Comments on: How to Buy a Round-the-World Plane Ticket

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:16:31 +0000

You’re right, the UK price has become quite attractive lately. As for taxes, those really vary quite a lot depending on your itinerary. It’s usually best to book with AA, since they don’t charge as much in taxes as other airlines do for some reason.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:14:36 +0000

Great article! I know this was published awhile ago, so I started doing my own research on cheap departure countries, and at the moment, one of the cheaper countries to depart from is the UK, believe it or not. The OneWorld 4-continent economy price (without fees and taxes) is only $2232.35 USD or 1394 GBP. Departing from the US, that same option costs $3960 USD. Plus the UK is usually pretty cheap to fly into, making it a cost-effective place to start your trip. Just a heads-up for anyone who was interested.

How much do the associated taxes and fees add up to, on average?

By: Astri

Astri — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:42:13 +0000

Hi Chris,

I’m so proud that my country (Indonesia) was one of your destination. =)
Great article, rise my spirit up and inspiring me to do the same thing as you.

Thanks..

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:27:42 +0000

@Mara,

Yep, that’s totally fine – and I do the same. The only thing to keep in mind is that you need to return to the RTW stop you left off at before continuing onwards. Otherwise, one of your segments will be considered an overland trip.

In other words, if you were in LHR and wanted to travel around Europe on your own, that’s fine, but you’d need to get back to LHR at some point before continuing the RTW trip.

By: Mara

Mara — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:31:42 +0000

Thanks for this fantastic resource! In attempting to plan a RTW trip I was waist deep in the confusing language and policies of OneWorld and StarAlliance’s website. Your overview and tips has helped me get the ball rolling and feel more educated, as well as excited that this is possible! My main question right now is concerning any extra flights I may want to take aside from my RTW ticket. For example, if I was in Europe and wanted to travel around via RyanAir or EasyJet instead of using up all of my RTW stops, is that allowed?? Some language on the websites make me feel it is not. This is a crucial part of my planning so a response would be unbelievably helpful!! Thanks Chris!

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:34:24 +0000

Thanks so much for this post Chris I am in stage one of researching my first RTW ticket and am using this post as my bible

Keep up the great work

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:46:58 +0000

@Karl,

Yep, that’s totally possible and can be cost-effective as long as you know what you’re doing and are a careful planner. (For me, I’m usually one of the two, and which one changes from time to time.)

You can also use an awards ticket for repositioning or to break up the trip before continuing – that’s usually how I do it.

By: Karl

Karl — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:10:58 +0000

Chris, I just found your blog via One Bag. This is terrific. I haven’t spent much time researching this yet, but the OneWorld alliance page says that the flights have to be going in the same direction (in other words no backtracking). I’d want to spread the trip across many months, which would require returning to the U.S. at least two or three times. In your experience is it cost effective to buy two RTW tickets (one essentially going each way), so that a traveler can easily go back and forth? Are there any rules against this?

By: Tiffany Thompson

Tiffany Thompson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:55:55 +0000

I’m sure this is a novice question, but what about accommodations once you get to wherever you’re going? As you can probably guess, I have ZERO experience traveling, so this endeavor will take me a coupla years! =) Anyway, as always, thanks so much for your contributions, Chris!

bloominglater.

By: Trackback from ITP

Trackback from ITP — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:02:26 +0000

[...] in a remote location with an unresponsive travel agent. Oh yeah, and buy the travel insurance. Chris Guillebeau and the Traveller’s Lounge both have good guides to buying tickets, and Dave Prine summed it [...]