Round The World Tickets really this good?

[marki]

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Is this really true?

Save Thousands on Round-the-World Flights! Really ?

A round-the-world trip is guaranteed to be an unforgettable experience. You'll get to experience different cultures, see new sights, taste exotic foods and much, much more!

If you'd like to travel around the world, the special airfares offered by each of the three global airline alliances (oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam) offer unbeatable flexibility and value. But there's a simple trick that can be used to travel around the world for less than half of the already discounted price!

We discovered that the cost of a round-the-world ticket varies drastically, depending on the country in which the ticket is purchased. Tickets bought in Australia offer fair value, but you could save literally thousands of dollars by beginning the trip overseas!

A five-continent oneworld Explorer ticket in Business class would cost around $14,000 if purchased in Australia. However, an identical trip purchased in one particular country would cost just $6,885! That's right: For under $7,000 you could visit five continents, flying around the world the luxury in Business class on premium airlines.

Had no idea this possibly existed

I am going to give it a go


I think Finland is one of the countries mentioned to earn QF points and some SC

 

[travelislife]

Yeah a lot of people used to book the OneWorld ones out of South Africa because of this reason.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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Is this really true?



Had no idea this possibly existed

I am going to give it a go


I think Finland is one of the countries mentioned to earn QF points and some SC

it's true - it all depends on the country of origin. The only consideration being that you have to start from that country. The landscape has changed a bit as airlines wised up over the years about volatile currencies and started to list fares in USD in some of the more risky countries. But still some significant savings to be made.

Any OW round-the-world ticket will earn QF points and SCs (with the caveats of simpler and fairer).

 

[marki]

Ok South Africa my favourite country from now on

 

[SQ421]

A bit late to the party. DONEx Fares ex South Africa went up by about 50% in the early days of June.

 

[oh_lol]

So how do you go about booking the flights?

Do you have to be 'based' in that country to get the tickets, or do you book in Australia and just start the trip from the cheaper locations?

 

[Buzzard]

+1 is planning to purchase a Lufthansa World Explorer fare ex AUS for just over $6,000 in J.
Not bad IMHO for what she wants to do.

 

[boomy]

+1 is planning to purchase a Lufthansa World Explorer fare ex AUS for just over $6,000 in J.
Not bad IMHO for what she wants to do.

Not bad!

I assume flights ex-AUS with SQ so getting to fly two premium airlines. Try to book LH 747-8 to secure proper J seats. On other planes it can be hit and miss.

 

[Limewood]

What about HKG or SIN or BKK do they work too?

 

[Buzzard]

Not bad!

I assume flights ex-AUS with SQ so getting to fly two premium airlines. Try to book LH 747-8 to secure proper J seats. On other planes it can be hit and miss.

2 legs planned on the 747-8

 

[Himeno]

So how do you go about booking the flights?

Do you have to be 'based' in that country to get the tickets, or do you book in Australia and just start the trip from the cheaper locations?

It depends on the alliance and the ticket rules.
oneworld and star have online booking tools for their main RTW offering. Sky might as well, but I haven't looked. The tools might have issues with missing flights or the tool not working correctly at all.
Otherwise, you can go to a travel agent. Generally (at least with oneworld, haven't looked at the rules for the others lately), you'll need an agent based in the country you want to start in. There is a rule in the oneworld RTW ticket that states you pay the price of the country of departure or country of purchase, whichever is more.
eg, a DONE5 (oneworld explorer 5 continents business class) from Japan is 895,200 JPY (+ taxes) while the same ticket out of Australia is 13,299AUD (+ taxes), around $3,000 more. If an agent in Australia issues the ticket, even though it starts in Japan and may not even touch Australia, you would pay the more expensive AU fare.

 

[Danger]

-------------------------------------------

Is this really true?

Save Thousands on Round-the-World Flights! Really ?

A round-the-world trip is guaranteed to be an unforgettable experience. You'll get to experience different cultures, see new sights, taste exotic foods and much, much more!

If you'd like to travel around the world, the special airfares offered by each of the three global airline alliances (oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam) offer unbeatable flexibility and value. But there's a simple trick that can be used to travel around the world for less than half of the already discounted price!

We discovered that the cost of a round-the-world ticket varies drastically, depending on the country in which the ticket is purchased. Tickets bought in Australia offer fair value, but you could save literally thousands of dollars by beginning the trip overseas!

A five-continent oneworld Explorer ticket in Business class would cost around $14,000 if purchased in Australia. However, an identical trip purchased in one particular country would cost just $6,885! That's right: For under $7,000 you could visit five continents, flying around the world the luxury in Business class on premium airlines.

Had no idea this possibly existed

I am going to give it a go


I think Finland is one of the countries mentioned to earn QF points and some SC

Which 'innovative' blog or news website did this come from?

 

[alieninperth]

this one

It was the lead story on this weeks newsletter, and also here (Save Thousands on Round-the-World Flights!)

 

[Danger]

this one

It was the lead story on this weeks newsletter, and also here (Save Thousands on Round-the-World Flights!)

Hmmm.

I find this . . . concerning.

"We discovered that the cost of a round-the-world ticket varies drastically, depending on the country where the ticket is purchased."

 

[oh_lol]

It depends on the alliance and the ticket rules.
oneworld and star have online booking tools for their main RTW offering. Sky might as well, but I haven't looked. The tools might have issues with missing flights or the tool not working correctly at all.
Otherwise, you can go to a travel agent. Generally (at least with oneworld, haven't looked at the rules for the others lately), you'll need an agent based in the country you want to start in. There is a rule in the oneworld RTW ticket that states you pay the price of the country of departure or country of purchase, whichever is more.
eg, a DONE5 (oneworld explorer 5 continents business class) from Japan is 895,200 JPY (+ taxes) while the same ticket out of Australia is 13,299AUD (+ taxes), around $3,000 more. If an agent in Australia issues the ticket, even though it starts in Japan and may not even touch Australia, you would pay the more expensive AU fare.

OK so you need to book with someone based overseas. Can you use a VPN and book online yourself as well?
Obviously you would need to fly to the starting country, but can you end your RTW trip in Australia?

 

[Danger]

OK so you need to book with someone based overseas. Can you use a VPN and book online yourself as well?
Obviously you would need to fly to the starting country, but can you end your RTW trip in Australia?

Try using the oneworld Explorer online booking tool. That does not require a VPN but not all carriers permit ticketing through the tool. For example, BA does; QR doesn't.

The rules are extensive and can be confusing, even to agents.

You must begin and end at the same point but there are exceptions to this. See 4(c).

 

[oh_lol]

Thanks for that, had a quick look but that is wayyyy too confusing for my simple mind.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Obviously you would need to fly to the starting country, but can you end your RTW trip in Australia?

You simply save the 'return' (to point of origin) as the way to start your next RTW.

 

[Himeno]

OK so you need to book with someone based overseas. Can you use a VPN and book online yourself as well?
Obviously you would need to fly to the starting country, but can you end your RTW trip in Australia?

Talking oneworld explorer, if you use the tool (and are able to get it to complete through to booking and payment), it assumes you are in the starting country and charge accordingly. If the tool won't work for your routing (there are a lot of bugs in it), you'll need to find an agent.

The online tool sends the booking to the marketing carrier of the first flight to issue the ticket (so booking QF309 will send the ticket to Qantas, while selecting AA72 will send it to American even though QF309 and AA72 are the same flight). There are some exceptions. QR won't issue from the online tool at all. JL and RJ will be handled by AA. Bookings sent to AA, CX or QF will be charged to a credit card with an online form and everything done like any other online booking. Bookings sent to BA will save the routing, give you a PNR, then tell you to contact the BA office in the starting country to sort out payment.
The CX website contacts page has email booking contacts for some locations. I have been using those for the last 3 years.

There used to be a rule that allowed for an agent in Canada to issue tickets are the "correct" prices converted to CND (ie, get a booking starting in JNB, ICN or NRT, send it to an agent in Canada and they'd charge you the local ZAR, KRW or JPY price converted to CND), but that went away.

A number of AA ports have started requiring that the credit card used to pay for the ticket have a billing address within the starting country. ie, if I contact the AA agent in South Africa and attempt to pay with my AU issued card, AA will reject it and attempt to charge the AU fare. There is no rule that allows them to do this and it may be in breach of the contracts with Visa, Mastercard, etc.

You can "end" the RTW where ever you like. The ticket is valid for 12 months from the date of the first flight. You can change flight/date/time/carrier as many times as you like for free, provided you don't change a ticketed point (though the carrier may charge an admin fee to do the change). If you change the first intercontinental flight (or any preceding flight), they'll refare the ticket. If you change "ticketed points", they'll change 125USD.
There is nothing preventing you from doing JNB-LHR-JFK-LAX-HND-SIN-SYD-JNB and doing JNB-SYD over a month, then spending 11 months in SYD before that last flight back to JNB (provided you make sure to change the date of the last flight when it becomes available to book). You could use that last flight to position back to the cheaper location to start your next trip.

 

[Gold60]

or you can go to your local, knowledgeable TA - as i have done/am doing, and book a Lufthansa, or similar airline, around the world fare - so not exactly a RTW fare - for between ABOUT $6.7 AND $8.5k -- depending on the airline you choose, BIZ CLASS all the way..........