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Informations on Round The World Flights: history, politics, economy, culture, Did you mean: Round The World Flights
For an other version of this travel guide, please visit Ooaj.com: Travel in Round The World Flights + Hotels
Rather than buying separate flights from one destination to another, a flexible and sometimes cheaper way of international travel is via Round the world (RTW) tickets. A round the world ticket is a plane ticket allowing you to fly around the world, usually with between three and ten stops at different airports. Round the world tickets cost far less than the sum of the one-way tickets between each set of individual stops. (One-way tickets are generally a poor value compared to round-trip tickets, and also may be viewed with suspicion by security personnel.) They are usually slightly more expensive than a return ticket between destinations on opposite sides of the world (London and Sydney for example), but if you were planning two or more stops then you may find that a round the world ticket is the cheapest option, and allows you at least a side trip. Many travellers plan entire holidays using a round the world itinerary.
Because few individual airlines offer truly global service, round the world tickets are often associated with an airline alliance and allow you to travel with any airline that is part of the alliance.
Round the world deals
Round the world tickets are cheapest if:
- you buy a ticket with pre-determined stops
- you make your initial departure during the low season: this determines the price of the entire itinerary. Individual airlines will generally have well-advertised dates when the low season fares apply.
The major RTW offerings available worldwide are:
- Star Alliance Round the World Fare, 1 (http://www.staralliance.com/star_alliance/star/content/Round_The_World_Fare.html). Covering 16 airlines, 139 countries and over 800 destinations, this is the unmatched champion for sheer number of destinations and routing options. The pass is availabe in 26000, 29000, 34000 and 39000 mile versions in Economy, Business and First Class. The price of the ticket varies — sometimes quite significantly — depending on your starting location, but there are no high/low season changes.
- OneWorld Explorer, 2 (http://www.oneworldalliance.com/products/details.cfm?ObjectID=21). A close second to Star Alliance.
- SkyTeam Round the World, 3 (http://skyteam.com/travel/benefits/aroundTheWorld/index.jsp). A distant third, whose major limitation is the lack of flights in South America, Asia or Australia.
- World Journey. Northwest, KLM and Malaysian band together a large number of smaller carriers to offer good coverage in Africa, India and South America, but Australia is pretty much off the map.
- The Great Escapade. 4 (http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/travel/gb/specialoffers/greatescapades.jsp) 29,000 miles and unlimited stops throughout the Virgin Atlantic, Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines/SilkAir network — great coverage in South-East Asia and the Pacific, but spotty elsewhere. Backtracking allowed.
- Big Planet Tour. Similar to Great Escapade, only without Virgin Atlantic.
Conditions
Normal conditions for round the world tickets will include many of the following:
- returning to your departure point on the last leg of the trip.
- travelling in one direction (east or west) only.
- a strict mileage limit. Typical limits range from 26 000 to 40 000 miles, depending on the ticket price. "Land legs" -- travelling between two airports without using the ticket -- will typically count towards the mileage limit, so you cannot have a longer trip by doing this.
- a time limit in which to make the journey. This is usually the same as an open-ended return ticket, that is, 12 months after your date of departure.
- a minimum number of stops (including your return home): often three.
- a maximum number of stops: five and up, depending on the ticket price.
- a fixed series of stops determined at the time the ticket is booked (date alterations are usually allowed).
Planning your trip
Planning for a RTW trip requires quite a bit of preparation.
Some ways to get the maximum mileage from your ticket are:
- Use a mileage calculator to maximize your route. The Great Circle Mapper (http://gc.kls2.com/) is an excellent tool.
- Use direct flights whenever possible. Be flexible with dates; routes off the beaten track are often not flown daily.
- Consider some offbeat, once-in-a-lifetime destinations. For example, regular flights to Svalbard, Easter Island or much of Africa are horrifically expensive, but virtually free (only miles needed) when using a RTW ticket.
- 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.
- 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.
Some tips to consider if you need to squeeze in a few more miles:
- Use citywide 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. A flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen is 1255 mi, not 1292 mi, even though there is a stop at Tromso.
Southern Hemisphere
If you want to fly around the world completely in the Southern Hemisphere, the choice of flights and destinations is limited. The most common itinerary would be (any starting point and either direction):
Additional stops might include Santiago, Chile; Easter Island; and possibly elsewhere in the South Pacific and New Zealand. If you're interested in a tropical holiday while in Australia, fly into Cairns rather than Sydney if possible. When flying in either direction between Australia and South America, you make at least a re-fuelling stop in Auckland anyway, making a New Zealand stopover easy without adding miles.