Trip around the world from/to BKK? Anybody done?

[moonseeker]

Hi all:

Anybody done a trip around-the-world from/to BKK. I would love to include Australia, South-Africa, Brasil, Ecuador, Panama, Florida, Nashville, New Orleans, California, possibly but not mandatory Portugal, Italy in it. Preferably with business class flights.

Any feedback how to start planning and more very welcome. Thank you much. MS>

[bendejo]

I looked into it a few years ago, didn't do it. There's all sort of gotchas if you change schedules or routes, and I wanted the freedom to stay a few days/weeks extra (or less, maybe). I think with a little ingenuity and a lot of research you can roll your own and to hell with all the ticketing rules. There's all sorts of low-cost regional carriers these days. For more info check flyertalk. Star Alliance has a very nice trip builder program you can doodle around with

http://bookandfly.staralliance.com/en/bookandfly

Edited July 9, 2016 by bendejo

[craigt3365]

Agreed. The rules can be very strict. I'm on a lengthy trip now and have found one way fares are almost 1/2 of what round trip fares are. I'm stringing together quite a few one ways, several done only a week in advance or so and I still got great fares. Allows me to not have to plan far into the future.

Do some research into the various fares and see how it works out.

Bootsnall.com and airtreks.com are worth a peek also.

[sanukjim]

Yes,Back in the days of regulation when Thailand did not belong to IATA. $1400 USD with a side trip from at least one city on the route.

[mwbrown]

I did, using the OneWorld airline group on a 7 month around the world trip last July to this February. I went with OneWorld because I'm a 2 million miler on American Airlines. They call it RTW, Round The World. Given the vast number of carriers in the group it's pretty easy to get where you want to go.

I went Bangkok->Manila->Auckland->Sydney->Vancouver->Los Angeles->St. Louis->Miami->Glasgow->Copenhagen->Istanbul->Bangkok. I needed a couple of intermediate stops and a land segment in Europe.

The web site to plan your trip is here: https://rtw.oneworld.com/rtw/ You can select Economy, Business or First. If you pick Economy you cannot upgrade specific flight segments.

There are a few rules, like a maximum of 16 flight segments (even if you need a stopover at B to get from A to C counts as 2), a land segment between two airports counts as one flight segment, there are limits to the number of stops in each continent. The web site is good because it allows you to build your itinerary and it will keep applying the rules to let you know if you're in compliance.

Once you purchase the ticket, the airports are locked and not changeable. But before you leave or when you're on the trip you can make changes to dates, times, flights and carriers with *no* change fee and *no* flight cost differential fee. I used this twice and it was absolutely painless, just an email, with an acknowledgement of the change the next day. This gave me peace of mind to be able to stay later or leave earlier with no penalty.

Once you click to purchase the ticket, it goes to a human agent who will work with you to select specific flights, complete the itinerary, calculate costs and make payment. I worked with a lady at American Airlines in Dallas who works exclusively on the RTW desk so she knows the system inside out and personally takes care of everyone on an RTW trip. She booked all the flights and explained I could pay her over the phone with a credit card and be charged fees and taxes as if I was standing in Dallas, or I could go up to Bangkok and pay at a local office here. I asked for both pricings and it turned out I saved about USD $1000 by going up to Bangkok. Total cost was about USD $5000.

If I were to do another extensive trip like this, I would absolutely do the RTW again. If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to help.

[MANFROMBOCA]

YES, i booked with american air miles me and my 18 yo son started and ended miami, you will find mosy non amrican based airlines offer reasonable one way fares

boostnall is a good place to start heres an interractive link where you can plan your trip and get pricing

http://indie.bootsnall.com/

[moonseeker]

Thank you all, some great info here. Much appreciated. MS>

[bangkok19]

I did a round the world trip several years ago (June/July) with the Star Alliance Group.. ticket was cheap enough but you had to go ONE DIRECTION. If you wanted to backtrack to a city along the way it was an extra $150.

I did BKK, Sydney, LA, Chicago, Ontario, London, Frankfurt, BKK. You obviously travel with airlines in the Star Alliance Group.. in my case Thai, United and Lufthansa.. some code sharing flights in there somewhere between Chicago and London. The whole trip took 8 weeks.

[JMWPACIFIC]

I did, using the OneWorld airline group on a 7 month around the world trip last July to this February. I went with OneWorld because I'm a 2 million miler on American Airlines. They call it RTW, Round The World. Given the vast number of carriers in the group it's pretty easy to get where you want to go.

I went Bangkok->Manila->Auckland->Sydney->Vancouver->Los Angeles->St. Louis->Miami->Glasgow->Copenhagen->Istanbul->Bangkok. I needed a couple of intermediate stops and a land segment in Europe.

The web site to plan your trip is here: https://rtw.oneworld.com/rtw/ You can select Economy, Business or First. If you pick Economy you cannot upgrade specific flight segments.

There are a few rules, like a maximum of 16 flight segments (even if you need a stopover at B to get from A to C counts as 2), a land segment between two airports counts as one flight segment, there are limits to the number of stops in each continent. The web site is good because it allows you to build your itinerary and it will keep applying the rules to let you know if you're in compliance.

Once you purchase the ticket, the airports are locked and not changeable. But before you leave or when you're on the trip you can make changes to dates, times, flights and carriers with *no* change fee and *no* flight cost differential fee. I used this twice and it was absolutely painless, just an email, with an acknowledgement of the change the next day. This gave me peace of mind to be able to stay later or leave earlier with no penalty.

Once you click to purchase the ticket, it goes to a human agent who will work with you to select specific flights, complete the itinerary, calculate costs and make payment. I worked with a lady at American Airlines in Dallas who works exclusively on the RTW desk so she knows the system inside out and personally takes care of everyone on an RTW trip. She booked all the flights and explained I could pay her over the phone with a credit card and be charged fees and taxes as if I was standing in Dallas, or I could go up to Bangkok and pay at a local office here. I asked for both pricings and it turned out I saved about USD $1000 by going up to Bangkok. Total cost was about USD $5000.

If I were to do another extensive trip like this, I would absolutely do the RTW again. If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to help.

Thanks & kudos to you MW for this. Have almost 3 million on AA and have thought about a trip like yours but never did anything about it. You've given me the impetus to get going before it's too late.

[Asiantravel]

a travel agent warned me recently that around the world tickets have gone up substantially for some reason

don't be surprised if you find the cost to go around the world even in economy is now about 140.000 to 160,000 baht.

I have no idea what a business class ticket would cost.

[The manic]

Jolly good thread

[mike324]

agoda and booking.com allows last minute cancellation on many hotels (cancel 1-2 days before checking-in), so planning for multi city trips is quite easy, no need to worry about delay flights as your hotel travel plan can be quite flexible now.