RTW flights can be a good deal, but lack flexibility.
Buying around the world flights, are they worth it?
It’s a question that faces every backpacker intending to travel around the world.
Around the World Flights tend to be relatively complicated and I’d recommend visiting a travel agent to discuss your plans if you are thinking of purchasing one. Personally I used STA Travel to book what was a half a RTW ticket. The reason for this was that I was traveling for longer than a year and RTW flights tend to expire within the year.
Travel agents usually offer two slightly different tickets, the most common tends to be a ticket that is offered by an alliance of airlines (Airline alliance ticket). Around the world flights come in many different forms one less common type of ticket is basically several different flights packaged together.
Airline Alliance Ticket
You usually choose the places you want to fly to along with the dates, these can be altered but often have a charge for reissuing the ticket. When I changed my flight dates on one occasion in cost about £80 and on another occasion it didn’t cost anything.
The airline alliance ticket is valid for one year and the cost is usually based on the number of miles you cover. Your route has to be in the same direction around the globe.
When customising your around the world flight ticket it’s usually best to keep it as simplistic and as flexible as possible, if you don’t you’ll probably see the price increase. Side trips and flights on certain uncommon routes will add to the cost.
Flights Packaged Together
If you are lucky enough to find a shrewd travel agent, you maybe able to get a bargain by purchasing a package of one-way flights from several different airlines. These flights are often discounted flights from national airlines. Again, being flexible with both your route and the dates will help you to find the best deal.
Around the world flights can offer great value, but they can also be a little restrictive. When traveling you’ll often face delays ranging from broken down buses, bad weather, illness or even just because you’re having such a great time somewhere. Having a tight itinerary of flights can restrict your freedom to travel on a whim and head to places you wouldn’t otherwise go.
Having said that if you allow enough time between flights this needn’t be the case. When I used my half RTW ticket I booked one flight from Singapore for 5 months after the previous one landing in Bangkok. This gave me 5 months to wander around South East Asia and if I felt like it, time to spend an extra week in a certain place.
I purchased two half around the world flights that cost approximately £900 and £800 respectively.
Manchester to London to Beijing, Hong Kong to Bangkok, Singapore to Brisbane
For the second part of my trip:
Sydney to Auckland, Auckland to Queenstown, Auckland to Santiago, Sao Paulo to London
If you are looking for a rough estimate of cost for your around the world flights you could try the following sites:
www.statravel.co.uk (UK)
www.statravel.com (US)
www.statravel.com.au (AUS)
Nice post. I booked an RTW ticket through AirTreks in 2005, and I didn’t find it difficult in the least. However, I was traveling on a pretty straight and narrow path. Buying the ticket didn’t really allow me much time to drift off the path. The original trip was Atlanta – Madrid – Overland to Rome – Mumbai – Overland to Delhi – Bangkok – Overland to Singapore – Atlanta. We made stops in other countries, but it wasn’t like we could go to a different continent. Which raises my question…
Do you know of any cheap way to get to Africa? I’m planning another RTW trip starting in June. So far, we haven’t included Africa because it seems like it will add another couple thousand dollars to our trip costs. We weren’t goint to do another RTW ticket. We were just going to purchase tickets from various countries when we wanted to leave. Any advice???
Lindsey
Hi Lindsey,
I think there are many other backpackers facing the same problem as you as Africa can be an expensive place to get to. If you look at visiting both South America and Africa the costs shoot up.
Your best bet might be too look at flights from Europe to Africa from cities such as Amsterdam, Rome, Paris and even London. So fly from the US to Europe then Europe to Africa.
Check out this article, could help.
http://goafrica.about.com/od/adventuretravel/a/af…
Good luck with the trip!
Thanks,
Paul @
TravMonkey.com
we did a lot of research when looking for our RTW ticket, not because it was difficult but cause it was a big chunk of our budget and we wanted to make sure was the right one for us. Having a ticket helped us to stay on track otherwise we would have probably ended up a year in Thailand! I know what you are saying, that it kind of limit you, but if you give yourself enough time to visit a country and do a bit of research before going you can make the most of it while there. At the end we bought our ticket with Flight Centre, the Great Escape at GBP 1645 all taxes included. Hope this could help the fellow travelers http://www.atravelaroundtheworld.com/search/label…
I think RTW ticket is an amazing solution for anyone with the desire to travel plus you'll get such a value out of your money 😉
I think RTWT offer exceptional value for the money. Many of my friends who have gone traveling have done so and say it has been worth every €!!
I think I’ll be getting one of these! Thanks for the advice!