The Latest on Round-the-World Airfares

An around-the-world air trip, for many, is the ultimate travel experience. Surprisingly, despite the recent steady hikes in ordinary airfares, set-price round-the-world (RTW) tickets have changed little since I last covered them in 2006.

The basic idea of an RTW ticket is obviously to travel around the world at a set fare, regardless of the number of stops or mileage, within ticket limits. Starting from the United States, you either head to Europe, then Asia, maybe the South Pacific, and home, or you do it in the opposite direction. You can also add South Africa and South America. In any case, you have to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, each just once.

The most popular and best-known RTW tickets are on the three big multi-airline alliances:

• Star Alliance is the largest and currently includes Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, BMI, Egyptair, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, Shanghai, Singapore, South African, Spanair, Swiss, TAP, Thai, Turkish, United, and US Airways, with Continental planning to join. RTW pricing is based on total mileage; current rates for 29,000 total miles of travel are $4,069 in economy and $7,880 in business; rates for 34,000 and 39,000 miles are comparable. You're allowed three to 15 stopovers within a total of 10 days to a year. Some backtracking is OK within the mileage limit, but with restrictions.
• Oneworld (American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malev, Qantas, and Royal Jordanian) and SkyTeam (Aeroflot, Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, China Southern, CSA, Delta, KLM, Korean, and Northwest; Continental is currently in but moving to Star Alliance) offer similar programs.
• A few smaller airline combinations offer somewhat less expensive RTW tickets with much less routing flexibility than the three big alliances. And similar circle-Pacific and other regional tickets are also available. For more information on these options, log onto AirlineTimetable.com.

Typically, on any program, you have a year to travel, with a minimum of a week or 10 days. Most set both minimum and maximum numbers of stops; some further set a maximum number within each region. In most cases, you must book the first leg of your trip in advance. You must also specify your routing and stops at the time you buy your ticket, but you can leave all legs after the first as "open" and schedule the flights later. You can usually change flight dates with no charge or only a minor charge, but you have to pay to change your routing.

All alliance RTW tickets are available in economy and most are also available in business and first class. I know business class is expensive, but when you're planning to spend some 60 hours flying, RTW is one of the times I'd seriously consider riding up front. And alliance-ticket RTW business-class prices are pretty good, especially in comparison to regular business tickets.

If you're willing to do RTW in the cattle car, specialized discount RTW agencies can usually beat the alliances' economy-class prices, often by a wide margin. Air Brokers International sells economy-class RTW itineraries starting at around $1,500 and offers quite a few choices under $2,000. Airtreks and World Travelers' Club offer similar deals. Typically, however, discount deals are a lot less flexible than alliance tickets.

Whatever you do, don't plan RTW travel unless you have at least a month for the trip. Any shorter and you'll be in a perpetual state of jet lag.

Go east or go west? That depends on how much you like or dislike overnight red-eye flights. If you like (or at least don't mind) them, going eastward usually requires three overnight flights—and avoids the costs of three nights in hotels. If you hate red-eyes as much as I do, you can find at least some westward itineraries that have no overnights at all.