Round the World Resources

Last year we looked at the possibility of doing a Round the World trip. After pulling the world atlas off the wall and with a notepad, listing all of our desired countries, we then turned our attention to of flights.

There are two main tickets to get around the world - OneWorld and Star Alliance. Both have their pros and cons, but the main way to decide which one to go for will depend on the countries you want to visit. Why? Well, in our case we wanted to spend a lot of time in Australia, serviced by Qantas part of the OneWorld alliance. As a result, we decided to use the OneWorld ticket.

The next step was route planning. This is very important as once you have paid for your ticket, there are financial penalties for changing the routing (and changing flight times on some tickets too). Getting the route right before you leave is therefore very important. Thankfully, OneWorld have a very good Itinerary Planner where you can point and click your destinations and then work out flights. This allows you to plan your trip from the comfort of your home, with you in control instead of sitting in the travel agents office. Once you have your routing, you can then print and email it to your travel agent who can then ticket it for you.

When you plan your routing, you must keep the following in mind:

1. You are limited to 16 sectors

The introduction of the e-ticket means that the computers (apparently) can only handle 16 sectors, with a sector being the travel between 2 airports.

2. Sectors include Ground sectors

If you were to fly to New York, and then catch a train or drive to Washington, that counts as a sector. This is important as you are paying for 16 sectors, so if you have a ground sector in your routing, not only are you paying the airlines for it in your ticket, but you are also paying for the other mode of ground transport to get you there. Based on that, you could be looking at an expensive sector, so only use ground sectors where absolutely necessary.

3. Pricing is per continent or based on mileage

OneWorld tickets are priced according to the number of continents you visit (with a limited number of sectors in each continent) whereas the Star Alliance ticket is based on mileage.

4. Changing your ticket after you have paid is expensive.

Depending on the ticket you get, you might have to pay for date changes, but you definitely will have to pay if you want to reroute the ticket. What you must also keep in mind is that even though you have a oneworld ticket, it is initially ticketed as (for example) a British Airways ticket. If you then arrive in Australia and ask Qantas to change something, they will charge you to transfer the ticket to a Qantas ticket, and then charge you for the change. Do this too often and your ticket becomes very expensive.

5. Enroll to get the miles

As I have already said, I am a fan of Reward Programs so make sure you are a member of an associated airmiles program. But, read into the program to make sure you get the most out of it. For example, you may fly enough miles to go Silver on BA, but you need to fly on 4 BA flights before they will upgrade you. In that case, it may be more worthwhile to enroll with the airline that you fly the most eg:Qantas.

Always remember to try and keep your options open by initially purchasing the most flexible ticket you can. It is amazing how quickly plans change once you start your travelling, and an inflexible ticket will only limit your experience or cost you money in the long run.

With the amount of information and gadgets available online these days, there is plenty of opportunities to plan your journey in a stress free environment, before going to the travel agents. The OneWorld planner has the fare restrictions built in, and will warn you when you have done something wrong, allowing you to build a valid trip.

To avoid having to incur unecessary costs, keep the 24 hour reservations line of the initial airline handy, and use online tools such as Skype to phone them and change your ticket.

Spend time to investigate your airmiles program to make sure you get the most out of it.