Round The World Fares: Your Ticket To The World

You have made all the blueprints for your trip and now finally ready to book and pay for your fare. Fares can be just like anything else, they are only as good as their purpose. If you are going for a point to point journey, open or double open jaw and intending just to have one stop over or maybe two along the way, I'd say stick to the normal return fare. 

The moment you are intending to visit multiple destinations without needing to return to your base in between, you should be looking at a Round The World Fare.  There are two options I would personally consider if you decide to go for a RTW fare: One World or Star Alliance.  Both websites has RTW calculators.  The good thing is you can organize your trip here and then take that with you to your travel agent or book directly from one of the member airlines.  Most travel agents refer to these same booking facilities and calculators as a guide; they actually go to these websites to check routing and carriers. All fares displayed on these websites are base fares so taxes, service fees and surcharges will be on top.

One World RTW:
Global Explorer:         This is Mileage based: 26K / 29K / 34K / 39K
One World Explorer:  Based on the number of continents you fly to: 4 / 5 / 6 continents

Terms and Conditions

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/flight-info/plan-and-book-your-itinerary

Star Alliance RTW:  (all fares are mileage based, all classes available)

Special Economy RTW:  26,000 - cannot originate in Japan
RTW Star 1:     29,000 miles  
RTW Star 2:     34,000 miles
RTW Star 3:     39,000 miles

Terms and Conditions

http://www.staralliance.com/en/booking/book-and-fly/


If you decide to go for it, be warned!  They are complex bookings so be prepared to spend hours with a travel consultant.  Even then, they might still need to tell you carrier so and so has not confirmed your seat so they'll ask you to call back or they will call you back.  Airlines normally get back within 24-48hrs, but some never do.  After 48hrs and you haven't heard back, you should ring your agent because they can call the specific carrier and ask them to confirm the seat for you.  Please exercise patience, these agents or airline reservations staffs don't make much from these kind of fares; so work with them and be nice.  It is the fact that you will be booked on several carriers and making sure all these flights are confirmed by each individual carriers and are tied up together nicely takes a bit of time.  There's a lot more taxes and surcharges to calculate too.But once your ticket is issued, you know on most of the RTW fares you don't have to spend anymore.


Reschedules can be a headache when it comes to RTW's especially on routing where there is not a lot of flights or carriers to choose from.  But the advantage on an RTW is that there are no charges for amendments as long as you stay within your mileage allowance and subject to the same fare class being available.  In the case of changes, if one carrier will not or cannot, the others will.

Visit One World or the Star Alliance websites for more detailed information on these fares or even if you just want to have a feel for it or to have an idea how much your fare would be.  You can build your itinerary on these websites.

If you do not have the patience for this, please employ the services of a travel agent.  There will be times when you need to make changes and cannot get hold of your travel agent, those times you'll have no choice but call the airlines.

 Star Alliance Members:
Aegean Airlines (A3), Air Canada (AC), BMI (BD), Air China (CA), Continental Airlines (CO), Spanair (JK), Adria Airways (JP), Blue 1 (KF), Lufthansa (LH), LOT (LO), SWISS (LX), EGYPTAIR (MS), ANA (NH), Air New Zealand (NZ), Austrian Airlines (OS), Croatia Airlines (OU), Asiana Airlines (OZ), South African Aiways (SA), Scandinavian Airlines (SK/BU), Brussels Airlines (SN), Singapore Airlines (SQ), Thai Airways (TG), Turkish Airlines (TK), United Airlines (UA) and US Airways (US).
They also have regional partners which you can use in conjunction with your bookings...


One World Members:
American Airlines (AA), British Aiways (BA), Cathay Pacific (CX), Finnair (AY), Iberia (IB),
Japan Airlines (JAL), LAN (LA),  Malev Hungarian Airlines(MA), Mexicana (), Qantas  (QF), Royal Jordanian (RJ) One world also have affiliate members which you can use in conjunction with your booking..
 
NB: The above is for information purposes only, it is your responsibility to check with your travel agent or carrier for valid information and the latest updates on the fares described above.