Round the world flights

Shock · 19 May 2013 at 23:46

Can anyone offer any advice on how to get the best deals when booking flights around the world?

I've got a rough itinerary for next year which is basically SE Asia > South America > Australia

I think a single RTW ticket is out of the question because of the backtracking and I don't want to deviate from this order. Also I'm not planning on being back in the UK within 12 months.

I'd also prefer to stay as flexible as possible so thinking I should just book each leg separately.

Google is showing

One way to Thailand - £400
Thailand > Nepal > Thailand - £250
Thailand > Peru > Thailand - £1200
Thailand > Australia - £200

Is this a good way to go about it? Some of these flights were showing cheaper prices when booking a return.
How far in advance should they be booked to get the best rates?

First time I've planned anything like this so if anyone is in the know, I'm all ears. Thanks.

Vanilla · 20 May 2013 at 00:57

I'm currently in the middle of my travels and looked into this before I started. I went UK > Sydney > Fiji > Sydney > South America. I'm writing this from Cali, Colombia

I went with individual tickets in the end because I had no end date for my travels really and wanted flexibility. Best choice as now I need to go home for a wedding and my plans are all in the air.

However, rtw tickets are a really cheap way of getting around so think hard! Just because you have some quotes now doesn't mean the prices will be like that when you actually book. I had a nasty shock when Qantas wanted $3k AUD to fly me to South America. LAN wanted $5k!! You don't ant to book flights in advance because (trust me) your plans will change when you are on your travels.

- Don't worry abut back tracking. Consider just using the RTW ticket for the main hub travels and you buy the backtracking tickets separately.

- I was going to travel for more than 12 months but was still going to use a RTW ticket. Consider making you last location right at the end of the 12 months but not actually taking the final leg. I was looking at a RTW ticket Sydney to Sydney but I was actually going to end in Bangkok and get a one way ticket back to the uk.

So are you going Asia > South America > Australia? If so why? That's a really weird order!

Shock · 20 May 2013 at 02:00

That gives me some food for thought thanks. It's definitely the South America bit causing the biggest headache at the moment!

How are you finding Colombia? It's near the top of my hit list. Are you keeping a thread/blog?

Yeah it's a weird order. Basically I want to spend most of my time in the cheap third world countries until the cash starts to run out. I've got friends and family in Australia so plan on working there afterwards and possibly settling if I like the place

Vanilla · 20 May 2013 at 02:21

Shock said:
That gives me some food for thought thanks. It's definitely the South America bit causing the biggest headache at the moment!

How are you finding Colombia? It's near the top of my hit list. Are you keeping a thread/blog?

Yeah it's a weird order. Basically I want to spend most of my time in the cheap third world countries until the cash starts to run out. I've got friends and family in Australia so plan on working there afterwards and possibly settling if I like the place

Yeah getting over to South America can be a pain.

Colombia is great so far, everyone i've met says it's a highlight and it's defo worth spending a chunk of time here.

I've been to Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia so far so let me know if you need any advice or tips about those places.

A lot of South America is NOT cheap....so be prepared to burn through cash!! When you start running out of cash it's gonna be one hell of a plane ticket over to Australia!

Seft · 20 May 2013 at 09:51

If you can get a return flight out to Asia, then you could use a fare like http://www.oneworld.com/flights/multi-continent-fares/circle-pacific/

Also NB that you can often get much cheaper flights from places like Paris or Milan as the taxes etc can be lower. Worth thinking about if you're time rich and cash poor - the cost of getting to Europe will probably net out the saving, but you get to see an extra city. If you're lucky you could be able to book the return leg back to the UK as well.