How to Buy a Round-the-World Plane Ticket (That Kicks Ass) 174 Comments

Written by Topics: Travel


(Photo: Norman B. Leventhal Map Center)

Chris Guillebeau travels the world and writes for a small army of remarkable people at The Art of Non-Conformity blog. He is a master of clever air travel (among other things), and this is a guest post on perfecting one of the rare gems that can truly change your life: Round-the-World (RTW) tickets.

Enter Chris…

——

To outsiders, buying a Round-the-World plane ticket is a mysterious process. How does it work? Where can you go? How much does it cost? Unlike buying a simple one-way or round-trip ticket, you don’t just go to Kayak and click the “Everywhere” tab. (You don’t have to look – there is no such thing.)

Over the past three years I’ve spent at least 60 hours, probably more by now, learning the ins and outs of Round-the-World travel. In this post, I’ll explain a) why Round-the-World tickets can be an excellent value even if you’re not trying to visit every country in the world like I am, b) how to plan your trip, c) how much it costs, d) 7 bonus tips on optimization.

The Time Investment

Planning and shopping for a Round-the-World (RTW) ticket is a labor-intensive process. If you don’t enjoy planning a short trip, you’ll find it much more difficult to plan a complicated RTW itinerary. Personally, I enjoy the process, but then again, I also like airports and flying.

Also, before you can actually buy a Round-the-World ticket, you need to be willing to do all these things:

- Spend a couple of hours of initial reading
- Spend at least a couple of hours planning and optimizing
- Place an initial phone call (usually at least 30 minutes) setting up the trip
- Place a secondary phone call a few days later after the ticket has been validated
- Make any adjustments due to lack of availability or invalid routings
- Arrange to pay for the ticket with a local office in the originating country (this step may be optional, depending on how you structure the trip)

Those are the minimum “time costs” for getting a Round-the-World trip set up well. Keep in mind that you can use a RTW ticket for up to a full year, so taking the time to do it well is important. The value I receive from my tickets well exceeds the planning time it requires, but as noted, the practice is not for everyone.

Good Reasons to Use Round-the-World Tickets

If you’re willing and able to invest your time, the benefits you’ll receive from using these kinds of tickets are significant.

– Tremendous Value. RTW tickets are not especially cheap (see below for a cost outline), but a well-optimized ticket can provide value far beyond what it would cost to otherwise buy a series of one-way tickets.
– Freedom and Flexibility. I change my flights all the time, and with RTW tickets, it’s easy. Date and time changes are free, and you can make changes anytime — from far in advance all the way up to the day of departure. For a fee, you can even reroute the entire ticket after you’ve begun the trip.
– One Full Year. You get an entire year to use the ticket, which means that you can have up to 365 days of going from place to place, or you can get even more creative like I do and spread out the ticket into a series of shorter trips by finding a way to come home in the middle.
– Miles and Elite Status. I carry the highest-level elite status in two airlines thanks to my RTW travel. I also earned more than 200,000 Frequent Flyer miles with American Airlines in 2009, thanks to double-mileage bonuses and a lot of time in the air. With the status, I’m now first on the upgrade list, can hang out in nice airline lounges around the world, and don’t have to wait on hold when I call the airline.
– Creative Opportunities to Travel. You can get to a lot of places in the world with simple round-trip tickets, but because RTW tickets are priced by mileage or by segment, you can visit destinations that are otherwise cost-prohibitive when using regular tickets.

What to Do First

If you know this is what you want to do, or even if you’re just curious and want to create a sample itinerary, start by downloading these two free tools:

Star Alliance Mileage Calculator
OneWorld Timetable and Itinerary Planner

Spend some time getting to understand how they work. You’ll also want to check out the OneWorld interactive route map and the Star Alliance Downloadable Timetables to better understand where you can go.

WARNING: This software can be hazardous to your productivity. Many a workday has been lost at World Domination HQ because of the attraction of these tools. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Next, you need to answer a few questions: where do you want to go? What’s the goal of your trip? How much time do you have?

Star Alliance versus OneWorld

Each airline alliance has its own rules for how the ticket works. The one from Star Alliance is mileage based, meaning you’ll have a limit of 26,000, 29,000, 34,000 or 39,000 miles on your ticket. The trick here is to optimize your route to where you are just below one of the tiers, getting the best possible value without spending more money than necessary. (A friend of mine got his itinerary to 33,998 miles, which I thought was pretty good.)

The OneWorld product is segment-based, meaning that a flight from Hong Kong to New York (11 hours) is the same as a flight from Chicago to Dallas (less than 2 hours). You can have up to 16 segments on the trip, and naturally, you’ll want to optimize for flights that would be fairly expensive when purchasing a standard ticket.

I get even more creative with my plans, involving overland trips, return journeys to my home base in Portland, Oregon, and having multiple tickets open at one time. You don’t have to be that imaginative; I’ve been doing this for a while. Even a fairly basic RTW ticket can yield significant benefits and travel opportunities you wouldn’t otherwise have.

How Much Does it Cost?

The cost for either product mentioned above varies from $3,000 to $10,000 – largely dependent on travel class, mileage tier (Star Alliance only) and where you begin the trip from. My tickets over the past few years have been almost exactly $5,000 each. I purchased two of them last year, and I’m trying to set up a new one for early 2011.

$3,000+ is a lot of money, of course, but when you consider all the flights you can take, the price per segment goes way down. My price-per-segment is about $300 (now $400), and this includes many long-haul flights that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars.

For example, here is an itinerary I used for my first OneWorld RTW ticket:

NRT-HKG-LAX-SJO-LAX-ORD-SEA-JFK-SCL-IPC-SCL-EZE-ORD-AMM-TUN-AMM-FCO-HKG-NRT

This 18-segment itinerary, purchased before the limit dropped to 16, included:

- A trip to Easter Island, usually quite pricey since there’s only one easy way to get there (through South America on LAN Chile or LAN Peru)
- A visit to North Africa and the Middle East, another pricey region
- A quick trip down to Costa Rica, which provided more miles than most U.S. flights would have offered
- A return to Seattle (in between Asia and South America) where I could stop and break up the trip for a while
- Base mileage of 54,894 miles, which when added to a number of bonuses I received, came up to nearly 100,000 total award miles
- When combined with overland trips on location (to Uruguay from Argentina, to San Marino from Rome, etc.) the chance to visit 10 countries from this one ticket

Geographic Advantage

You can get the best deal on Round-the-World tickets by departing from (and eventually returning to) a few specific countries where the price is much lower than leaving from North America or Europe. Which countries? Well, they change from time to time, but as of the time I’m writing this (October 2010), the best places are South Korea, South Africa, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.

Yes, it takes some work to get there. If those are too far, Japan is also a decent choice, where I began that first RTW trip. And of course, you don’t have to begin from a faraway place. If you don’t mind paying a fair amount more (usually $2000-4000), you can begin from North America or wherever you live. To get the estimate cost for your trip based on travel class, number of miles (Star Alliance only) and departing country, complete a mock itinerary on either of the two online fare calculators. You can then switch the departing country around to see how it compares with other options.

Reservations

Finally, when you actually get ready to buy your ticket, you’ll need to do two steps that may or may not be easy:

1. Create your itinerary. Until very recently, RTW itineraries usually had to be phoned in to an airline desk to set up manually. Thankfully, you can now set up a RTW itinerary online most of the time. In some cases there may be quirks in the itinerary that are allowed but not recognized by the online system, in which case you’ll need to phone it in. To at least get started online, use these links:

Star Alliance
OneWorld

If phoning it in, plan for the process to take at least half an hour once you get someone on the phone. It is much easier with OneWorld, since they have a dedicated RTW desk operated by American Airlines. With Star Alliance airlines, you may need to talk to several people before you find someone who knows how to create the itinerary in their system.

2. Find a way to pay for the ticket. I don’t mean, “Save the money,” although that of course is important too. I mean, “Find out how to physically pay for the ticket.” This is easy if you are buying online or are already in the country you are departing from. If you live in the U.S. and want to depart from the U.S., for example, then you can pay for the ticket after it is “rated” by the airline desk. In this case, you wait a few days after first phoning in the itinerary, and then call back to pay with your credit card.

If you’re beginning the trip in another country, it’s a bit more complicated. In some cases, you’ll need to phone the airline’s office in the country. I used Skype to do this last year with AA Japan. Some airline reps in overseas locations are more helpful than others, and of course there can be a language barrier as well. A certain amount of persistence may be required, but you can also get lucky and have it done in 20 minutes with the right rep on the right day.

7 Tips to Help Plan Your Trip

1. If using OneWorld, here is a very helpful validator that can help check your itinerary before going to book. It can also suggest alternative cities for more mileage.

2. Due to a quirk in airline rules, some countries in North Africa are defined as being in Europe for the purposes of ticket validation. You can visit Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, or even Sudan as part of the “European” portion of your trip.

3. Similarly, “North America” includes the Caribbean and parts of Central America. You can visit Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Belize, Honduras, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and several other stops during the North America portion.

4. If you don’t know how you’ll use certain segments, you can book them as “open” (so that the ticket can be issued) and add the dates later. You won’t have to pay a change fee when you add the dates.

5. London’s Heathrow (LHR) airport has very high taxes. If you can avoid it, or use it for transit only (less than 24 hours), you’ll save quite a bit.

6. Most of the time, you won’t want to use Frequent Flyer miles for a Round-the-World trip. Instead, you can get better value by redeeming miles for two round-trip tickets between continents. You’ll then effectively have two RTWs for the price of one.

7. People often ask which airline program is best for them. It all depends on where you travel and what your goals are, but if forced to make a recommendation I usually send people to the AAdvantage program from American Airlines. Even if you don’t live in the U.S., AA’s program can help you. If you prefer Star Alliance, then most programs are equal.

8. Use at least part of your RTW ticket to visit destinations that are otherwise prohibitively expensive to purchase. Among others, I’ve gone to Kurdistan (Iraq), Pakistan, Burma, and Uganda as part of my RTW tickets. Each of these places is fairly expensive to travel to on a simpler ticket.

What to Watch Out for

I spent a couple hours writing out this information because I frequently get questions about booking RTW tickets, and while I try to respond to each request individually, I also like to send people to an online resource for more reading. When I went to look for more resources on Google, the majority of the first-page results for “Round-the-World plane ticket” and related terms contained inaccurate information from a biased source. How do you know the sources are biased? Because many of them lead visitors to book through an online travel agency where they receive commission.

When it comes to Round-the-World tickets, this is one time when it’s actually better to buy from the airlines instead of a travel agent or other reseller. Since these tickets aren’t usually commissionable (the travel agent doesn’t get paid much to issue them), some agents will play dumb or try to steer you towards an alternative kind of ticket.

If that’s what you want, of course, there’s nothing unethical about it. There are some situations when a DIY trip will be better, but in many other situations the alliance tickets are the best bet. I tend to think most people want the best kind of ticket for the lowest possible price, and once you understand how the process works, the OneWorld and Star Alliance products can be great options.

I hope to see you somewhere on a future Round-the-World stop. I’ll be in the lounge with my MacBook, probably responding to emails or planning a future trip.

###

Follow Chris’ live updates from every country in the world on Twitter. Be sure to also check out his new book, The Art of Non-Conformity, for which he’s currently visiting 50 states and 10 provinces. And I thought I traveled a lot!

Afterword: Some additional comments from Chris in the comments:

@Matt, yes, you have to go in one rough direction (East–>West or vice versa). However, the rule is based on regions, not strict geography – so you can bounce around in any given region before moving on.

@Muir, in addition to RTW tickets I also do a lot of Frequent Flyer (award) tickets. So in my case, often I’ll travel on a RTW ticket for a while, then go home to Seattle/Portland for a few weeks on a different ticket. I then return to the last point in the RTW trip and keep going. I’ve also done this with two separate RTW tickets, but that can get complicated.

@Enzo, being based in the UK (or anywhere else) shouldn’t affect much with RTW planning. The process is similar no matter where you are.

@Boris, you’re right – HKG-JFK should be 15 hours. My fault.

QOD: What is the greatest travel deal (airfare, housing, recreation, or otherwise) that you ever chanced into or made happen?

Posted on October 8th, 2010

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174 Comments

  • Eric — October 8th, 2010, 9:45 am

    I’m not sure if I’ll ever do this, but it would be a pretty kick ass way plan a trip. The cost actually less than what I would expect.

    Thanks for the article, Tim, I’m going to bookmark this one for future reference. :)

    Reply

  • Josh Crocker — October 8th, 2010, 9:45 am

    AWE-SOME!

    When I saw that Tim was featuring Chris on the blog today my mind was blown even before I began reading! You guys have helped me in the past 2 years create a life that I never imagined would or could happen. From leaving my job, to working on things that matter, I am forever grateful to you both!

    And not only that, but the travel tips are perfectly-timed, as my next Dreamline sheet involves quite a good bit of air travel!

    Thanks Tim, and thanks Chris!

    - Josh

    P.S. – The best travel deal that I’ve come across (I’m a rookie at this) was the first time I used our credit card reward points for a free flight for my wife and I on JetBlue. Not impressive by mosts’ standards, but enough to make me happy and want to do it again! :)

    Reply

  • Tyler — October 8th, 2010, 9:45 am

    Thanks for the tips and advice.
    I really want to go on a round the world trip.
    I was recommended to do this a few years back, but didn’t go.
    I am regretting it since.

    Reply

  • Joseph Dantes — October 8th, 2010, 9:46 am

    Official soundtrack for this post: Daft Punk’s “Around the World”

    Lyrics above.

    Reply

  • Barbara — October 8th, 2010, 9:47 am

    It’s quarter to 1 in the morning here. How dare you? Now I have to research RTW tickets for 2 adults and one infant. And I’m only halfway to finding my muse… and halfway around the world already.

    Reply

  • Enzo — October 8th, 2010, 9:48 am

    Thanks for the info. Are there any other additional resources if you are based/starting in the UK?

    Reply

  • Michael Jelen — October 8th, 2010, 9:48 am

    Thanks Tim,

    I agree that this is definitely an under-utilized tool.

    Last year my wife and I had the idea to get “married around the world” by buying a RTW ticket and bringing a tux/wedding dress (respectively) and blogging about the whole trip as we went. We thought about getting a sponsor, but thought that the “Mike and Katie Sprite-Around-The-World-Wedding” sounded tacky (or something similar). I’m sure you would’ve done it otherwise, but we had fun.

    Anyway, if anyone’s interested, we talk a lot about our planning, actual travel, and of course the hilarious stories we experienced during the VERY fast MONTH in which we did the trip. Visiting so many places was exhausting, but pretty cool. Don’t forget to check out our blog! It’s pretty funny (I’m a little biased).

    [link at name]

    Thanks again Tim – great topic to discuss and great post!

    Reply

  • Oleg Mokhov — October 8th, 2010, 10:03 am

    Two travel maestros joining forces = awesome.

    Thanks for sharing this Chris. I was already familiar with this from your FFM/Travel Ninja reports, but it seems you’ve fleshed it out even more here, which is great.

    My best deal in my humble travel experiences so far was snagging $200 round-trip tickets from Chicago to US Virgin Islands a day-and-a-half before flying out. I thought it was normal until some people there replied in awe that it costs almost $600 round trip just to fly b/w there and Dominican Republic, not to mention freakin’ Chicago :)

    Hope your book tour continues to kick ass Chris, and thanks Tim for letting Chris share his expertise here (ordered 4-Hour Body btw),
    Oleg

    Reply

  • Chris Hughes — October 8th, 2010, 10:09 am

    This is awesome! I plan on taking an around the world trip in one year from now. Right now I am making the money to pay for the trip and getting rid of everything that I don’t 100% need for my survival. Learning to live the minimalist lifestyle and preparing to learn more about the world.

    Thanks for the guide Chris!

    The best travel deal I have found was a $49 round-trip ticket from an airport 30 mins from my parents house to the current city in Florida that I am living in. I’ve since seen $22 flights up there but want to find a super deal on my around the world trip!

    Reply

  • Gabe Diaz — October 8th, 2010, 10:15 am

    “WARNING: This software can be hazardous to your productivity. Many a workday has been lost at World Domination HQ because of the attraction of these tools. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

    Wow you weren’t kidding!! Thank you so much for all this information it’s definitely a great resource for getting into traveling the world!

    Reply

  • Justin — October 8th, 2010, 10:19 am

    Man I love this blog. I saw Chris’ book on Amazon a few days ago and didn’t bother clicking on it to see what it was about. Guest post = book sale. Great information here Chris, can’t wait to see what else is in the book!

    Reply

  • shushu — October 8th, 2010, 10:22 am

    Hey
    I did not read the post yet as it is Friday in Israel and it’s time to go for the family Shabas dinner… But, my heart almost stopped when I read the 1st paragraph as Chris is one of the people I love and respect and you Tim is by far one of the people that have made the most deferent in my life!!!!!!
    So pre reading (All thou I know what Chris have to say in the matter) I thank you both so much! my life would not be the same with out you.
    Shabat Shalom = good (fucking) shabath.

    Tim any chance you can help me with the link to the music track from random episode 13 in the trampoline??? please… I try anything I know to do to find it BUT didn’t.

    Reply

  • shushu — October 8th, 2010, 10:25 am

    I’m soooooo sorry for the spelling mistake…ooopsss I do find it somewhat charming…LOL

    Reply

  • David Siteman Garland — October 8th, 2010, 10:29 am

    I would definitely recommend picking up a copy of Chris’ book. He is a great, genuine helpful guy (he was on my show this week and had a chance to meet him in St. Louis during his book tour last week).

    He is really moving and shaking and more importantly has a great message we can all learn from.

    Reply

  • Benjamin Spall — October 8th, 2010, 10:37 am

    I’ve got to echo the sentiments surrounding Chris. Great guy, great blog, and great book.

    Reply

  • Bond Christian — October 8th, 2010, 10:37 am

    Ha! I was wondering how long it would be before you made your way around the world to Tim’s site. Great to finally see you here, Chris!

    And yes, Tim, thanks for having him. (By the way, it would totally go against your 4-Hour philosophy to do the whole “every U.S. State and every Canadian Province” book tour the way Chris is, so perhaps you could just make a special trip out to Kentucky. Much appreciated.)

    -Marshall Jones Jr.

    Reply

  • Andy — October 8th, 2010, 10:47 am

    This is fantastic information. I’d love to do this sooner rather than later.

    My best deal was during my wife and my honeymoon backpacking trip to Europe. We were flying from Amsterdam to Vienna and tickets were going go be $360 each. I ended up doing some research we flew from Amsterdam to Bratislava for $60 each and followed that up with a $27 ride on a high-speed catamaran 55 miles up the Danube River. It was an amazing experience to walk around Bratislava, see the Slovakian/Austrian countryside, and save over $250 in the process.

    Reply

  • Caleb — October 8th, 2010, 10:56 am

    Great post Chris!

    World domination FTW!

    – Caleb

    Reply

  • Muir Adams — October 8th, 2010, 11:06 am

    Thanks for the great post! It comes at just the right time for me, as I’m planning a trip around Asia (and possibly the rest of the world) during the first part of 2011.

    I do have one question on something that was mentioned in the post, but never explained: Chris mentions that he sometimes comes home in the middle of this trip, effectively splitting his RTW ticket into multiple trips. How does that work?

    Reply

  • Chris — October 8th, 2010, 11:22 am

    Great post Chris. Do you (or you Tim) know about Airtreks? It is a RWT website, based in San Francisco. I used them a few years ago when I taught in Korea, and they were very affordable and easy to deal with. They also have an online trip planner that can get pretty addictive (I just tried it out again for fun, and I got quoted between $5500-$7500 for a trip with 16 stops…and it even gives you an alternative route with more stops, that costs a little more, but is a better overall value).

    Cheers,
    Chris

    Reply

  • Tony — October 8th, 2010, 11:34 am

    Lol, best blog title ever.

    Reply

  • Boris Lau — October 8th, 2010, 11:44 am

    Hey Tim-

    Quick correction: The flight from Hong Kong to New York is 15-16 hours, not 11 as mentioned. I take this flight 4 times a year!

    Great article as always,

    Boris

    Reply

  • Jason Ford — October 8th, 2010, 11:58 am

    My mind was just blown. I had no idea my two favorite authors knew each other. If your blogs had a love child I think James Bond would be born.

    Reply

  • Cole Matson — October 8th, 2010, 12:19 pm

    My best travel deal:

    Waiting for a train in Baltimore, I carried two large suitcases down a flight of stairs for a woman who was having difficulty managing. I noticed she had a British accent, so I told her I was visiting the U.K. for the first time in a few months. She offered me a free room in her flat while I was in London, which turned out to be quite comfortable accommodations in a very posh neighbourhood. Those 2 minutes of heavy lifting saved me hundreds of dollars in hotel costs.

    Moral: Always help overburdened ladies with their luggage.

    Reply

  • Niels — October 8th, 2010, 12:19 pm

    Reading all the worshipping comments, I almost think you do not even need a plane……

    Nevertheless a very good post with valuable info, thanks for that.

    Let’s live a little,
    Niels

    Reply

  • Charmaine — October 8th, 2010, 12:27 pm

    Thanks so much for making sense of the RTW ticket. Really want to purchase one, this article helped a ton.

    The best deal I’ve ever received? Signed up my parents’ house phone # for a rewards card at a supermarket. Got something like 250 miles for every $100 spent. about 2 years later, i checked my mileage account and found that i had amassed about 80,000 miles. As it turned out, my brother and his friends also used the phone number to make purchases… it had been the default number for about 30 people (give or take) to get discounts on groceries.

    I bought a ticket to beijing, china on mileage points. After a week, I was picked up off the street to teach English for 10 days at Tsinghua University (they were desperate since the assigned teacher fell ill just 24 hours before classes began). When it came time for payment, I was told to submit my travel itinerary (from the US to China) … even though I explained that my ticket had already been taken care of, I was fully “reimbursed.” So I bought a ticket to Chengdu, hung out for a few days, then made it into Tibet.. on to Kathmandu, Nepal… and finally Delhi, India and thereabouts.

    I paid $30.71 (taxes) to travel across Asia.

    Reply

    • Thomas Lembcke — December 15th, 2012, 12:15 pm

      Wow-I am inspired – !!!
      I am planning on taking my two children (12&15) on a RTW next year and am in the starting phase :) Noobie that is. I have not quite ever done a RTW but have probably 500K under my belt between US-EU-Africa-South America-Carribean etc…My two children have been going to Europe 1-2x’s per year ever since they turned 2.5 years old so they both already have extensive flying experience. This will be our BD gift for next Summer – Planning on 6 weeks all told for the Trip…
      God Bless you RTW addicts…:) perhaps we’ll meet somewhere down the line….Best of Travels

      Tom-Emily&Ian

      Reply

  • Matt Gartland — October 8th, 2010, 12:30 pm

    I’ve been waiting/hoping for this article for a long time! I’ve had the itch to nab a RTW ticket for a good while. And with my new, found know-how perhaps I will sometime soon.

    I’m curious though, must you only travel in one direction (east-to-west or west-to-east)? Perhaps this plays into your ability to travel home mid-trip.

    Also, do you get one ticket and keep that the entire time? That might be a silly detail, but I’ve always wondered how the airlines (who are by no means efficient or tech pioneers) track you and your ticket. It seems like it could turn into a logistical nightmare!

    Tim, with your vagabonding addiction, have you experimented with RTW tickets yourself? What would you say is the chief benefit from such a ticket?

    Thanks for the inspiration Chris, and Tim for posting.

    Matt

    Reply

  • Natalie Bauer — October 8th, 2010, 12:33 pm

    Best. Travel Article. Ever! :D

    Chris and Tim – Thank you so much for this. I was literally just thinking about some extended travel in the next year. I really couldn’t see the use of a RTW ticket. I assumed that I’d have to set a schedule and wouldn’t be able to travel at my own pace. Now I know that this could be a great option.

    I’m surprised that Korea is one of the cheap departure destinations. When I lived there travel was crazy expensive. But, nonetheless, happy to hear it as I’d love to make Korea my jump off point.

    The best travel deal I stumbled onto was a 14 day all-inclusive resort vacay including air travel to Cuba which, with taxes, was around $800 per person.

    The worst trip I had to pay for was a $2500 round trip ticket from Seoul to Calgary in peak season. I still regret it 4 years later. Now I regret it even more because for a little more $ I could have had a round-the-world ticket. :p

    Alles liebe!

    Reply

  • Chuck Rylant — October 8th, 2010, 1:34 pm

    Great information. I always wanted to try a round the world cruise as well. Although, more ridged, which is a serious downside, it may be more relaxing experience not having to deal with airports.

    Reply

  • Jeremy — October 8th, 2010, 1:37 pm

    QOD answer:

    couchsurfing.org
    A free place to stay and you get to meet very cool, open minded individuals who are more than happy to open their arms and show you their world. Its amazing

    Reply

  • Steve Latronica — October 8th, 2010, 1:37 pm

    Love the travel posts like this Tim. It’s the articles like this that keeps me motivated to keep plugging along to get to a point where it’s possible for me to live a happier life. Made some huge strides in the last 6 months but still have a ways to go. Many thanks to you for steering me in the right direction!

    Reply

  • Titus Powell — October 8th, 2010, 1:52 pm

    Very useful – this is something I’ve been considering for a while. Thanks Tim and Chris!

    Reply

  • Steve Zussino — October 8th, 2010, 2:04 pm

    I live in Victoria, BC canada (Vancouver Island).

    Any recommendations for a 1 month around the world (avoiding Europe – will do another time)?

    Thanks!

    Reply

  • Joel Runyon — October 8th, 2010, 2:14 pm

    Great post Chris!
    Makes me want to start planning my own trip
    *runs off to waste time on the mileage predictor tools*

    Reply

  • Chris Guillebeau — October 8th, 2010, 2:34 pm

    Hey guys,

    Tim – thanks again for having me here.

    Everyone else – thanks for reading. A few quick comments are below, and I’ll try to jump in more later if needed.

    @Matt, yes, you have to go in one rough direction (East–>West or vice versa). However, the rule is based on regions, not strict geography – so you can bounce around in any given region before moving on.

    @Muir, in addition to RTW tickets I also do a lot of Frequent Flyer (award) tickets. So in my case, often I’ll travel on a RTW ticket for a while, then go home to Seattle/Portland for a few weeks on a different ticket. I then return to the last point in the RTW trip and keep going. I’ve also done this with two separate RTW tickets, but that can get complicated.

    @Enzo, being based in the UK (or anywhere else) shouldn’t affect much with RTW planning. The process is similar no matter where you are.

    @Boris, you’re right – HKG-JFK should be 15 hours. My fault.

    OK, all for now…

    Reply

  • Jonathan — October 8th, 2010, 3:27 pm

    Best deal I ever got was a complete accident, because I had the luxury of being exceptionally flexible in my ability to fly home. I had purchased a round trip coach ticket Newark to Shanghai and back for $1300. Not spectacular. 14.5 hours in coach is just about the closest thing to hell I’ve ever experienced. After spending a fabulous month in Shanghai, it was time to return home, only my return flight was grounded back in the states due to equipment problems.

    After standing on line in the terminal at Pudong for a good 4 hours, I finally get to the kiosk. I hand the attendant a list of cities I could easily fly into and make my way home (to Long Island, NY) from and asked for the best possible seats on one of those (there was the opportunity to fly coach the next day back to Newark, but I wanted to see what I could milk the airline for, just for the hell of it). She pulled up a flight (first class!) to Chicago, and gave me a voucher for the two additional nights I had to stay in Shanghai to make that flight. I effectively paid $650 for two nights in Shanghai, unlimited free food during that time, and first class seating. Of course, that’s the optimist in me speaking, flight cancellations aren’t usually a good thing. :D

    Reply

  • Rick Rakauskas — October 8th, 2010, 3:44 pm

    Just sussed out Oneworld’s trip calculator and you get a 6 continent RTW ticket for $5000 AUD/USD. Since it just cost me $2200 for a return ticket to Mongolia from Brisbane, that is awesome value…

    Reply

  • Johnny Jen — October 8th, 2010, 3:55 pm

    Thanks for sharing that The price for the RTW ticket is actually much cheaper than I had ever imagined! To be honest it’s not my cup of tea, I’d rather just go somewhere and spend 6months to a year in each location, but I can see that it’ll be an awesome adventure for others!

    Reply

  • Ron Turner — October 8th, 2010, 4:20 pm

    GREAT article, Tim! Love this kind of stuff, always useful to me as I am really getting more and more into traveling…Will be taking a multi-trip around the world next summer myself, will be great to use Chris’s info as reference and see what kind of awesome itinerary I can come up with…thanks!

    Reply

  • singingwater — October 8th, 2010, 5:15 pm

    Great Inspiration. Thanks

    Reply

  • Laura Trimmell — October 8th, 2010, 7:08 pm

    I’m getting ready to take a big trip this January and one thing i’ve really been putting off is figuring out airlines. This post will help me a ton. Thanks so much!

    Reply

  • Vic Dorfman — October 8th, 2010, 8:41 pm

    Sweet!

    I love it when you have guest posts from other AMAZING peeps.

    It’s like Superman teaming up with Batman and opening can after can of whoop tushy!

    Good Vibes~
    Vic

    Reply

  • Mr.CatBert99 — October 8th, 2010, 9:49 pm

    I think this is how i could see every race LIVE in one Formula One season!

    Reply

  • Giovanni — October 8th, 2010, 11:45 pm

    To your QOD.

    The best deal I’ve ever found was a $320 all-inclusive hotel, air, food, drinks from Oakland to Cancun with Suntrips (when they existed). Got 10 of my college buddies and we left for a 4 night 5 day trip! It was a great last minute deal.

    Reply

  • sirdalmi — October 8th, 2010, 11:45 pm

    Great, great, great article !

    oh dear… with that RTW ticket thing it will be hard to resist the call…
    Guess I really should buy a new suitcase ^_^.

    Awesome work, both of you.

    Keep it up !

    Reply

  • Moby — October 9th, 2010, 12:24 am

    RTW tickets are useful. But not as good for trips exceeding 12 months. As if you want more time in a country, you have to loose time somewhere else.

    At the end of my 1400 day trip, I scored the following tickets – all individual tickets

    Total Cost: $752USD / 514 Euros / 448 GBP / $933 AUD

    San Francisco – via Atlanta – Dublin (Best Deal of the route $234)
    Dublin – London
    London – Kuala Lumpur
    Kuala Lumpur – Melbourne
    Melbourne – Newcastle (AUS)

    One thing not mentioned in the post, generally overland segments ( not flying ) are still counted in your milage.

    For long term extended travel I recommend indivudual tickets purchased as you go along. It gives you 100% freedom to partake in adventures you discover along the way. And you end up having some really amazing/weird travel routes based on cheap flights!

    I did take a RTW ticket in the first 12 months of my trip. It was great as a sampler trip, and kept me moving along.

    My blog has all my trip details..

    Reply

  • Kevin — October 9th, 2010, 2:05 am

    I can’t believe your posting this, I’m in Malaysia in the middle of doing this right now

    In my experience thus far the best way to do it (cheap) is to scour the discount airlines with a flexible schedule. It takes some playing around with and certain routes are always much cheeper then others but there are some incredible deals to be had.

    I’m flying on Air Asia (worlds lowest cost airline 3 years running) on October 13 from Kuala Lumper to London for 590 Malaysian Ringgit or just under $190 US. That’s for 10,000Km flight is just awesome value. I’m also told the Air Asia offers free alcohol to all passengers so should be exciting

    In the last 7 months i’ve seen Australia, Fiji, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and next week England using this method and had the time of my life without breaking the bank

    Reply

  • Bill — October 9th, 2010, 5:08 am

    An earlier poster (Muir Adams) had asked how Chris gets home in the middle of his RTW trip. I’m not Chris, but I believe the answer is implied in tip #6 of his post. For example, let’s say he originally left from Portland and was in South Africa on his RTW ticket, flying East. He could then use his frequent flier miles to buy two round trip tickets, say, Johannesburg to Sydney and Sydney to Portland. He flies from Johannesburg to Sydney, hangs out for awhile, then flies to Portland. When it’s time to get back on the road, he flies Portland to Sydney, optionally hangs out in Australia for awhile again, and then flies Sydney back to Johannesburg. Once he is back in Johannesburg, he picks up where he left off flying East on his original RTW ticket. To optimize this kind of option, you should check on frequent flier cost for those in between legs. For example, if you are planning to see Tokyo and Sydney, use the frequent flier miles on whichever one is cheaper to get to that way, and use the RTW ticket to get to the other.

    I do have a few comments/suggestions about this kind of travel. First, if you are only going to take one trip RTW at a time, fly East. You’ll save yourself about 6 hours in flight time going with with wind. Second, if you have the time, try and decide where you want to go before you get started, and figure out which alliance has better connections. For example, either one can get you from South America to Africa, but one might fly you there directly, and the other will route you through Europe first. Now if you are trying to get the most possible frequent flier miles and like spending time on the plane, you might want to go through Europe. Me, I’d rather fly the direct route. I found theairdb.com to be very handy for this type of research. Third, get a credit card for the major airline you are flying on, as you can get lots of perks, like free checked bags or lounge access, plus lot of bonus miles for using it to pay for any charges you do incur. Watch out for annual mileage caps on the card though.

    Reply

  • Magnus — October 9th, 2010, 6:15 am

    Great information Chris!

    Now we have a place to send people who ask us about RTW tickets. We often get that since we are encouraging people and families to really go for their dream journey which for many is just a trip around the world. But our experience of this is so much more limited than yours…

    By the way I just ordered your book and I am looking forward to reading it :)

    Reply

  • Ahmed Serag — October 9th, 2010, 7:20 am

    Wasn’t thinking that was actually going to be a how-to guide to travel around the world. But that was awesome! Great info.

    Reply

  • chel hamilton — October 9th, 2010, 7:23 am

    Chris is awesome! Thanks for sharing that post, Tim. Saw this today and thought who would better appreciate girls who kick ass then Tim Ferriss! Check out my best girl, Roxy, in an “underground” punch out with Juliette Lewis! (and the song is pretty good too!) http://video.aol.com/video/terra-incognita/162797363

    Have a fabulous day!

    Reply

  • Fredrik Gyllensten — October 9th, 2010, 8:21 am

    Great article – THANKS!

    Reply

  • Christian Carroll — October 9th, 2010, 8:23 am

    Hey Chris, (or Tim)

    I’m looking to get a personal and business travel credit card and I’m trying to decide which is the best one?

    Do you have a favorite?

    Maybe a post on milking the travel points for optimal destination world travel benefits?

    Reply

  • chel hamilton — October 9th, 2010, 8:25 am

    LOLOL! I just saw I had typed girls who kick ass THEN tim ferriss …rather than girls who kick ass thAn tim ferriss. the typo is funnier tho! :P

    Reply

  • Brian — October 9th, 2010, 9:11 am

    What, no love for SkyTeam? My wife and I traveled RTW on SkyTeam in 07 and while their airlines are not as nice as OneWorld or Star, the rates are cheaper. We went business class RTW for 220,000 miles (which, incidentally we bought from a “friend”). Total price per ticket was $4200.

    I have a mostly hate relationship with Delta but once you get out of the US, the SkyTeam network is made up of decent airlines with good connectivity. The merger with Continental may improve that.

    SkyTeam has a dedicated RTW desk too.

    Reply

  • J.D. Meier — October 9th, 2010, 10:56 am

    > because RTW tickets are priced by mileage or by segment, you can visit destinations that are otherwise cost-prohibitive when using regular tickets.
    That sounds like the “why” behind it and a perfect driver.

    Reply

  • Leonard Irwin — October 9th, 2010, 11:37 am

    Great idea, and something to think about when planning trips overseas. Especially, when it can involve going to a place where the buying power of the currency goes farther.

    Does Chris get more travel points when he comes back in the middle of an around the world trip? Could a person double their points ?

    Reply

  • Ricardo V. — October 9th, 2010, 11:53 am

    Love the 4HWW book and think this link content is terrible.

    ( Is post about you Tim )

    [URL removed]

    Reply

  • Rocco Privetera — October 9th, 2010, 1:14 pm

    I must not be getting how to use the calculator right. I just tried a bunch of times to make a RTW trip, starting in NY and going to 6 or so places, all west bound (iceland, amsterdam, bangkok, manila, los angeles, new orleans, back to ny) and the price is way higher than buying normal tickets.

    I understand the benefits of the ticket regarding its flexibility, but I’m not sure about the budgetary savings. I suppose I have to learn how to hack the system more/ Because right now it’s several thousand more for the privilege and I can’t see the flexibility being worth it (to me).

    Reply

  • Skywayne — October 9th, 2010, 2:33 pm

    Tim and Chris,

    Thanks for ruining my Saturday. I spent the whole day exploring different combinations and permutations of RTW travel. This could be become an obsession and would have been suited for a weekday–a time when I could ignore my job rather than a waste a day off!

    Seriously though, really appreciate the information.

    Reply

  • Monica — October 9th, 2010, 2:57 pm

    Great post Tim,

    It’s saved in my computer, right now.

    By the way, in december, I’ll start my plans to know differents places. I’m going to star in Dubai and Australia. If you know something to do in the 31 of december (reveillon), please, tell me… rs.

    Abraços

    Mônica

    Reply

  • Alex Dumitru — October 9th, 2010, 3:46 pm

    That’s something I really need to do. Currently my main personal goal is to travel more and I want to visit as many countries as possible.

    Reply

  • Jenny — October 9th, 2010, 5:54 pm

    I’m currently selling everything I own to travel the world indefinitely (departing in January!). Hopefully, this post will come in handy sometime soon!

    Reply

  • John — October 9th, 2010, 6:23 pm

    Are you aware of your endorsement of the website shown on the link below? I feel this job is a scam including the website but I wanted to ask you about it further.

    [removed]

    Reply

  • Star — October 9th, 2010, 7:39 pm

    Ah, this is one of my dreams.

    I’m constantly downsizing my possessions and commitments to allow freedom to do things such as this.

    I just quit my job a few days ago. Either the best thing I’ve ever done or the biggest mistake I’ve made. It is too early to tell. But it is very relieving to not be working there anymore! I hated answering phones. So. Much.

    I’m officially poor now. Haha.

    Reply

  • Simon R — October 9th, 2010, 10:12 pm

    Tim – first time I’ve felt disappointed by one of your blogs. You are usually so practical, but this was just motherhood fluff. I suspect this was ghost written – have you outsourced your blog to your VA?

    The title was “How to Buy a RTW ticket.” Which is amazing because that’s exactly what I was doing online when your email email came through – trying to find a good website for buying RTW tickets (other than directly through Star Alliance and OneWorld).

    Your blog had useful links on planning, research and in fact everything OTHER than actually buying a ticket (online specifically). There isn’t a travel agent here that’s useful. What’s particularly frustrating is that the travel sits I usually book through (expedia, edreams, etc) don’t have a RTW page, making it quite hard to plan online.

    So I’ve spend the day researching and found a few useful links for online research, in addition to the alliance ones you mentioned.

    http://www.airtreks.com/ – they seem pretty useful and will customize a route not avilable from just OneWorld or Star Alliance.

    If you are in the UK try: http://www.roundtheworldexperts.co.uk/

    I’m sure there’s more, that’s just a start to be helpful. I’d love to hear back from you Tim in actually answering the question posed by your blog title, How to BUY rather than How to RESEARCH.

    cheers
    Simon

    PS don’t get me wrong dude, I’m a huge fan, I have bought boxes (literally) of your books for my mates and look forward to my autographed copy of the new book.

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — October 11th, 2010, 12:52 am

      Hi Simon,

      No offense taken. Different people respond to different posts, and you’re feedback is perfectly valid. I didn’t “outsource” this post, but it was a guest post by Chris, as indicated at the top, so the voice would certainly be different.

      I’ll let Chris add his thoughts on purchasing if he’s still perusing the comments.

      Thanks again,

      Tim

      Reply

  • Katie — October 10th, 2010, 4:55 am

    My husband and I booked two around the world tickets on Star Alliance and got married around the world last summer. The booking process was slightly annoying (mostly since the booking agents rarely get calls about these tickets and are not familiar with the process), but the overall experience was amazing. We had to change our itinerary a few times throughout the trip and everyone that we encountered was extremely helpful both on the phone and at the various airports. The one tip that I do have is SAVE YOUR BOARDING PASSES!!! Almost half of our miles were never credited to our accounts and it was a nightmare getting the problem resolved. Eventually everything was taken care of (almost a year later), but only because we saved every piece of paper along the way.

    Reply

  • Travis and Robin — October 10th, 2010, 11:52 am

    It is great to see two of my favorite “lifestyle design” coaches working together. Thanks Tim for bringing Chris on as a guest columnist. I read everything he writes, and have purchased many of his products.

    Reply

  • Matt — October 10th, 2010, 2:40 pm

    SkyTeam left out in the cold here. It’s not *A, but it can be ok. Doesn’t make much sense to use anything else as an ATL-based Delta frequent flier.

    On the note above re: the Continental merger improving Skyteam availability, Continental left SkyTeam about a year ago.

    Reply

  • Mike — October 10th, 2010, 4:11 pm

    I’m so glad I found your book. You have changed my life so I want to offer you a few things that have changed mine… also keep in mind I’m 24 the best I have done is make 10k in a day and then euro-tripping for 3 weeks… and please don’t blame my theories on an extended stay in Amsterdam ;) but anyway, social-Darwinism is real and nature is something we must sync to if we want to reach our best potential. innovation is all that matters in my opinion, support (middle-class) is useful too, and the poor are either exiting or becoming innovators themselves. Conflict… even if it sucks, is creating innovation. Because overcoming that problem is what is innovative. And lastly this is my craziest theory but it was explained to me in life you want to be the Proton… not the neutron or electron. The electron spins around (employee), the neutron is close to the proton (like a manager) but the proton is in the middle inducing all its power. Okay and my best theory is that the biggest game on planet earth is the conversion of human failure into capital. Example: Fast food. They sell hamburgers, in reality they sell franchises on awesome real estate… but they’re basically taking delusions about self-image (fat people who eat big macs and think its fine) and making the end product a dividend for a shareholder. How is this for a context-shift? I could explain more and I will if you want.

    Now Mr. Ferris… I have a product I designed that is innovative and designed for people who want to have power over their subconscious mind during an activity that every single person engages in. it’s an app. and its pretty powerful, although it needs exposure and it launches in about 15 days. I would like your testimonial. Really, it will change your life as much as it will mine I promise that and if I’m wrong… we tried anyway.

    Reply

  • Dobromir Stoyanov — October 10th, 2010, 4:44 pm

    That’s a very nice post featuring how to plan a round-the world trip. I am just curious, whether the author of this article also stayed at a hotel or just travels non-stop.

    I also like the flying aspect of travel but I don’t really enjoy passing through security at every single connection. If you have a laptop, a camera or other tech devices with you ( like all normal people in the world) checking in a flight is not the most fun process of the trip..

    Reply

  • Chris — October 10th, 2010, 9:37 pm

    An around the world plane ticket may sound expensive. Let’s say you pay $10,000 for the ticket and spend another $30,000 on the trip over the course of an entire year. $40,000 is a lot of money…

    A year’s tuition at Stanford is $50,576.

    Where will you learn more, have the most rewarding experience, and make more high leverage business contacts?

    In the ivory tower or around the globe?

    Disclaimer: It’s also possible to travel the world and party the whole time. But you could do the same at Stanford.

    Your potential is only as promising as your mindset and objectives.

    Reply

  • Alan Smith — October 11th, 2010, 5:21 am

    Tim

    I would love to pre order a copy of the new book 9in fact 5 or 6 copies) – ideally the signed version – is this only available to your US based readers?

    Seems a shame to ignore your (vast army of ) non US followers

    Alan
    London UK

    Reply

  • Luis — October 11th, 2010, 5:46 am

    Yes, I am amazed that you can actually do this. It might be expensive but it really is about what it’s worth to you. I have met people that have no interest in leaving the US ever. To me that sounds unbelievable but that’s the way some people are.

    I would love to do this and it is part of my lifes mission so the price of this would be totally worth it…because it is valuable to me.

    What would be the minimum reasonable amount of time you think it would take to make this trip?

    Reply

  • Seth Levy — October 11th, 2010, 5:50 am

    Thanks for this great article, wonderful timing since I have been planning on doing this for my honeymoon and couldn’t find reliable information anywhere.

    I am having trouble downloading the Star Alliance Mileage Calculator, I keep getting an error. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

    Reply

  • john — October 11th, 2010, 11:26 am

    I got 5 flights for $100 (4 countries!) because of the planning tool given at skyscanner.com, which I’m not sure everyone is aware of. I think everyone in Europe (traveling or living) should note that skyscanner.com does have an “everywhere” option.

    You pick a starting country, and for the whole year you can see where one-way and roundtrip flights are, this includes taxes right in the listings, which as you know is a huge pain in the ass to find out later.

    http://www.skyscanner.com (not spam i promise)

    i’ve been to 20 countries in Europe on a student’s budget, it’s crazy if used properly.

    Reply

  • Mike Ziarko — October 11th, 2010, 12:48 pm

    I’ve always been a fan of Chris’s travel writings and I just read his new book.. his goal is to travel to every country in the world by the time he’s 35 is absolutely awe-inspiring. He’s also created a ton of other products, including the Empire Building Kit which I bought and reviewed on my blog… it’s a great lifestyle business creation product and it fits right in the the 4HWW message.. great stuff Tim and Chris!

    Reply

  • TJ — October 11th, 2010, 3:04 pm

    Tim, I have to say this post is out of my league. I am still working on leaving for a month, which for me, is gargantuan. Luckily, I have free miles through the United Mileage Plus CC, which has some insane perks.

    After returning from Austin City Limits, I am feeling a South American trip is in order.

    Reply

  • Kim — October 11th, 2010, 3:42 pm

    Hi Tim,
    I lent my copy of your book to my dear friend Natta and she returned a (new) signed copy back to me. Thanks for your note, I cracked up when I read it and I am surprised you remembered my aerial offer. I may have to strangle her for telling you or anyone for that matter, her pet name for me ~Kimita Lopez~ but she is one of my closest friends so what can you do? Best of luck with your new book.

    Reply

  • Nathan — October 11th, 2010, 4:40 pm

    Awesome! I know I’ve read this somewhere before but I would love to take a trip on a ticket like that soon!

    The best travel deal I’ve come across was the JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet pass that I just finished last week. $699 for 30 days of unlimited travel, some people took 50+ flights for $699 (I took about 16 flights including 2 caribbean destinations) Most fun I’ve ever had can’t wait to do it again!

    Reply

  • Jason — October 11th, 2010, 10:15 pm

    Is the pxmethod.com website you mentioned in your book down for good?

    Reply

  • Courtney — October 12th, 2010, 1:20 am

    Hey! i actually found this off of stumble and its awesome! I am trying to plan out a trip starting in july 2011, but wasnt even sure how to get started so this really helps! Since you have been on so many trips, can I get some advice on places to go? I know the countries I want to go but not exactly sure where in those countries. I was thinking ireland, italy, africa, india, thailand, indonesia, SE asia, and australia, maybe even new zealand. Please let me know if you have been to any of these and some good places to go! Thanks =D

    Reply

  • istartus — October 12th, 2010, 1:45 am

    Great post!
    Makes me want to start planning my own trip
    *runs off to waste time on the mileage predictor tools.

    Reply

  • Manuela H. — October 12th, 2010, 5:29 am

    This Post is AWESOME! I made a world trip last year about 4 months. was worth it all the time!

    WOuld love to hear more of you

    cheers
    Manuela

    Reply

  • Slice — October 12th, 2010, 6:31 am

    Nice article, I always book fight on the go on my way, I feel I would be limited with a RTW ticket, one day I’ll try one though I think, I bookmarked this for future referance.

    Reply

  • Melanie — October 12th, 2010, 7:14 am

    I love how you talk about air miles programs…they are so important to consider, because while you are gathering miles and paying for a RTW ticket, you may be able to use those points for future travel…so it’s like getting 2 trips for the price of one!

    Reply

  • geoff — October 12th, 2010, 7:54 am

    It’s essential to check the price for the same route with different airlines within the same alliance – after i’d planned my routing, I then checked the cost with each airline I was flying with (because even though the base fare is the same everywhere, they calculate taxes and fuel supplements differently). The result with mine? By booking with Americam Airlines rather than with British Airways I saved £600 for EXACTLY THE SAME FLIGHTS – this is especially worth noting as the Oneworld online route planner costed my flights based on the British Airways cost as that’s who my first flight was with.

    Reply

  • Nina Bieliauskas — October 12th, 2010, 11:33 am

    Quick question for you, Tim…

    One thing I struggle with whilst traveling is luggage — wanting to pack light but ending up heavy, not to mention souvenirs to tow home. I’ve been able to overcome this “obstacle” in the US with flat-rate shipping boxes (most hotels accept mail-ahead packages, and many have boxes at the ready for purchase and mailing), so dragging around my dirty laundry is a thing of the past. But when it comes to international travel I’m at a loss…

    Have you discovered any luggage tips/tricks for international travel? (forgive me if you’ve addressed in previous posts)

    Reply

  • Kim — October 13th, 2010, 5:28 am

    Someone mentioned Airtreks… I’ve used them twice now (just having returned three weeks ago from another ATW trip) and have had amazing experiences. Another to check out if you’re not aware is Airbrokers. They have amazing deals as well.

    Reply

  • Daniel - Yurtdisi Egitim — October 13th, 2010, 5:34 am

    Many thanks for the great article. I have been thinking of planning such a trip, and wondering how difficult can it get or is it even possible to do so.
    This sets a great framework for it. I will definitely use this and suggest to my family and friends. It is interesting to see that it’s not as expensive as it looks. Instead of buying a car or paying a college tuition you can have a trip round the world. A life changing experience.

    Reply

  • Jonathan Manor — October 13th, 2010, 8:58 am

    testing, testing, i don’t think your comment box works

    Reply

  • Jonathan Manor — October 13th, 2010, 8:58 am

    yeah your comments aren’t working tim

    Reply

  • BJ — October 13th, 2010, 7:41 pm

    We did our ATW on SkyTeam miles – and it required surprisingly few miles (only about 160,000 per person in economy in 2008…. should have done business for 200,000) to do 6 stops, all in an east to west fashion. Here was the bonus – we didn’t have to leave from the same airport we flew into. So our flight into Europe was to Berlin, and the flight out was from Paris. This constituted one stop. So in total, it felt like we had 9 main ‘hubs’: LA – Berlin – Paris – JoBerg – Cape Town – Dubai – Bali – Brisbane – Sydney – Maui – LA…. with many, many other countries and cities visited within Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia along the way.

    I would likely use Star Alliance next time, as Sky Team was pretty weak in SE Asia (although Korean was excellent) and Africa.

    Reply

  • JC — October 13th, 2010, 8:09 pm

    Thanks for posting this, I just bookmarked it. I’m planning on taking a year off to travel the world within the next two years and this information will definitely come in handy!

    Reply

  • Nina Yau — October 14th, 2010, 6:54 am

    Chris, what a FANTASTIC guide to how one even starts to look into RTW tickets! I’m actually going to look into this, as I’ll be doing quite a bit of traveling in the next couple of months after I quit my day job in November. :) Thank you so much, you’ve always provided an immense amount of value to the world at large.

    Reply

  • Paul Chicalace — October 14th, 2010, 11:30 am

    Hi! I found your blog on AOL.It’s really comprehensive and it helped me a lot.

    Continue the good work!

    Reply

  • Anon — October 14th, 2010, 2:46 pm

    If you have the time it’s worth just booking cheap one way flights to the other continent and travel by land. I’ve been on a couple rtw and it sucks when you get somewhere and want to travel around a bit but can’t because you have to return to the original city to fly out of. Also some parts of the world have extremely cheap local airlines such as airasia in asia, ryanair in europe, etc.. and flights on these airlines are much cheaper than with the major carriers. If you plan with the cheapy local flights, book a cheap one way, and travel overland prices can be considerable under $3k.

    Reply

  • JasonN — October 14th, 2010, 5:12 pm

    Would love to test, but really like two pics you already have (and own all rights to). Please give me a go for testing an ad (which will link to your book on Amazon) with the pic with you on your head and the tango photo.

    Testing, would like your blessing ;)

    Reply

  • AP — October 15th, 2010, 8:38 pm

    We recently booked a Oneworld RTW trip. Unfortunately due to a back injury, we had to cancel 3 weeks prior to our scheduled departure.

    The downside:
    the cancellation cost us 30% of our flight fees, and then still takes a minimum of 3 months for them to refund the balance.

    We could have postponed the journey but unfortunately, BA and Oneworld consider 12 months validity of the tickets from the BOOKING DATE and not the first departure date!!! Since we had booked 4 months prior to the trip, it did not leave enough time to complete the trip should we had decided to postpone.

    Also, any changes results in a rebooking fee!!

    If while travelling you decide not to OR cannot use one of the legs, the flights not yet used are voided.

    It is good value for money but there is not much flexibility……… always check the fine print.

    Reply

  • Andy — October 16th, 2010, 1:14 am

    I can’t find the Star Alliance Mileage Calculator.

    Reply

  • Michael C. Canonigo — October 17th, 2010, 6:38 pm

    I really love travelling and its a helpful factor to know some tips and information on safety and affordable travelling.

    Reply

  • Natalie Sisson — October 18th, 2010, 3:08 pm

    Hey Tim

    It’s so great that you published Chris’s post. He continues to inspire me and I’m super honoured to be his friend. In fact I’m publishing an interview with him this week on my site about his latest book – the Art of Non Conformity.

    It’s thanks to Chris’s love of travel that I got to first meet him in Vancouver as he always has many segments to a trip and sometimes volcanoes in Iceland are a good thing – as that’s how I got to meet him with a delayed stop over.

    Btw Tim I’d love to pick your brain about my move to Buenos Aires where I’m enroute to early December to live this time – not just visit.

    Natalie

    Reply

  • Hans — October 18th, 2010, 4:24 pm

    ticket price cheaper than we buy one by one.

    Reply

  • Kathrin — October 18th, 2010, 8:15 pm

    Chris, I have bee looking at tickets for a while and I will mostly go around Asia, once I’ll get there from Europe over SFO with Fiji being on top of my list. However, it seems like all these segments (with star alliance) are killing the trip and absorb all options quickly. Would you recommend to book addtl. tickets to fly intra Asia?

    Reply

  • Luci — October 19th, 2010, 9:39 am

    And if you’re looking for low to moderate cost lodging that doesn’t involve sleeping on some stranger’s couch, check out http://www.airbnb.com/home/about
    They list bookings in 8,000 cities in 160 countries, so you can find some really nifty places to stay with knowledgeable locals as your host.

    I learned about this from dear friends who recently returned from a 2-day stay in an artist’s studio apartment in Back Bay Boston and was thoroughly thrilled. She also knows someone who rents her London flat through this service and she, too, has had a great experience working with them.

    PS: I am not compensated in any way for giving your this info, i.e., I’m not an affiliate…though I should probably check that out!!! ^_^

    Reply

  • Simon Steegs — October 20th, 2010, 4:14 pm

    In my opinion, when doing an RTW it’s important to keep most of your itinerary open… allows maximum flexibility. However, there are some things that are important to pre-book.. eg. Inca Trail (permits sell out months before), safaris, unique / special lodging, like eco camps and boutique hotels. For these types of bookings, I used a company here in San Diego called Global Basecamps … they we’re extremely helpful and have a commitment to sustainable travel.

    Reply

  • Amanda — October 22nd, 2010, 2:21 am

    Hey.. Could you advise for a RTW grad trip for students from Singapore? Would really appreciate it. Many thanks!

    Reply

  • G Trosset — October 25th, 2010, 2:37 am

    I saw the QOD ad wasn’t sure if this was the right place to comment but this is the greatest travel deal I have ever seen.

    I have a Jetblue American Express credit card and the offer was for every person I got to sign up for their own Jetblue American Express card I would earn 10,000 Jetblue miles. In less than 30 days, I earned 610,000 Jetblue miles by sharing this offer with my friends and family. I fell short of my one million mile goal, however I am expecting the offer to return and I will get my 1,000,000 miles!

    Thanks, G TROSSET

    Reply

  • Rachel Ann — October 27th, 2010, 1:55 am

    It really gives me ideas about RTW. Those tips and steps are very helpful especially to those who don’t have any experiences of RTW just like me. I can use these tips and steps soon. Thanks a lot!

    Reply

  • Gweng Austria — October 29th, 2010, 11:16 am

    WOW! You’ve shed a light on what RTW is! I am so curious about it as I have heard about this from some of my friends. And being a person who loves to travel, it made me more giddy on the RTW thing! If given enough budget and time, I’d love to book an RTW ticket to see all the beautiful shopping and tourist spots all over the world!

    Reply

  • Scott dinsmore — October 31st, 2010, 5:08 pm

    What a powerful post Chris. This is going to be perfect for my upcoming mini retirement with my wife (starting in Italy) mid next year.

    To the adventure!
    Scott

    Reply

  • Markus — November 1st, 2010, 8:45 am

    Last year I got a round trip flight from NYC to Madrid for $212 via a Travelzoo special offer that quickly sold out. Also the Jetblue AYCJ pass has been a killer deal both years.

    Reply

  • Guia Montejo — November 1st, 2010, 7:28 pm

    wow! a very helpful post!
    i googled something about trips/vacations and gladly after not very long
    i stumbled upon your blog!
    and it helped me a lot(saved me a lot of trouble, lol),
    now i’ve got good perspective of what to prepare just incase
    i’ll have that extra dough to fulfill this life long dream to just wander
    around the world.
    hey i’m not rich but now I know how to take that 1st step to achieve that dream.
    thanx a bunch!

    Reply

  • Dina Cahyadi — November 20th, 2010, 9:54 am

    Really great post!!

    I have some questions,
    you said “the best places are South Korea, South Africa, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.” well I am from Indonesia (currently in US studying), is it still cheaper if I start in Indonesia?

    Do you work? I mean how do you travel all year round and leave everything behind? I was wondering because I am an undergrad, and I really wish to take this RTW adventure but can’t figure out when!

    Cheers!

    Reply

  • Laurie — November 22nd, 2010, 2:26 pm

    I purchased one of these tickets many years ago. It was amazing how flexible and accommodating the airlines were in regard to changing travel dates, etc. The places I was most excited about weren’t always my favorite. For example, I only stayed in Hong Kong for a few days (I had anticipated staying much longer, but was just not enjoying myself there). I stayed in India for 6 months because I loved it so much. I saved money by flying into Nepal from Thailand, then traveling by bus into India, and had the next leg of my journey planned as Bombay to Cairo. If it is an affordable destination, you can always travel pretty cheaply by bus, boat, or train the other countries in close vicinity. I plan to do the trip again one day when my son is a little older. It was the best experience of my life. It is a remarkably affordable thing to do. I was gone for a year. The $3,000 ticket does not seem expensive when you add up the expense of insurance, gas and maintenance on a car for a year.

    Reply

  • Katie — November 29th, 2010, 8:56 am

    wow, this post is wonderful! I’ve just started to look into RTW fares seriously after hearing about it briefly years ago.
    I am a girl from Hong Kong who just quit my job in September, and have been traveling on a shoestring (by buying cheap tickets and staying with friends) I’ve visited Cambodia and South Korea so far.
    I am planning a trip to Europe next spring. Initially I just wanted to buy round-trip tickets to a certain city like paris or London, then start traveling from there.
    But the idea of RTW tickets has tempted me to change my plan! Would you mind if I ask you a question? If my itinerary mainly consists of destinations in Europe plus a few others in SE Asia, Middle East or Northern Africa, is it still worth getting the RTW fares? I am not sure if I should just take budget airlines instead if I am mainly traveling in Europe.
    Or I should put my question this way: how many continents I should at least visit to justify the cost of the ticket? And how many cities in each continent I should visit in order to optimise?
    I hope I make myself misunderstood..Thank you so much!

    Katie

    Reply

    • Ray — December 1st, 2010, 6:48 am

      Hi Katie, I think given the destinations you have listed a RTW ticket might not be the best option for you. If you wanted to include North or South American destinations then a RTW may be a better option.

      You might consider using one of the Middle East based carriers such as Emirates or Etihad or Qatar Airways. You should be able to combine a Middle East stopover in both directions and use that as a base to take regional flights into North Africa and other parts of the Middle East. Emirates have an Arabian airpass that includes 12 destinations including Cairo, Damascus, Beirut, Amman, Tehran, check out their website for details or there are regional low cost carriers operating as well. Also you should be able to ‘open jaw’ in Europe, meaning fly into Paris and out of Rome for example.

      I should think you would be able to get very good S E Asian deals out of Hong Kong on Tiger Airways or Air Asia.

      Hope this is helpful.

      For people wanting to book a RTW fare on Star Alliance (those are what I have experience with) check the Terms and Conditions under Round The World fare first as it gives a pretty thorough overview.
      As a former reservations consultant with an airline, I would suggest they are great value and if you can stretch to business class, do it! You would be likely to save tens of thousands of dollars than if the flights were individually purchased. Lounge access, better baggage allowance and the difference in comfort on a long haul flight makes the experience so much better.

      Reply

      • katie — December 3rd, 2010, 3:32 am

        Thanks much for your advice. I think I’ll save the RTW trip for later when I travel to the Middle East, America, South America and Africa. I’ll just concentrate on Europe next spring, no frills, no fuss. And you’re right about Asia, it’s easy to get cheap deals here so I don’t need to include the area for a RTW itinerary.

        Happy travels!

        Reply

  • Juniper Currie — December 2nd, 2010, 6:44 pm

    I wish I had this info when I was planning my 2.5 year RTW. I used OneWorld (5 continents) and it was amazing. Definitely cost efficient and got me to places I would never have been able to afford.

    Tim, love your book 4HWW! I’m working towards another round the world
    trip :-)

    Reply

  • George Whitehall — December 8th, 2010, 6:28 am

    Thanks for the great article. Let me add my suggestion. As the low cost airlines spread across the world, it is now possible to make the whole journey using only those. I wrote about it on WhichAirline. With a bit of effort, it is possible to plan such a journey for under $1,000.

    Reply

  • Sonia — December 16th, 2010, 6:20 pm

    Wow, thanks so much for the tip about not flying through London to reduce the One World fare. Dropped $150!

    Reply

  • Ben Hoste — December 28th, 2010, 12:20 am

    Great post, thanks for all the great information. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and though a lot of this info was already on my radar there was a number of details and insights that were super helpful.

    I wanted to see if Chris (or Tim) or anyone else had any experience with the website BootsnAll? They seem to offer great service setting up custom RTW trips. Thoughts?

    http://www.bootsnall.com/

    Thanks!

    Reply

  • Karen Therese Mamparo — February 11th, 2011, 9:41 am

    I love vacations…I love going to different places…I love to explore things out… and with this blog, it was very helpful to know the do’s and don’ts of travelling.
    I have learned about RTW and the points that the writer discussed it was a boom, a great one especially to those who have a hard time to schedule there travels.The advantages was clearly discussed. Lastly, reading this blog I learned a lot and surely I would try this in my future plans. :)

    Reply

  • Tom Volpe — February 21st, 2011, 3:49 am

    This is a great, really inspirational post. Chris is right in saying that you can book Star Alliance and One World tickets here in the UK, but we also have other options that may not be available elsewhere. I have a post here on Qantas and Air New Zealand tickets which I think might be quite relevent to Enzo’s questions. I hope it is ok for me to include a link Tim?

    http://www.headingthere.co.uk/getting+around/flights/round+the+world+tickets/

    Reply

  • Laura — April 17th, 2011, 12:29 am

    Thank you so very much for this. I am planning a RTW year long sabbatical when I turn 40 in few months. Never thought I would be doing this, and did not even know how to get started on this with ticketing side.

    Your article was very helpful and good reference point to return to once I start the planning and booking within a month.

    Reply

  • Ted Nelson — April 22nd, 2011, 2:00 pm

    Some helpful hints on how the process works for those on an RTW agenda. $3,000-5,000 is a lot, but the cool thing is this can be paid for in advance when you are at home saving for the trip.

    Reply

  • Carl — June 24th, 2011, 12:57 am

    Great tips, although I don’t have plans to travel around the world for financial reasons, but those who can, this is definitely what they need to do.

    Reply

  • Simon Meakes — June 29th, 2011, 6:36 pm

    Excellent info, I used this info to get started and explored the One World Star Alliance, skyteam thing but stumbled accross this:

    Around the World Airline Ticket

    The big shots have been mentioned (Star Alliance, One World and Skyteam) so far, however the small operators should also be considered for those who are a little more budget concious and do not wish to travel to south america may want to consider the following operators also:

    The Great Escapade
    World Walkabout
    Four Corners

    This coupled with some low cost flights that you can book on the go, may be a cost effective option for some. I just thought I’d add to this awsome blog my 2 pence / cents worth. Also other round the world specialist such as airtreks I would mention include (in the UK at least):

    Travel Nation
    StaTravel
    Kilroy Travels

    Those of you from Austrailia will know also know about the Flight Centre.

    Reply

  • elaine — June 29th, 2011, 11:18 pm

    Hey, Tim thx for sharing this article. I’ve used it as a guide for planning RTW itineraries, but I hit snags trying different start point or directions and other alternatives. Of course there were those ones that did work, but seemed to be poor value.

    Since you and Chris are the expert on this topic, do you mind commenting on this RTW plan, please?

    I’m going on a 13-month trip starting this September in Nairobi to Joburg. I considered going east from here but my itinerary doesn’t seem to work one way or another when factoring the weather for some destinations in the itinerary, so I thought I’d head to Central America then on to South America then from there head to Asia (Japan, India). There’s a small issue in that I live in Vancouver, Canada so it seems that it works best if I were to buy a separate ticket to say Europe. The best combination worked out to about $7G, and I thought it could be lower.

    Is this direction of travel feasible or simply a terrible way to organize a trip? I found that there was really no considerable benefit traveling the opposite direction, but I have to admit I’m more inclined to travel westward from Africa, so I might be biased.

    Thanks, I’d appreciate any input at all!
    elaine

    Reply

  • LEO INGLESON — August 2nd, 2011, 8:22 pm

    I hope you are well.

    I would like to book an RTW starting from New Zealand where I currently live.

    Here is my finalised route. Please can you have a look at final route, schedule and pricing (including taxes). I am looking for the very, very best deal.

    10th Feb Auckland to Santiago
    11th Feb Santiago to Rio de Janeiro
    1st July Rio de Janeiro to London
    29th July London to Singapore/Hong Kong/KL
    8th August Singapore/Hong Kong/KL to Auckland

    Also, please can you recommend a budget. I’ll be staying mainly in backpackers and eating my own food from supermarkets. However, I won’t be wanting to miss out on things.

    Thanks for all your help. I look forward to hearing from you.

    Kind regards,

    Leo Ingleson

    Reply

  • Otten — August 8th, 2011, 10:57 pm

    So me and a friend of mine are thinking of planning a round the world trip, we went to your one world trip planner that you recommended. It was a very nice and helpful site, but what i can’t understand is their strange routing. We were trying to go from Berlin to Vienna and they would route us from Berlin to Helsinki (Finland) to Vienna. Is there a way we could avoud Helsinki, because we do not want to waste a stop on that. Thank you

    Reply

  • Doug — August 19th, 2011, 2:10 pm

    Just read your book Tim – I found there to be some great advice!

    I just got done traveling for 18 months myself. I’m hoping to hit the road again sometime in the not too distance future – just need to find a way to get some income streaming into my account.

    As far as air travel, I went a different route for my trip. I just booked things as I went – didn’t have to lock in destinations without a penalty and I really wanted to stay flexible. Particularly if one is traveling a bit in Asia and Europe, airlines like AirAsia and all the budget European airlines really make paying as you go comparable to a RTW ticket. In fact, I spent quite a bit less compared to booking a RTW ticket from the US.

    Some of the budget airlines can be hard to find on-line – but pretty obvious once you are there on the ground (in S America I made the mistake of booking a flight through LAN not knowing about Sky – who’s prices were about 1/3 of LAN’s).

    RTW programs I believe do allow you to accumulate air miles – most budget airlines only have their own programs (if any at all). Though another advantage of booking as you go is that I found RTW programs don’t service off the beaten path places (try flying into Laos for example). So you not only have the RTW ticket, but must supplement with other tickets to get to where you really want to go.

    Anyways, just something else for folks to consider.

    Reply

  • Aaron — September 11th, 2011, 10:48 pm

    Great post! Every time I read something like this it makes me want to plan a great, big trip. I will never be cured of this so-called ‘travel bug.’

    Back in college I was the type of person who traded in hours I could’ve spent partying it up at the bars or with friends on a Saturday night (Friday night sufficed) and instead I was online routing countless RTW routes online.

    My investment paid off when I was able to route a RTW trip leaving from Denver and allowed me to visit 11 countries for ~ $1,650.

    65 countries later, the thrill of reading a blog like this and imagining the possibilities comes right back to me! Thanks for the inspiration.

    Reply

  • Dru Lynch — September 15th, 2011, 12:33 pm

    My family and I are starting an around the world tour to support my husband’s music career, and we flew to Hawaii and are cruising to Auckland – cheapest way w/ 3 teenage boys and all-you-can buffets. I am wondering where we should buy our RTW tickets…we plan on heading to Australia and Indonesia after NZ and from there make our way to Europe and South America. Our budget is TIGHT. Is Indonesia still one of the best places to buy from?

    Also, I am wondering if you have any suggestions of Web Advertising to use as we will be blogging our adventures and the appeal will range in ages from 13-55, sports, food, teen stuff, parenting, mid-life issues etc.

    Reply

  • Andy — September 19th, 2011, 9:19 pm

    Awesome guide Tim! I’ve never imagined that RTW tickets would sound good.. :) . Thanks!

    Reply

  • Thadeus — September 29th, 2011, 7:45 pm

    Cool, I have been planning for a trip and your post is great!

    Reply

  • Katie — November 6th, 2011, 10:34 am

    Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I have been looking at purchasing a RTW ticket, and it is daunting! This definitely helped!

    Reply

  • Duane Storey — November 12th, 2011, 3:58 am

    There’s actually another subtlety that wasn’t mentioned. In Canada you can purchase a ticket and it’ll be priced base on where the first flight leaves from. So even though you’re in Canada, if you leave from South Africa, you can get the South African price. True, you still have to do a return ticket to South Africa as well (or Japan, or wherever you start from), but it often can result in a savings as well.

    From WikiTravel:

    “The famous Canadian exception means that RTWs sold in Canada cost the same as at the point where the trip begins. For example, that means you can buy a ticket in Canada for an RTW beginning in Thailand and pay the much cheaper Thai price. Of course, you have to get to Thailand in order to start the RTW but the extra ticket you need will probably cost less than the difference in the RTW fares; in other words, you still save money”

    Reply

  • josefina — January 24th, 2012, 1:20 pm

    Hi Tim, thank you very much for all the information. It is so usefull for my around the world trip I am begining next month!
    I would like to understand something you said. You wrote “Freedom and Flexibility. I change my flights all the time, and with RTW tickets, it’s easy. Date and time changes are free, and you can make changes anytime — from far in advance all the way up to the day of departure”.
    What I researched is that for Star Alliance and One World you have to set your destinations and dates when you buy the ticket. And if you change something after this you have to pay an extra charge. Could you explain if I misunderstood you, or there is something I don t know yet?
    Than you very much!

    Reply

  • Diane Wood — January 30th, 2012, 1:34 pm

    Hi there – I bought a Pan Am/Quantas around the world ticket in 1987 — cost $1500! I flew from NYC to Limerick,Heathrow to Bankok, Singapore to Darwin, Sydney to Honolulu, Honolulu to LA, LA to NYC. I did a lot of ground transportation on my own for obvious reasons — the ticket was valuable and invaluable because of the amazing experience — plus I earned mileage as I traveled that bought even more air flights. I worked twice during that year – once on a cattle station in Queensland, Australia — and once as a nanny in Edinborough, Scotland. By the time I got to Hawaii, I was completely out of money. (I had $25 Australian dollars but at the airport, they told me there was a $25 departure tax — yikes! At least I had it!) This was tricky. The way I solved it was that once I got to Hawaii, I asked someone to share their cab with me into the city (Honolulu). My goal was to find a YWCA. Howver, the Y they dropped me off at was for men only, but there they told me about a temp agency that hires/pays by the day. Not true, unfortunately! However, as luck would have it (and if there’s anything I learned on the road those years was to have faith and not freak out — if you approach these things KNOWING something will work out, everyone helps you. Start freaking out and they all run away fast. Anyway, as luck would have it, another woman waiting to talk to the temp agency that day turned out to be the night manager of the local YWCA! She lent me a $1 to take the bus to the Y at Punahoe and Wilder in Honolulu. There, the manager listened to my sotry and said she hears them all the time — but for some reason she believed that I would find a job within days and be able to pay the bill soon enough. So, she gave me a shared room that included 2 meals a day, $10 for bus fare in my mailbox and within two days I was working as a temp at a local law firm. What a lesson in life (and luck) this all was. Are you thinking about doing this kind of thing, too? Do it! I was a 35-year old woman with lots of fears and not that much confidence — but apparently I have ben more Irish wanderlust to counteract all that. Voila! My dream came true and now 2012 is the 25th anniversary of my trip. I’m not quite ready to go again financially (I’m facing retirement in a very few years) but sometime between now and the 30th anniversary of my trip — I’m seriously thinking of doing it again. It will cost a lot more, and I will take it more slowly in some ways, but the world is much more than the little trench I dig every day from home to work and the houses of my best friends. Happy travels to you. If I can do it – so can you. Diane

    Reply

    • Kat H — June 5th, 2012, 3:16 pm

      That was very inspiring! I am about to turn 32, recently out of a job, single, and living with my mother (short-term). This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but always find myself giving up and re-joining the rat race. When my last contract ended a few weeks ago, I began thinking about it again. Seems like the perfect time, because let’s be honest…if you constantly worry about when the perfect time will be, it’ll never come. I believe my fear is what keeps me from doing it, so it was refreshing to hear your story, and know that it is possible to do and others do this every day. Thanks for sharing, and I hope you get to go on your next trip again very soon!

      Reply

  • Shelley — May 12th, 2012, 1:13 pm

    I received a free trip to Ireland when I gave up my seat on an overbooked plane to a Mormon missionary! It was almost Thanksgiving, and the staff were begging for volunteers but everyone wanted to get home. I thought, “This will only delay me by 12 hours and I’ll still get home in time for turkey. Why not?” So I hopped off and scored a free hotel room, an upgrade to first class on my flight home the next day, and enough airline credits to book a free round-trip flight to Ireland three months later :)

    Reply

  • Phil — May 14th, 2012, 11:34 pm

    Hi there. I’ve just booked London-HongKong-Shanghai-Auckland-Rarotonga-LosAngeles-London for less than $2000, on an Air New Zealand international multi-stop ticket. The exact same itinerary booked as a Star Alliance round-the-world fare would cost $3500. I’m glad I took the time to shop around a bit, and I’d like other people to know about this great deal too. Best regards, Phil

    Reply

  • Rebecca — June 26th, 2012, 12:18 am

    Hey,
    Thanks for the useful info, i’m just in the process of trying to figure out how to go about planning a trip :-)

    Please can someone help.. my biggest problem so far is this:

    I want to search RWT options now (June 2012) to start the trip in Dec 2012 and end roughly Dec 2013. The airlines don’t let you search more than a year ahead so, i can search the flights up until June 2013, which is great but then i can’t search any later which means that the proposed itinery is saying ‘invalid’ as it isn’t closed or completed (doesn’t end in starting place).

    How do you get around this? I guess i’m missing something but i can’t see how anyone could complete the itinery and book the trip, unless they are leaving the very next day on the years trip.. which i doubt is rarely ever the case!

    Please help…. This is driving me crazy!

    Reply

  • Carolina — September 24th, 2012, 12:45 am

    Hi!!
    i just made the decision to do my first long term trip around Asia… super excited but also super stressed and confused in organizing… so after looking around online I found you blog- it was of great help! but… after trying out my intererary, there are certain things that dont match up. for example im looking on star alliance and there is no flight from beijing to shanghai?? or bangkok to koh samui?? what am i doing wrong?
    im planning on doing the following:
    milan, tokyo, osaka (beacause I want to go to kyoto via train), beijing, shanghai, hong kong, bangkok 9to go to cambogia via bus), koh samui (koh panghan), singapore and back to milan…

    i just cant seam to get it right…
    i tried on Indie as well.. how is that??

    can you give me any advice?
    thanks in advance for all your help..!!
    c

    Reply

    • Phil — September 24th, 2012, 7:22 pm

      Hi Carolina

      Maybe you’re not doing anything wrong – I also began planning my trip using the Star Alliance, and was frustrated that it couldn’t get me everywhere that I wanted. In the end I saved a lot of money by sticking to the flights of just one of the Star Alliance airlines, and dropped Beijing from my itinerary. By the way, if you’re going to Angkor Wat, it’s amazing, but you’ll be passing through this place: http://wikitravel.org/en/Poipet
      So be prepared for some challenges while in Cambodia!

      Reply

      • Carolina — September 25th, 2012, 12:50 pm

        thanks for your reply!
        i’ve been trying to look at more ticket options since I need to apply for a chinese visa as well before going over there…
        i think One world seams to be the best option since i will only be travelling in Asia..

        i have dates pretty much set, and doubt that i will need to change them unless something happens..
        what do you think is my best option?
        when you say you stuck with one airline that means all flights with AA for example?

        regarding Piopet- i was planning on just taking a tour bus and going through directly to the border.. i did not realize that it was suck a hassle…

        ive been spending quite some time looking into all this and the more i look the more it gets confusing and with so many diffrent options!

        i wish there was some agency that i could call and just tell them where i want to go and when and they do it all for me :-)

        thanks again!
        c

        Reply

        • Phil — September 28th, 2012, 12:32 am

          Glad to help! My adventure begins next month, and you can find the details of the flights I booked on this website, just two posts above yours. I found it was cheapest to book the main journey with just a single airline, and then add on additional destinations using local airlines. There are some real bargains out there – for example my flight from Hong Kong to Cebu cost just $25! So in your case, I’d consider flying with Alitalia from Milan to Tokyo and back again, and booking everything in between using local airlines:
          http://wikitravel.org/en/Discount_airlines_in_Asia
          Doing things this way does mean booking everything piecemeal, which takes some effort, but it can save you a lot of money and give you much more flexibility too.
          As for Cambodia, a little bit of hassle is essential to any great adventure, but just be aware that it’s a lot less developed than the other places you’re going to. People are very poor there – I remember being chased around Angkor Wat by a lot of children selling and begging, and because the hotels were purely for foreign tourists, they were more expensive than the ones in Thailand, even though their quality was much lower. But at least they’ve now paved the road from Poipet to Siem Reap – it was 8 hours of pot-holed hell when I did it a few years ago… ;)

  • alex — September 25th, 2012, 7:51 am

    Thanks for the advices Tim,

    I would like to use your experience on this, if possible..

    I have planned my RTW with Star Alliance and this is my route:
    Milan – Athens – Istanbul – Dubai – Bombay / Mumbai – Madras / Chennai – Bangkok – Beijing – Auckland – Sydney – Honolulu, HI – Los Angeles, CA – New York, NY – Prague – Milan.
    I have submitted the plan and then i have got an email from airtrecks.com.
    telling me that i have to book the all thing not before 6 months to be able to have a better discount…., this is the price at the moment…US$4277.
    Is airtrecks a partner?
    Can i go for it? ( i am waiting a few weeks as i want to depart in March and it is still early x the bookings..)
    Can you give any other advices on the trip at all?
    What do you think about the destinations?

    Thank you very much

    Alex

    Reply

  • Peter — November 8th, 2012, 8:06 pm

    I was wondering if there is some way to combine a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway with a round the world ticket. Any suggestions ? I figure that if I did a round-trip on the railway that would work, but I’m not sure I want to do that both ways, although I could go from Vladivostok to Moscow and then Moscow to Beijing, and then find my way back by land to Vladivostok ?? Hmm.. that might not be so easy.

    Reply

  • Ryan — January 1st, 2013, 11:54 am

    Hi – I am looking to book a One World RTW ticket that starts in Europe but I live in the US. I am not 100% clear on how to book this – do I call then US number to do an initial booking and then have to contact a local airline in Europe to process the payment? If anyone has done this I would love to hear more as the Europe fare is around $2000 cheaper than starting in the US!

    Reply

  • asher — January 11th, 2013, 9:15 pm

    hey chris/tim, thanks for all the great info, really big help. my question is, can you say fly into London then travel by train to Rome and then continue your RTW ticket from there?

    Reply

  • Nancy — February 4th, 2013, 8:36 am

    Do you have any advice about getting the best deal on a business class RTW ticket? Are we better off just using it for the long haul flights ( since the short flights do not usually have bus. class, but you are charged for the higher class anyway)?

    Reply

  • John Dawson — March 14th, 2013, 11:39 pm

    Hey thanks for the tips and helpful advice. I really appreciate your writing on how to buy a round the world plane tickets. Getting air tickets at cheapest price is really a tough job. I am sure your article will help other visitors also who are looking for information on same topic. :)

    Reply

  • Ghanshyamray Pandya — March 15th, 2013, 1:40 am

    Its very good for World Tour.But now I can’t plan .I am retired 63 years old.I WILL TRY IT IN MY NEXT BIRTH. GOD HELP ME.

    Reply

  • Missy Stewart — March 18th, 2013, 11:09 pm

    What incredible info! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences.

    Reply

  • sarah oulier — April 1st, 2013, 8:00 pm

    Hi Tim first of all thank you for this very precise article
    it s exatly what i neede to see clearer.

    I m trying to organise a word tour ticket ( i live in australia, perth but i can start my travel in indonesia if cheaper ) but i cannot find anny wotch goes to mongolia and nepal do you know why ?
    thank you

    Reply

  • sarah oulier — April 1st, 2013, 8:06 pm

    ps : best trvel deal
    that was in yangshuo ( in china near GUILIN)
    i could get 5 nigths in a 3 beds hotel room with heating and bathroom
    for 50 yuans (7 euros ) per nigth
    the hotel was clean pretty in the center of the town
    and its true it is called “no name guest house ” they have two building in the same strre one much better than the other
    always ask to see differnts room before to book it they can be same price same hotel but so differnt

    Reply

  • Mark Scheuer — April 5th, 2013, 8:46 am

    Chris,
    What is the advantage or disadvantage of purchasing an RTW ticket from a single airline that flies to many destinations?

    Regards,
    Mark

    Reply

  • Doris — April 8th, 2013, 1:27 am

    Hey everyone!
    I just found this site. It’s April 2013, and i’ve been traveling for 5 yrs. I would love to do the RTW ticket now. I’m in thailand and i’ll be heading to toronto, israel, europe (anywhere is good, any suggestions of cheap places to travel?), russia, ukraine, and South America… any recommendations of some itineraries with these countries?

    thanks for this site btw,,,
    Doris

    Reply

    • Ehsan — April 27th, 2013, 9:19 am

      maybe it wouldn’t fit in your current itinerary, but Iran is a must-see and considering the recent nose dive of the national currency, everything is ridiculously cheap for you (not for Iranians though!)

      Reply

  • MCI — April 13th, 2013, 3:20 pm

    Hey Thank you for all the information you have made available ! I’m currently looking at the Star alliance book and fly map and it seems it is both by segments and mileage?
    Is that correct or is it just an issue with the program?

    because I still have over 10,000 miles left to use but still limited to 16 segments…

    Reply

  • Kika Moretti — April 16th, 2013, 4:16 pm

    Hi Tim, inspiring article, since my son is thinking of leaving on a RWT soon.
    I’ve started checking out fares, yet it seems to nme that all deals leave from the UK. Now we live in French Polynesia, and he’d like to start off from NZ, work there a couple of months then on to Australia Bali South Africa, Europe, South America. Tickets from Tahiti ti Europe are veeery expensive. How can I work that out? Thanks for any help or advise you can giveon that one. Bye Kika

    Reply

  • Zac — April 29th, 2013, 2:37 pm

    What do you think a rough estimate of the ammount of money you should bring with you after spending the money on the ticket? (for expenses, hotels, food whatever)

    Reply

  • Angela — May 3rd, 2013, 10:58 am

    I am hoping to utilize this information. We have already been researching to see if we have the means to do this trip. Thank you for taking the time to write out all this great advice.

    Reply

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