of Qantas and LAN
If Oz and SA are on your itinerary, oneworld is almost a must.
Quoting VCy (Reply 4): but i think Star Alliance has an advantage in Asia, with Singapore, Thai, ANA, Air China, Asiana and EVA Air soon, whereas One World only has Cathay Pacific, JAL & Malaysia Airlines
Keep in mind, with regions that are well connected, you really only have to have two prevalent carriers to get a good bang for your buck.
Example: to go to 4 destinations in Asia (which is the max # of segments in a region on a oneworld explorer fare, though you can purchase up to two more. The 16 segment max does not change, however, which means you'd have to reduce your flying somewhere else), you need to arrive into the region at a place where one of the two (soon to be 3) oneworld carriers flies.
For example...NRT. So with NRT, you know you can fly just about anywhere in Asia on JL. The only real restriction is that your next destination must be a place that CX (or MH if your trip is after 1 Feb) flies to as well.
For example...PEK. So that's two destinations down.
Third would be the CX hub...HKG.
Fourth would need to be a place that CX flies, and another oneworld carrier can take you to another region.
For example...SIN or BKK.
This is true of all RTW tickets in all alliances, so you won't have any problem moving around in Asia, regardless of what alliance you travel on.
I implore you to utilize the LCCs in the region, on top of your RTW ticket. This allows you to maximize what you get to see, with VERY little added cost.
Our oneworld ticket last year went DFW-NRT-PEK-HKG-SIN-SYD (for that portion of it).
We arrived in SIN on the 16th of June, and didn't leave again until the 5th of July. You think we spent 3 weeks in Singapore? Hell no!!! We went to KUL, DPS, HKT, BKK, and HAN (all on the AirAsia group), before returning to SIN (on TR) to pick up our oneworld ticket again to go to SYD. This is a fantastically cheap way around the limit 1 open jaw rule. Not one of those flights was more than $100 with a checked bag. Awesome!
VCy From Cyprus, joined Dec 2012, 202 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (4 months 3 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 1675 times:
Quoting Longhornmaniac (Reply 5): Oneworld, IMO, has the best distribution of carriers, making it easy to move from point A to point B just about anywhere on the planet
Agreed!
Quoting Longhornmaniac (Reply 5): For example, currently, a 4-continent oneworld Explorer RTW in F is $8,500 when purchased in South Africa. The same ticket purchased in the US on AA is $14,900 (the same purchased at LCA is $15,277). That's basically a 45% savings. Of course, you have to factor in the cost to get to and from the starting/ending point, but you could easily find flights from the US (or in your case, Cyprus) to JNB that would be considerably less than $6,400.
That's a really good point, thank you
Quoting Longhornmaniac (Reply 6): Example: to go to 4 destinations in Asia (which is the max # of segments in a region on a oneworld explorer fare, though you can purchase up to two more. The 16 segment max does not change, however, which means you'd have to reduce your flying somewhere else), you need to arrive into the region at a place where one of the two (soon to be 3) oneworld carriers flies.
I didn't know that! Thank you
Quoting Longhornmaniac (Reply 6): We arrived in SIN on the 16th of June, and didn't leave again until the 5th of July. You think we spent 3 weeks in Singapore? Hell no!!! We went to KUL, DPS, HKT, BKK, and HAN (all on the AirAsia group), before returning to SIN (on TR) to pick up our oneworld ticket again to go to SYD. This is a fantastically cheap way around the limit 1 open jaw rule. Not one of those flights was more than $100 with a checked bag. Awesome!
That sounds too exciting!!! I noticed you went with company.. Do you think its better if theres alot of you or for example 2 of you?
Longhornmaniac From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 3094 posts, RR: 48 Reply 8, posted (4 months 3 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 1627 times:
Quoting VCy (Reply 7): Do you think its better if theres alot of you or for example 2 of you
It all depends on how well you know the people and how long you're going to be gone.
I see you're pretty young, what sort of travel are you planning on? Hostels? Keep in mind that the more people you travel with, the more different styles of travel, interests etc...will be prevalent. I traveled with my best friend, whom I knew very, very well, and we had discussed what we each wanted to see (I was also lucky that he's the kind of person he really didn't care about what we saw...he was just happy to be there) beforehand. The more people there are, the more conflict there's going to be. I definitely don't recommend traveling with more than 1-2 people-few things are more uncomfortable than infighting between friends, particularly when there's very little opportunity for a breather.
Though I'm really glad I went with my friend, don't be afraid to travel by yourself. If you're so inclined, hostels represent an awesome opportunity to meet and interact with young travelers like yourself.
rwy04lga From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 2139 posts, RR: 7 Reply 9, posted (4 months 2 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 1464 times:
Quoting VCy (Reply 4): My problem with ST is that they are weak in South America
Surely you jest. SA)">DL, by itself, goes to 9 different cities in South America from the US, AF to 7 cities from CDG, and KL also to 7 from AMS. On a RTW trip...where else in SA would you want to go/transfer through? All of that's not even counting AR's network. ST might be smaller than the other 2 alliances, but weak? They're not!
The early bird gets the worm, BUT...the second mouse gets the cheese!
VCy From Cyprus, joined Dec 2012, 202 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (4 months 2 weeks 4 days ago) and read 1400 times:
Quoting rwy04lga (Reply 9): Surely you jest. SA)">DL, by itself, goes to 9 different cities in South America from the US, AF to 7 cities from CDG, and KL also to 7 from AMS. On a RTW trip...where else in SA would you want to go/transfer through? All of that's not even counting AR's network. ST might be smaller than the other 2 alliances, but weak? They're not!
Ye its easy to GET to SA, but from there on i dont wanna be connecting from Buenos Aires all the time! It's hard to include Peru, Chile, Brazil, Argentina & Colombia without connecting somewhere all the time.
Longhornmaniac From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 3094 posts, RR: 48 Reply 14, posted (4 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 1259 times:
Quoting VCy (Reply 12): Ye its easy to GET to SA, but from there on i dont wanna be connecting from Buenos Aires all the
time! It's hard to include Peru, Chile, Brazil, Argentina & Colombia without connecting somewhere all the time.
Bingo. Not to mention most RTW tickets have restrictions on how many times you can connect and/or stopover in a given city. Adding onto that the fact it's a complete waste of segments to have to backtrack through a city, ST is definitely very weak for intra-SA routes.
HELyes From Finland, joined Oct 2010, 642 posts, RR: 1 Reply 15, posted (4 months 1 week 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 1155 times:
Hi guys,
It seems booking separate flights you can make a RTW trip with less money but is there something I haven't noticed...? Looks too easy somehow Would the one way ticket Asia-US be a problem?
Example: HEL-CDG-HKG-BKK-ICN-SFO-HEL (Y) in March-April 2013
rafabullara From Brazil, joined Dec 2010, 38 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (4 months 1 week 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 1077 times:
Quoting VCy (Reply 12): Ye its easy to GET to SA, but from there on i dont wanna be connecting from Buenos Aires all the time! It's hard to include Peru, Chile, Brazil, Argentina & Colombia without connecting somewhere all the time.
You should try Lan Group flights like these.....SCL-BUE-GRU-LIM-BOG. You can make all of them nonstop
Longhornmaniac From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 3094 posts, RR: 48 Reply 17, posted (4 months 1 week 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 1040 times:
travelR From Australia, joined Sep 2010, 90 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (4 months 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 787 times:
There is a round the world fare with VA, VS, and VX. Basically you would LHR/HKG/SYD/domestic flights within Australia/LAX/travel within USA with VX/LHR. LHR/HKG/SYD with VS, SYD/LAX With VA, LAX/LHR with VS as an example.
I used the Star Alliance RTW 29000 miles fare. It cost me about AUD5500 including taxes. My routing was SYD/SIN/BKK/SIN/DXB/IST/ZRH/VIE/LHR/FRA/JFK - EWR/MCO/LAX/AKL/SYD. I managed to use up 15 of my 16 allowed coupons. Star Alliance is strongest within South East Asia and also within Western Europe. That is the main reason why I chose them over One World even though that is popular here due to QF. I also upgraded to premium economy on my LAX/AKL leg and was definitely worth it.
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i might be starting my trip from London 
If Oz and SA are on your itinerary, oneworld is almost a must.
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