Around the World

The best travel bargain around - and this is how to take advantage of it !

The two leading RTW fares are offered by the main airline alliances:

One World

Cathay Pacific/British Airways/Qantas/American/Lan Peru/Finnair/Iberia/Lan Chile

STAR Alliance

United/Singapore Airlines/Thai/Lufthansa/Air Canada/British Midland/All Nippon/Air New Zealand/Varig Brazil/SAS/Mexicana/Austrian/Lauda and Tyrolean

(and coming to STAR soon - Asiana (Korea)/Lot (Poland) and Spanair)

The rules

Basically you have one year. You must travel in one direction - east or west - only one Atlantic and one Pacific crossing is allowed - with no backtracking and you must start and finish in the same country. Assume a minimum number of three stopovers and a maximum of fifteen.

Fares

For One World the fare is based on the number of continents that you visit including your start point. The continents are Europe (inc the Middle East and North Africa), Africa, Asia, Southwest Pacific, North America and South America.

ie. Leave from HKG for Europe, onto the US, down to New Zealand and Australia and back to HKG is 4 continents.

Adult Fares start at HK$ 20,560 for 3 continents in economy, and HK$39,220 for three continents in business. Add approx HK$ 3,000 per continent in economy and HK$ 6,000 per continent in business class.

STAR Alliance fares are based on miles flown.

                                            Up to 29,000 miles    Up to 34,000 miles    Up to 39,000 miles

Economy                                HKS 20,900                HK$ 24,030                HK$ 28,210

Business                                  HK$ 37,100                HK$ 42,670                HK$ 50,090

STAR or One World

That may well depend on whose FFP you pefer to use. RTW is a lot of new points ! I like STAR for greater access to the Americas with Air Canada, Varig and Mexicana. BMI, Lufthansa and SAS give you lots of European choices; SQ will always be a quality carrier; and All Nippon and United are good choices if you want to route through Japan.

One World's strength is Australia and New Zealand though Qantas; the demise of Ansett hurts Star Alliance.

A cheaper option

Chawla Travel (www.chawlatravel.com) in Bangkok has been arranging RTW trips for ever. The more complex your trip the more they seem to enjoy the challenge. If you can take a cheap fare or mileage points to Bangkok you will make significant savings buying your RTW fare in that city.