BootsnAll Travel Community

Just wondering what people have to say about the considerations of buying airline tickets ahead of time for multiple countries vs. while on the road.

My predicament is that I like to keep my trip as open-ended as possible. If I end up falling in love with a place, I want to be able to stay longer- and the reverse applies, too. So I'm leaning towards buying my tickets once I'm already overseas... (online if not with a local travel company.)

But perhaps others could comment on this or tell me if I'm nuts to go this route? Or maybe there's some secrets to doing this successfully?

thanks!

You have the right attitude. I have done this twice and not had any significant problems. The only issues you might have is if you're going to some places that are more stringent with onward tickets... UK, Australia and so on.

If your intended route is something like Seattle> Hong Kong> Delhi> Frankfurt> Seattle or something than a RTW ticket might save you money. But if you want to follow your gut on the road it might not be worth the savings. Adding Africa or sometimes South America can really hike the price of a RTW ticket up. On the other hand, I found airfare within Africa more expensive than you'd think because there isn't' such a high demand by the local population and aren't as many low cost carriers driving prices down.

The only place I was asked for an onward ticket was in London. So, no, not nuts.

I was originally going to purchase airfare as I went, but I won a contest giving away free (well, mostly subsidized) RTW tickets so I ended up getting the tickets. Many people on this board have traveled without pre-purchasing tickets. I think one secret is to use travel agents in the cities you're in to find the cheapest prices.

I only have 3 tickets purchased

But since I will soon be traveling forever (for the rest of my life) I guess it doesn't really make sense to buy that many tickets before I go!! haha


Recipe for traveling forever:
No Family
No Friends
No Worries
Yes Money
Yes Freedom

I've found that many countries have an onward ticket requirement, but very few will actually check. Usually a printed e-ticket is enough when they do check. Also, many countries have an optional requirement to show that you can the means to stay in the country instead of an outbound ticket requirement.

I've been to tons of island countries and have never purchased a ticket beyond 30 days in advance.

quote:

Recipe for traveling forever:
No Family
No Friends
No Worries
Yes Money
Yes Freedom

Our recipe for traveling forever goes a little differently:

YES Family
YES Friends
No Worries
Yes Money ( live large on little)
Yes Freedom
Yes Love

There are lots of ways to do it and today it is easier than ever!

I'm currently doing the buying on the road thing and it is such a headache! Tiger Airlines wouldn't accept my card, then printer wouldn't work when I finally bought so no proof of onward travel for Mr. Malaysian immigration guy.
Earlier in the trip I wanted an Indian visa but didn't have my ticket bought yet so that was another day wasted getting tickets sorted.
Never again! Next time everything will be planned before I go!

Though I'm sure that there will be headaches going with the "as-I-go" route, I still think the flexibility outweighs the hassles (and those hassles just become part of your travel stories anyhow! ) I've done a modified version of the "as-you-go" - booking some tickets in advance when I need to get somewhere (e.g. I need to be at Kili July 9, so i've booked from Buenos Aires to Cape Town in mid June and my next flight is July 9 from J'burg to Kili Airport), but left open the other legs (e.g. Flying into Santiago April 1 but nothing set until I leave on June 16).

It's helpful to see what visa requirements exist in each country re: onward travel and plan accordingly so you have a contingency plan for those countries that you know need a ticket. Or, as some have suggested, buy a refundable ticket to get in the country and cancel it once you've passed customs. Either way, I still think it's worthwhile to leave as much as you are comfortable with "open" - it would be quite frustrating to meet a great group of people, want to go with them to their next destination and be locked in place because your RTW ticket can't be modified without a big penalty fee.

To each his own!
-Jennifer