Are there any around that allow last minute date changes during the trip with no fees? and what about routing changes for free (as long as I'm traveling in the 'same direction' or a bit sideways?
And which one has the lowest price departing either from London or Paris in Feb/March these days?
Advice appreciated!
We travelled on a One World Alliance RTW ticket and didn't pay any fees for changing dates (we changed almost all of our dates along the way!). At some airports they tried to charge us but when we insisted that that we shouldn't because it was a "paper ticket" they eventually agreed. You basically have to go to a service counter for whatever airline you've booked on, and they put a sticker on your ticket with the changed date.
Try and change dates between continents with a month to spare...we ended up having to buy another ticket from Nairobi to Mumbai because all the RTW seats were booked way in advance.
Every ticket comes with certain restrictions. You're asking to have your cake and eat it to. Then you go on to ask, 'And which one has the lowest price'.
You might be able to change dates as sjandsk suggests, but not change route. Even for date changes, it assumes there is a RTW tariff seat vacant and that is not always the case. RTW tickets are priced the way they are on the premise that you will set your itinerary beforehand and make little or no changes as you go. If you want flexibility you buy one flight at a time. Flexibility and cheapest NEVER go together.
I travelled on a Star Alliance ticket. There was no charge for schedule changes as long as they were made at least two hours before the flight. There was a $100 charge for re-calculating the ticket and no refund given for any possible savings in the re-routing of the ticket including airport taxes that had already been paid. In my case, I had a ticket that was going to allow me to fly on some of the final legs of my ticket capetown-frankfurt, cairo, madrid, nyc, toronto, vancouver and I changed it to jo'burg-frankfurt-west palm beach-toronto- vancouver. Re-routing and recalculating an RTW ticket is a lot of work.
The cheapest RTW tickets go from hub to hub and are limited to five or six cities. Its then up to you to travel around that hub and back again. i.e. Delhi, Bangkok, LA, London are all hub cities.
If you book/buy an RTW ticket, I'd suggest you only book the first few flights and the last flight. Leave the other flight dates open and book them a couple of weeks in advance as you go.
Remember that most RTW tickets are a lot of work. Don't screw your travel agent by making them and the airlines do a lot of work for nothing. Use them properly and they can be exceptional value. I think I had something like 23 flights for around $6000 CDN.Then I booked a few more in China, Australia as well as SEA to and from India that could not be accomodated on the RTW for another couple thousand. (at the time this would have been a total of $5200 USD)
If I had to do it again, as a North American I would fly to London and buy my ticket there. The cheapest RTW's depart London or from Down Under.
Thanks for all the replies!
Anyone know if there is a easy and reliable tool out that allows a 'do-it-yourself ' mileage caculation .....AND will show those outrageous taxes/fees for any possible routing as well?
Also, I'd like to plan my trip with all departure dates on overbooked flights...to maximize to possibilty of being 'bumped' Any good tools for that as well?
I'm looking for a departure from London in the Spring to all places tropical....and want a maximum amount of miles per Pound Sterling....
Anyone know if there is a easy and reliable tool out that allows a 'do-it-yourself ' mileage caculation .....AND will show those outrageous taxes/fees for any possible routing as well?
Also, I'd like to plan my trip with all departure dates on overbooked flights...to maximize to possibilty of being 'bumped' Any good tools for that as well?
I'm looking for a departure from London in the Spring to all places tropical....and want a maximum amount of miles per Pound Sterling....
Mapping tool - http://gc.kls2.com/
Fee calculator - No, the situation is too dynamic, especially regarding YQ (fuel surcharge) tariffs. There was a guy in Australia who tried to keep up with fees/taxes by country and carrier, but the burden became too much for him and he bagged it. Use a plug of 10% - 14% of base fare on most RTW itineraries and you won't be far off.
Overbooked - In economy class RTWs you won't be in a fare bucket that scores overbooking bumps. In fact, you'll be lucky to get availability at all in some cases on heavily booked routes. Many is the economy class RTWer that's waited pretty much forever for seats on e.g. Auckland - Santiago.
Leaving in the "spring" means you're leaving in the "autumn" for many "tropical" places, and/or the "rainy" season for some others.
Edited by: Gardyloo
"Overbooked - In economy class RTWs you won't be in a fare bucket that scores overbooking bumps"
Does that mean that even if I pre-book and get confirmation on all my flight dates/legs in advance....and 'volunteer' to give up my seat on an overbooked flight.....there will be no compensation?
No you'll get compensated if it happens. It's just that economy RTWs book into fare classes that have very few seats available on any given flight; the airlines hold open many more economy seats for higher-rev pax. You're aware, I assume, that "economy" has many different ticketing classes, from highly restricted (like RTW seats) to unrestricted, with the price going up as travel flexibility becomes greater. Thus if there's availability for you at all, it means there's tons of availability in the cabin overall, ergo lower chance of the plane being so full that they have to ask for bump volunteers.
The only services that give a real-time view of bookings are paid (and rather expensive) computer reservation system monitors. And even they don't give a good picture because flights that bump usually do so because of walk-up pax (in quantity) or canceled flights where pax need to be re-accommodated. There's no way to know in advance when that will happen.
Edited by: Gardyloo