Around the world for USD$1500.00 or less - the AFF RTW Challenge!

[austrider]

Surely we are close - even just re-arranging the various fares the munital and others posted. Here's a summary (without validating the fares and the available dates with these fares)

All in AUD

1. PER-KUL Air Asia - $99 (unsure available dates - advertised on their web site)
2. KUL-STN Air asia - $320 (unsure available dates - advertised on their web site)
3. STN-DUS-JFK Air Berlin $410 (previous post)
4. New York - Los Angeles - (BUS) - $125.00 (previous post)
5. LAX-TPE-KUL China Airlines $559.00 (previous post)
6. KUL-PER - Air Asia - $99 (unsure available dates - advertised on their web site)

This adds up to $1612 AUD, and on a good day you may manage to exchange it to $1500 USD.

 

[yohy?!]

Surely we are close - even just re-arranging the various fares the munital and others posted. Here's a summary (without validating the fares and the available dates with these fares)

All in AUD

1. PER-KUL Air Asia - $99 (unsure available dates - advertised on their web site)
2. KUL-STN Air asia - $320 (unsure available dates - advertised on their web site)
3. STN-DUS-JFK Air Berlin $410 (previous post)
4. New York - Los Angeles - (BUS) - $125.00 (previous post)
5. LAX-TPE-KUL China Airlines $559.00 (previous post)
6. KUL-PER - Air Asia - $99 (unsure available dates - advertised on their web site)

This adds up to $1612 AUD, and on a good day you may manage to exchange it to $1500 USD.

Nearly there except I don't believe KUL is one of the accepted double visit ports. Perhaps TPE-SIN-PER with Tiger?

 

[austrider]

ops sorry missed Rule #8. Btw why only SIN/HKG/BKK? Other rules makes sense but I'm not sure about the rationale behind this one to exclude KUL.

Also a trivia about China Airline (CI).... I'm originally from Taiwan and I have to say CI was one of the most unsafe airline back in late 80s and early 90s. If anyone intends to try this itinerary out then good luck!

 

[anat0l]

Also a trivia about China Airline (CI).... I'm originally from Taiwan and I have to say CI was one of the most unsafe airline back in late 80s and early 90s. If anyone intends to try this itinerary out then good luck!

LOL

My Dad has flown them a few times now to MNL (via TPE). He's not dead yet. He loves them because they are meticulously clean on board.

Of course, that doesn't mean it's a great airline...

 

[ozbeachbabe]

LOL

My Dad has flown them a few times now to MNL (via TPE). He's not dead yet. He loves them because they are meticulously clean on board.

Of course, that doesn't mean it's a great airline...

A clean WC ain't going to help a sinking ship.....kind of like rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic???

 

[whereishome]

I've been trying to work out how to do this, using rail to cross over continents.

I've found US West Coast - East Coasts for about US$150, you can ghetto a trans-Eurasia (London to Beijing) for about US$600. It's the AU-US, US-UK and China-AU flights that are the killers. And the UK-China train above doesn't include visa fees.

I like the outline below, and whilst I have no aversion to traveling with just a carry-on (I've done 6 weeks before out of a carry-on sized backpack) I will not fly China Airlines. Ever.

 

[munitalP]

ops sorry missed Rule #8. Btw why only SIN/HKG/BKK? Other rules makes sense but I'm not sure about the rationale behind this one to exclude KUL.

Also a trivia about China Airline (CI).... I'm originally from Taiwan and I have to say CI was one of the most unsafe airline back in late 80s and early 90s. If anyone intends to try this itinerary out then good luck!

Hello austrider, when I placed the rules on the fares, they were put in place with 2 things in mind...
1. possible ONE type fares will heed hub airports, SIN, HKG and BKK fall into that category, and
2. Make it difficult. In reality, in a ONE type fare, you cannot backtrack or revisit ports without penalty, so I guess it is also a sanity check.

Most of us would agree that KUL would not feature prominently on itinerary's as a frequent port of call, and add KUL, the next argument will be to add PEK then LAX then LHR etc...

I agree with you on CI, and that would have been the case 10 years ago, but their safety record has improved 10 fold, and their aircraft fleet is (supposedly) very well maintained and recorded.

Mr!

 

[Alanslegal]

edited***sorry forgot KUL is visited 2x****will not count**

I think the routing of PER-KUL-STN//LHR//STN-DUS-JFK-TPE-KUL-PER will qualify for the challenge

Broken down as:-

PER-KUL $194 dep. 17 October 2010 (Air Asia)
KUL-STN ~$320 (899MYR) dep. 19 October 2010 (Air Asia)
STN//LHR//STN (one of our LON based AFF'er can offer to drive)
STN-DUS-JFK ~$385 (264EUR) dep. 20 October 2010 (Air Berlin)
JFK-TPE-KUL ~$595 (USD$553) dep. 24 October 2010 (China Airlines)
KUL-PER ~$71 (199MYR) dep. 28 October 2010 (Air Asia)

A total cost of AUD$1565 or ~USD$1458

 

[munitalP]

edited***sorry forgot KUL is visited 2x****will not count**

I think the routing of PER-KUL-STN//LHR//STN-DUS-JFK-TPE-KUL-PER will qualify for the challenge

Broken down as:-

PER-KUL $194 dep. 17 October 2010 (Air Asia)
KUL-STN ~$320 (899MYR) dep. 19 October 2010 (Air Asia)
STN//LHR//STN (one of our LON based AFF'er can offer to drive)
STN-DUS-JFK ~$385 (264EUR) dep. 20 October 2010 (Air Berlin)
JFK-TPE-KUL ~$595 (USD$553) dep. 24 October 2010 (China Airlines)
KUL-PER ~$71 (199MYR) dep. 28 October 2010 (Air Asia)

A total cost of AUD$1565 or ~USD$1458

wow - you done it...!

Are these confirmed? No extra taxes or costs?

Mr!

 

[Alanslegal]

wow - you done it...!

Are these confirmed? No extra taxes or costs?

Mr!

I've visited KUL twice which is against Rule 8 though

These are confirmed all inclusive of taxes but the Air Asia flights I assume will be handcarry only and BYO food.

I tried routing JFK-TPE-SIN (to avoid KUL 2x) which is the same cost as JFK-TPE-KUL .... but flights are double ex-SIN to PER than ex-KUL to PER

 

[anat0l]

edited***sorry forgot KUL is visited 2x****will not count**

I think the routing of PER-KUL-STN//LHR//STN-DUS-JFK-TPE-KUL-PER will qualify for the challenge

Broken down as:-

PER-KUL $194 dep. 17 October 2010 (Air Asia)
KUL-STN ~$320 (899MYR) dep. 19 October 2010 (Air Asia)
STN//LHR//STN (one of our LON based AFF'er can offer to drive)
STN-DUS-JFK ~$385 (264EUR) dep. 20 October 2010 (Air Berlin)
JFK-TPE-KUL ~$595 (USD$553) dep. 24 October 2010 (China Airlines)
KUL-PER ~$71 (199MYR) dep. 28 October 2010 (Air Asia)

A total cost of AUD$1565 or ~USD$1458

You've still got some leeway there - can you get a PER-SIN or SIN-PER flight, perhaps on Tiger (if cheap enough)?

If so, and if it's better on SIN-PER, then you should be able to get the China Airlines flight to SIN (instead of KUL) at no extra cost.

 

[jsd]

Damm It, I'm so close to 1500.00 USD now, my total for PER-SIN-KUL-STN-DUS-JFK-TPE-SIN-PER is 1580.14 USD all the way round.

I'm pretty sure that I haven't broken any of the rules with the routing, and all the fares are inc. checked baggage, I would quit now but thats not very AFF like now is it

So we have:

PER-SIN with TR
SIN-KUL with TR
KUL-STN with D7
STN-DUS with AB
DUS-JFK with AB
JFK-TPE with CI
TPE-SIN with CI
SIN-PER with TR

I give up for tonight, I will have another look tomorrow


Josh

 

[grussellt]

Here's a surprise out of left field:

05/10 MEL-KUL $A149 D7 2725
06/10 KUL-STN MYR 1085 $A 325 D7 2008

Return bookable on Jetabroad as One Way with a Stopover ($A1120)

09/10 LHR-LAX BA 279
LAX-AKL BA 7302
11/11 AKL-MEL BA 7302
Total (excludes Air Asia baggage and limousine transfer from Stansted to Heathrow) is $A 1594 or $US 1472. What a pity you have to go to Melbourne to start the trip!

 

[munitalP]

We have had sub $1500 but with hand luggage only, most of us have immediately worked a sub $1600 fare with some creative options such as...

1. Walking from Stansted to LHR !
2. Bus across the USA
3. Limo rides...

I think we could fluke a sub $1500 if there were sale fares available, but $1500 to $1600 seems to be the mark.

So, if we could find a sponsor, who would be up to this madness? I can't because I'm burning my holidays the following month at the SIN F1 GP, but, do we have any takers? I would think 2 people would be the go!

If we do have takers, what could we do to entice a sponsor to forking out for a couple of RTW fares? I have the sponsor in mind, and I am happy to talk to them, but they will want a business plan I am sure.

As for the travellers, I guess a video diary or similar would be in order?

Lets get that line of thought going, and if we have a few people willing to tackle the "Around the world for nearly less than USD$1500 - the AFF RTW challenge", a way to choose the winners - or at least entice the sponsors for more $$$

Mr!

:mrgreen::mrgreen:

 

[dajop]

I've noticed a few of the itineraries have broken the rule about visiting Europe and the UK (and assuming that rule means a stopover not just a transit).

As many use STN-DUS-JFK that should not be a problem, as IIRC, buying STN-DUS and DUS-JFK separately was cheaper in some instances than the throughfare ... thus making it compliant with the rules.

 

[ronza]

MEL - KUL D7 2723 MYR 199
KUL - BOM D7 2516 MYR 99
BOM - CPH British Airways AU$512
CPH - KEF
KEF - EWR AU$453 (or $420 w/o the stopover in Iceland); Iceland Express
JFK - LAX Virgin America $216
LAX - MEL V Australia $597

The above comes to $1878 / US1724 which is very similar to what I've got booked (actually heading to Canada and the BOM-CPH will be on award travel) for July this year. The Air Asia fare to India is alot cheaper since they cancelled my AUH flight and rebooked me. Don't think it qualifies since the Iceland Express flights to EWR end on Aug 31 and an Indian visa has some cost associated with it.

An alternate routing I can think of but don't have time to price exactly...

MEL-KUL on Air Asia
KUL-DEL on Air Asia (MYR269)
DEL-HEL on Finnair (should be $500)
HEL-LON
LGW-YYC (GBP269, Air Transat)
YYC-LAX (USD$219)
LAX-MEL (USD$550 on V Australia)

A less 'fun' version would be to cut the India part, take the Air Asia flight to STN then fly out to YYC on Air Transat from one of their European ports.

 

[jsd]

Well I managed to save a few bucks on the STN-DUS sector with Air Berlin, I'm not sure how much cheaper you can get this trip, I have attached my spreadsheet with the prices and flights etc.

What do you all think?



Josh

 

[Oneworldplus2]

WOW, some very good examples.

My internet is very slow at the moment and it's give me a headache.
So far, l've got this for around $1000AUS.
***-LAX = Missing so far
LAX-LGA = $160US(~$173AUD). Southwest Airlines 11/10. Get the shuttle from LGA to JFK.
JFK-DUS-STN = 294Euro (~$430AUD). Air Berlin 11/10 with overnight in plane, land 12/10. So, 1 night in London, or sleep at airport if possible for the next leg.
STN-BKK = 490AUD Air ASIA 13/10
BKK-SIN-PER-MEL = $384AUD TIGER. On the 13/10 and 14/10 (Red Eye from Perth).

Total (AUD) =$1477AUD. So, it will be over the $US1500. Hard to find a SYD/MEL - USA for cheap dollars. Delta came in at $608AUD.
Just need a cheap flight from SYD to LAX. The above flights also have luggage included, except the Air Asia sector, so, add on another $50AUD.

STA Travel has a RTW world $1699 ($200 over budget)
http://www.statravel.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/au_division_web_live/hs.xsl/round-the-world-flight-10.htm

 

[jsd]

So, if we could find a sponsor, who would be up to this madness

Hate to say it but, I would actually consider doing this if:

1. I had a passport (I know, terrible isn't it)
2. I could get to the start point (could do MEL, SYD, BNE or OOL, (PER only if I had a few more FF points))
3. Someone went with me (preferably someone who has been overseas before)


Josh

 

[danielc]

Here's a surprise out of left field:

05/10 MEL-KUL $A149 D7 2725
06/10 KUL-STN MYR 1085 $A 325 D7 2008

Return bookable on Jetabroad as One Way with a Stopover ($A1120)

09/10 LHR-LAX BA 279
LAX-AKL BA 7302
11/11 AKL-MEL BA 7302
Total (excludes Air Asia baggage and limousine transfer from Stansted to Heathrow) is $A 1594 or $US 1472. What a pity you have to go to Melbourne to start the trip!

I'm in Melbourne, and have the time available, so I would put my hat into the ring for this one. Dual Australian/US passports so no visa worries