Airtreks vs STA

I'm starting early phases of looking up ticket prices for a RTW trip to begin sometime early 2010. Now I know most airlines don't post their flight schedules this early in advance I'd like to know what peoples opinions are between prices of Airtreks and STA travel. Keeping in mind I am looking for flexibility, and I will be under the age of 26 when I travel. I realize this is a bit vague and I can hardly place exact locations but essentially trying to do from US to Australia - Malaysia - South Africa - UK - Europe - South America - US.

That is the general route and there will be alot of travel in between via various other forms of transportation.

Essentially from others past or present experiences which service seems to offer better pricing, or are they both similar.

Thanks!

I think you should consider the oneworld round the world fares...they are a conglomerate of airlines like American, Qantas, British airways and from what I hear their flexibility is pretty good...for a trip of your size and the amount of flights you are looking at, i would look in to this. Call them up and just ask how much it is to change a flight or get on a flight during your trip...some of these companies charge you to do so...like airtreks and STA. I believe oneworld has a mileage limit.

also consider the star alliance round the world fares which are different airlines...sky alliance and sky team also might have similar passes just google them.

personally i have never used these round the world tickets...never really needed too and there are hundreds of posts on this site that talk about point to point tickets vs. round the world tickets vs. buying just a one way and a return from the last place you want to leave from so on and so forth if you do a little searching.

Thanks alot for the info. I have been reading about the advantages and disadvantages of RTW tickets, as well as all the posts about point to point vs RTW vs the first and last flights. I will look into everything, of course, simply looking for insight for RTW specifically at this point. This far ahead prices can change so much, its only really vague estimates i can come up with as far as how point to point flights may cost, but worth better then nothing.

Thank again!

We've worked with AirTreks for many years and have been very happy with them. The trip planner tool is very handy to price out sample routes just to get an idea of what's possible, especially if you're in the early planning stages.

Whichever way you decide to go (oneworld, STA, single tickets) you'll have limitations - change fees, lack of flexibility, border crossing issues if you have no onward bound ticket, mileage limits, etc. It just depends what's right for you and your trip. Picking out the major hubs in each region/country you want to travel to will save you money on the ticket and you can figure out the travel within those areas once you're there. This also increases your flexibility if you find you want to deviate from 'the plan'. eg: flying into Bangkok and traveling overland to the countries in that region (or an internal flight if time is limited)