Around the world flights

[jimmyk]

Hi all,

I wanted to get some thoughts on the best way to approach booking some flights. My wife and I are going overseas in August and September 2017.

We will be flying from Brisbane to Paris, hoping to arrive around the 13th of August. Our itinerary then will be something like:
* Paris / France for about 10 days
* Belgium for about 5 days (drive/train from Paris)
* Italy for about 14 days (Florence, Venice, Amalfi Coast) - internal travel via train / driving
* Fly to Edinburgh and spend about 10 days in Scotland
* Fly to Halifax and spend about 10 days in Canada / USA
* Fly home to Brisbane

We've looked at comparison flights in August/September this year and RTW is around $13k each.

Any suggestions on best way to do this? Around the world or multi-stop? All flights will be in Business.

I'm Platinum QF but most likely only Gold then.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[wandering_fred]

The simplest would consider starting in AKL. If you really want to save the pennies/pence start from CAI or JNB with a one way/award flight to get to those starting points. There are major discussions of the various options in the OneWorld section of flyertalk dot com.

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[jimmyk]

Cheers, thanks Fred.

 

[kitkatff]

unless your are bolted on to Oneworld, Lufthansa offers RTW business for $6Kish until end of Feb:
Lufthansa Business Class RTW | RoundAbout Travel

Found this in the "cheap international fares" forum here:
Cheap International Airfares

 

[Mattg]

unless your are bolted on to Oneworld, Lufthansa offers RTW business for $6Kish until end of Feb:
Lufthansa Business Class RTW | RoundAbout Travel

Found this in the "cheap international fares" forum here:
Cheap International Airfares

I believe that Finnair has something similar too if you prefer to stick with oneworld. For a simple Australia-Europe-North America-Australia itinerary one of these tickets (Lufthansa/Finnair or also perhaps a Swiss RTW fare) is probably the way to go. Paying ~$13K for a oneworld explorer fare would be unnecessary as you're not even close to maxing out the value with your itinerary.

Also, I would be booking the short-haul European sectors separately.

 

[kitkatff]

I believe that Finnair has something similar too

saw that in the other thread - but where? I went to the Finnair website and the only RTW link I could find sent me to OneWorld's website. Or do we have to wait for the sale to be on?

Just thinking if there is no sale on now, timeframe wise the OP may be tempted by Lufthansa, it's a pretty good deal at that price, and you'd probably get status in Star Alliance out of it

 

[Mattg]

saw that in the other thread - but where? I went to the Finnair website and the only RTW link I could find sent me to OneWorld's website. Or do we have to wait for the sale to be on?

Just thinking if there is no sale on now, timeframe wise the OP may be tempted by Lufthansa, it's a pretty good deal at that price, and you'd probably get status in Star Alliance out of it

I think you would have to book through a travel agent. (Preferably a good one that knows about these fares.)

There is some more info here: Finnair Business Class RTW | RoundAbout Travel

 

[madrooster]

saw that in the other thread - but where? I went to the Finnair website and the only RTW link I could find sent me to OneWorld's website. Or do we have to wait for the sale to be on?

You will need a travel agent to craft these up. No airline website is able to do it.

 

[Himeno]

The simplest would consider starting in AKL. If you really want to save the pennies/pence start from CAI or JNB with a one way/award flight to get to those starting points. There are major discussions of the various options in the OneWorld section of flyertalk dot com.

Happy wandering

Fred

Assuming a oneworld DONEx, from BNE, they can get a points/Y return to NRT and start a DONE3 from there.

 

[SYD]

QFlyer have been promoting AY RTW fares as good for SCs. You can't book online, but they can do an itinerary. As should any reputable TA. These fares have been around for a while.

Finnair Business Class Round the World | QFlyer

Note that AY looks more expensive than LH, but AY includes flights across the US with AA. The others require you to pay extra for transcontinental across Nth America. As I discovered using LH for a work trip.

 

[maroonone]

Today I booked an AY RTW with AY Aus on the phone for SEP-OCT - SYD - JFK (QF) JFK-BCN-HEL (AY) HEL - SIN (AY) SIN - BNE (QF) - $15K for 2 PAX - didn't try booking through QF but get full SC except for HEL - SIN which is half. JFK to Europe (or vv) needs to be via HEL - Asia can be through SIN, HKG or BKK. Had to move flight HEL-SIN by one day to be able to get the cheapest fare. i think I'll get 800 SC for this and have an UG request in for SYD-LAX.

 

[kitkatff]

thanks for all the feedback on AY

Now let's hope we hear back from the OP to see what he's going with