RTW tickets

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<hr>For example, for a flight from Johanesburg to Sydney they routed me through Dubai and Bangkok which seemed a bit crazy to me. <hr></blockquote>
It's not that crazy. Only Qantas and South African Airways do that run non-stop, and they're both pricey.

UAE-based Etihad does it for US$776 one-way including tax - about $500 less than the carriers with non-stops.

Comes down to time vs money.

In your position I'd book it as I went, but bear in mind that South Africa can be a little tetchy about people who arrive without onward tickets.

Try Trailfinders on the High Street - they will offer the same tickets but perhaps most importantly a different opinion. The quality of the sales staff can vary greatly at these places; the first time I went into Trailfinders the person didn't really have a clue (but to be fair, I didn't have a concrete itinerary either). The second time I went in with equally vague plans the guy spent an hour with me going over various routes and saved me about £300 by recommending a similar ticket but with more overland travel.

Of course, once you have the advice you don't necessariily have to buy through them - take it away with you and find an online broker that will give you the same ticket for cheaper :D

Laura,
We have booked with STA we leave for a world trip in 3 weeks!! We did have a similar problem in the way that they offered us alternatives to what we actually wanted in terms of the connection flights you can get from each airport. We told the lady what we wanted and it is possible they have arranged it all for us. We have a 7 stop RTW Year ticket for £1200 each including taxes!! You can do practically whatever route you like and there are many alternative stop overs you can do. Don't be put off by thinking you can't change it. STA have been excellent as well as being very cheap compared to other travel agents. We have got their insurance too even though its fairly pricey compared to the net their policy is excellent. My advice is to book with STA but don't book excursions and day trips through them you can do that when you're abroad for much cheaper.

STA also will be able to offer you alternative stop overs i.e we wanted to fly into san fran from uk and fly out of LA to auckland, we were initially told this was not possible but it is and we have the tickets I think we paid a premium of about £30 to do it our way.

Good Luck

Happy Saving

PS. Something we have found very useful about STA is if you book with them you get 10% discount at all the Nomads Stores in London and fotted around the country we have saved loads and loads of money on all the stuff we have brought including our bags and the staff in these stores are so helpful.

Oops I forgot to mention. Its £20 to change the dates of a flight once its booked. You must assign a date to every flight tho at the time of booking then you can amend it when your out there. We plan to do this depending on how much we like the places we go to.

We are 4 months into our trip and used STA. They have been wonderful. They have contracts with certain airlines and those may be the best route you can get for your money. We ran into the same problem when booking some or our tickets. Have you thought about stopping over to Dubai or Bangkok 1st them moving on? Sometimes if it is a place you may want to stop over sometimes the cost to stop at that location is nothing or just a bit extra. Just a thought.. we ended up doing that with one or our STA tickets. If you give them your entire route, including possible on way tickets and overland a good agent should be able to route it cheapest for you as well as tell you possible "free or very cheap" stopovers. This way you get the best route for your money.