Round-the-World air tickets

Round-the-World Air Tickets

Unless you've already done it, the process of choosing a Round-the-World air ticket probably seems very confusing. How does it work? What is the best way to choose your route? Where and when can you go? How much will it cost?

Its very different from choosing a single destination or selection of stopovers on one route.

Good Reasons for using Round-the-World Air Tickets

If you have the time to make good use of them, there are several significant advantages to be gained from using Round-the-World air tickets.

* Tremendous Value - Although Round-the-World air tickets are not necessarily cheap, a well-optimized ticket will give value far beyond the cost of buying a series of separate tickets.

* Freedom and Flexibility - With Round-The-World air tickets it’s far easier to make changes to your original booking. Changing dates and flight times is usually free and can be made at any time — from far in advance all the way up to the day of departure. You can usually even alter the route itself for just a small fee after you’ve already begun your trip.

* One Full Year - Tickets are usually valid for an entire year. This means that you get up to 365 days of travel. If you want to be even more creative you can spread out the ticket into a series of shorter trips by booking a separate ticket home and then travelling back to resume your journey. This can get round the main restriction of Round-the-World air tickets, namely that all travel has to be in one global direction with no backtracking permitted.

* Frequent Flyer Miles and Elite Status - Round-the-World air tickets will certainly clock up extra air miles of travel. This can lead to all kinds of extra perks associated with being a frequent traveller such as getting to the front of the queue for upgraded tickets and getting the use of elite departure lounges.

* Exotic Destinations Become More Affordable - You are already in a postion to get to a lot of destinations with a Round-the-World air ticket, but because the tickets are priced by mileage or segment, you can visit destinations which otherwise might prove extremely expensive on a single journey ticket. Exotic stopover locations such as Raratonga (Cook Islands), Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga and Honolulu (Hawaii) can then become more affordable.

Airlines Participating In Round-the-World Air Ticket Offers

Very few airlines would be able to offer a Round-the-World trip solely on their own schedules so give more choice and flexibility, participating airlines belong to either of two groups, Star Alliance or One World. Star Alliance members include Air New Zealand, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines and South African Airways.

Star Alliance operate mileage based packages, currently limited to 26,000, 29,000, 34,000 or 39,000 miles according to your choice of ticket. Ideally you should aim to be just below the limit of your selected tier to get the best value, eg 28,999 instead of 29,000 miles - but watch out if you decide to alter your itinerary!

One World members include British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Iberia and American Airlines. One World operate a segment-based system, meaning that a flight from Hong Kong to New York (11 hours) is the same as a flight from Chicago to Atlanta (about 2 hours). Up to 16 segments per trip are permitted. Ideally aim to optimize each segment for a flight that would be fairly expensive when purchasing standard tickets (there's always the option of buying a stand-alone standard ticket for a particular route to avoid wasting a segment).

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