Round The World Flights

[mindy32]

Hi all

At this stage I have a Carribbean cruise booked in for March 2017, we were going to do that with 10 days in the U.S. Because I'm dying to go back to the U.S. But DH has family in the UK who he would like to visit and it's starting to seem selfish of me to insist on a U.S. Trip instead of seeing family. So, I've started thinking that perhaps a round the world flight might be the solution to our problem- we can fly into London to see family in England (perhaps even pop across to see my cousin in Greece), have a stop in the USA and also go somewhere else new. Assuming it doesn't get prohibitively expensive.

So, has anyone done a RTW flight? If so, where did you go? Any recs for somewhere we should stop (places you've stopped over, etc?). Any advice in general really is welcome!

We're quite limited on time due to work too so will only be going for 3 weeks, if that affects anyone's suggestions!

 

[JennyN]

A couple of years ago we went Sydney to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to London, London to LA, LA to Sydney. Just work out what you want to do and then look for the stops.

 

[dollarmite]

I've booked a trip for later this year and ended up booking through Expedia.com.au. We've got flights booked Brisbane-Vienna-London. Then Paris-Tokyo-Brisbane. I input my dates and cities and Expedia came up with a variety of options, using a mixture of airlines. We're travelling one way from London to Paris via Eurostar train. I was originally planning on travelling back to London from Paris on Eurostar and then flying to Tokyo from London, however, it was cheaper to fly from Paris, even though it actually stops in London on the way to Tokyo, using the exact same flight (number) had we skipped Paris and just left from London.

The dearest airfare I found (via any website) was Brisbane-London-Brisbane. The more stopovers I added the more the price dropped.

For comparison, I tried to book the same flights via various other airline websites and Webjet, and they either couldn't provide the exact route or were way more expensive. The Qantas website was completely and utterly hopeless, so I gave up on that one.

It may also be worth pricing out some legs separately to the rest; eg. the London-Greece portion if you're going back to London rather than flying elsewhere from Greece.

 

[zanzibar138]

I was originally planning on travelling back to London from Paris on Eurostar and then flying to Tokyo from London, however, it was cheaper to fly from Paris, even though it actually stops in London on the way to Tokyo, using the exact same flight (number) had we skipped Paris and just left from London.

I was going to do this on my trip too (catch the Eurostar from Paris to London and fly from there). Apparently the departure fees from Heathrow are astronomical, making it much more expensive to leave from than a lot of other airports. Make sure you check a wide variety of airports for your stops, as this will often be the case.

 

[backinoz]

The beauty of the majority of around the world fares is that it gives you access to the majority of seats available on the flight you want in whatever class your rtw ticket is (economy, bus or v.fancy seats), and... there is a great deal of flexibility and very little penalty if you want to make changes along the way. Given you time limitations it may well be your best option. Look for overnight flights for the long haul sectors to maximise your 'holiday time' and minimise accommodation costs. Generally speaking, you can't book a rtw ticket online. If you like doing the research yourself, put together your dream itinerary, then the more affordable alternative, (like dolomite says above - expedia is good for this), then go and see a travel agent and see if your dream itinerary fits a rtw fare, and if it make financial sense.