I'm really hoping someone can best advise me on my airfare predicament. I want to leave for my RTW trip in mid-April and I have yet to book any airfare. I really don't want to push my trip back, as I have to be back in late September.

I have investigated STA travel and was quoted about $6000 for my airfare. Does that seem reasonable?
I looked into Airtreks, and after three unsuccessful attempts to email my proposed itinerary to an agent I have given up. My basic plan- US to NZ/Aus, Southeast Asia, Japan, China, India, UAE, Africa, Turkey, Greece, Spain, US. Dates/times all flexible, with exception of volunteer work I'm trying to organize in late July.

I have to admit- I feel really inadequate looking at everyone's well-planned, organized trips in these posts. I feel like I should be running around doing more pre-trip stuff- I don't even have a blog yet! I hope once I actually book my flights I will feel a small sense of accomplishment.

Any advice to this first-time solo RTW traveller would be most welcome.

Wow, that's an awful lot to cover in just 6 months. I think it will be cheaper (and probably a better travel experience) if you cut down the number of destinations.

For example, the following websites all have good deals for simpler RTW flights. As you start adding in more destinations the prices rise considerably. Maybe take a look at a few of these and see if any appeal to you. I'd aim for 3-4 weeks per country, at a minimum.
Adventure Travel Company

Air Treks Specials
STA Travel

I don't know where your particular interests lie, but something like US-Australia-SE Asia-India-Europe-US will be far cheaper and give you so much more time in each country! It's no fun to cut countries from your trip (trust me, I know!) but it will make it so much more manageable.

Good luck! And once you get flights I'm sure everything else will start to fall in place - the amount of trip prep needed isn't as much as you might think. At least, that's what I'm telling myself...

Oy, I had a heckuva time getting flights. My itinerary was a bit different than yours, and because of the variety, an alliance RTW (star alliance, oneworld, those types) was not going to be reasonable. I think you'll find the same. My tickets are therefore NOT flexible, which is a major disappointment for me, but oh well. Come hell or high water, this trip is happening.

The quotes I received from various places:
STA Travel - 5682
JustFares.com - 3925
AirTreks - 5089
Air Brokers Intl - 4562

Since different agencies have different deals with different airlines, for you maybe STA is cheapest, or AirTreks. But I've chatted with some other folks (including an Air Broker's agent) who said generally JustFares is the cheapest.

I went to a brick and mortar STA, and AirTreks responded immediately to my online query. Air Brokers and JustFares were both harder to get a hold of, but I finally found an agent at JustFares who was terrific. Send me an email (jake@uchicago.edu) and I'll send you his contact info. My itinerary changed a smidgeon, and the total was 3847. I paid via credit card.

I'm also leaving for a 'short' RTW next month -- only 4 months. But then again, you seem to be covering a lot more ground!

Good luck, and all the best!
Jake

Thanks Malena and Jake for your replies.

Malena: If you can believe it, I already cut out South America! My trip was initially planned without an official end date; I estimated anywhere from 1-2 years. Unfortunately, I have to fly home mid-September for a non-negotiable commitment. Depending on my finances, I hope to go to South America now in October. As you know, its really difficult to decide which places to eliminate. I definitely am going to Africa, as my volunteer opportunity is there. I wanted to avoid spending alot of time this trip to Europe- too cost prohibitive. I will take a look at the websites you mention and go from there. I'm just anxious to get something booked soon!

Jake: Thanks for the info on cost. I just heard back from Airtreks- so we'll see what they offer. I'm not familiar with justfares.com- if I decide to go with them I will definitely get your agent's contact info. BTW- I'm glad to see that I wasn't the only one who spent $500+ on vaccines. I didn't shop around and thought perhaps I should have.

Both of your trips sound great- I'll be looking forward to reading your blogs/posts.

I think you should consider changing the arrangement of destinations...6000 seems a lot considering i paid about 2000 and am flying to india, UAE and africa which is about half of the major continents you wish to get too...

Here is my suggestion...

Take etihad airways to Abu dhabi, UAE first...then fly with them to mumbai...from mumbai you can take kingfisher around india or several other budget airlines or trains...but it will get you to india for rather cheap...end your travels in chennai...from chennai you can fly perth australia...take tiger across to melbourne, work your way up to darwin along the east coast and from darwin take a budget airline like tiger up to singapore or bangkok or bali (which is close)...then start southeast asia...work your way up to northern Vietnam fly to hong kong then you can enter china...then from china I thought maybe you could fly to bangkok or another SEA city from china and take etihad from SEA to Joburg connecting through abu dhabi...then to europe...etihad flies to paris, london, dublin and i think manchester england...from there you can take budget airlines around europe and then fly back to the USA...i mean if you gave me dates I would look up some of these flights...and you could piece together the middle parts

I have a few words for you

Open Ended
-and-
Frequent Flyer Miles

I would have purchased a one way ticket to europe but since I used frequent flyer miles I bought a roundtrip since that what they required. I may or may not use the return ticket, which I setup for 6 months later. (Incase they question me at London Heathrow I got a return ticket for 6 months)

Also, I love the website kayak.com... I'm flying so cheaply, my ticket was $590 from JFK to London, aboard Air India... and if it crashes then I will be happy I died doing what I love to do. Traveling.

So thats what I use.

Seekingsusan,

Any way you can add South America to your trip? I just purchased my OneWorld Explorer ticket (20 segments and unlimited miles but with lots of rules) for a total of 3900 including all taxes and fees here in Santiago. It costs about 2k more if you buy it in the US. You can book all arrangements through the American Airlines RTW ticket center and just go to one of their centers in South America to actually purchase and get your physical ticket.

I found this to be the best value as Airtrecks was quoting me between 8 and 10k for the same ticket. The destinations can be changed for a fee, but you can change the dates for free once you pay for it. It was a huge pain to get but I think worth it for the savings. OneWorld goes just about everywhere. My route takes me from South America to Europe-Egypt to South Africa to Asia to Australia, New Zealand and back to South America (booked a total of 19 flights through this ticket) and I just bought my own one way ticket down to South America for about $450.

TD

I just paid 3200 EUR for 17 flights including tax with a Oneworld Explorer fare.

6000 is an awful lot whichever way you slice it.

I would really recommend looking at the Oneworld trip planner and see how you could use a global explorer (max 15 flights, miles based) or explorer (max 20 flights, continent based) maybe as PART of your schedule.

And as mentioned - do be creative with where you might start to save on the fare - and also stretch your time out.

With so many possible places in the world I wanted to see it wasn't a problem for me to have my stopovers dictated by the limitations of the oneworld route possibilities. You might not find the same but it is well worth looking at.

I priced 4 continent 20 segment LONE class with One World & it was almost 1/2 the price starting in the UK than Canada & can get one way to UK for under $500

half the price because the pound is worth double? If my logic serves me correct if something is half the amount in the UK than it would be in America that means that it would be worth a quarter in reality since the pound is worth double

I priced it back in Nov 07, OWE was 1319 GBP ex LHR

The price ex YYZ was $4300 for the same itinerary

This was the LLONE4 fare

Sorry only $1662 cheaper or approx 1/3 not 1/2 but still a significant savings even with the fare YYZ-LHR added

Thanks for all of the replies!

After numerous revisions my itinerary currently looks like this:

US--FIJI--AUCKLAND-overland-CHRISTCHURCH--SYDNEY--BANGKOK--DELHI--DUBAI--CAPETOWN-overland-DAR ES SALAAM--CAIRO--ATHENS--US

Airtreks: $5600
STA Travel: $3700

The Dubai stop is costing an extra $400 appx.- I may route through Doha for free instead. Also- I'd like to go overland from Sydney to Darwin and fly to Bangkok from there- depends on price.

I am waiting to hear back from justfares.com, but probably will book with STA Travel at this point.

Thanks again for everyone's input. The next big expense is travel insurance- trying to decide on which company. Anyone really happy with their coverage- please let me know!

Just to let you know what my buddy suggested regarding travel insurance:

----
as much experience with travel insurance as I do. (Read: falling into a geyser) I would recommend you go to www.insuremytrip.com, which is a nifty comparison engine that will show you tons of different policies, sum up the major points, and allow you to compare prices. The one I had for the geyser incident was Medex, and they were pretty good. Despite the fact that they only agreed to fly me in the air ambulance to florida, they still shelled out like 75k for like a $100 policy.
----

To note, there's a difference between medical travel insurance and the more expensive full coverage plans. The full coverage ones include medical, but also insurance against trip cancellations and stuff like that. If you're a budget traveler, medical is probably all you need.

I personally have Seven Corners medical. Never needed to use it.

If you'll be doing any diving, DAN insurance is cheap and highly recommended. Here: http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/

hope that helps,
Jake

Hello, just thought I'd tag this on the end of here, as I'm just looking for a quick yes/no

I booked my first trip away yesterday, and now I'm not so sure if its been good value for money (yes yes, I know I should have got the prices then compared them, but I got carried away with the excitement and ended up booking it there and then at STA )

The route is;

London - Delhi overland to Mumbai - Singapore - Brisbane overland to Sydney - Santiago overland to Rio - London

I've paid £1500 for that, does that sounds reasonable?

Can't wait to get stuck into these boards etc. Been planning it for a while, but now it's actually booked I can really get into things!

I'm an English citizen who lives in the USA as a permanent resident. I've done some research into RTW fares and have found OneWorld airfare to be the cheapest option. When I mean cheaper I mean by thousands of dollars. I also found that the same airfare booked on the American site works out to be a lot more expensive than buying the same airfare from the UK.

As I'm a British citizen with access to a UK credit card and home address (my fathers) we decided to book our travel starting from the UK. This still works out a lot cheaper even after we purchase the airfare from the USA to England.

STA came out a lot more money than going with OneWorld on the global explorer ticket.

Just call British Airways in the UK and tell them you are interested in booking a OneWorld explorer ticket and they will get you started.

Here's the number from the UK: 0870 850 9850.....reservations

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