RTW trip May 2013 - advice and tips

[lobo76]

Hey guys,

I'm planning a trip for 2 people to the US and Europe in May next year. I figure flying AU-US-EU-AU is the best bet direction-wise. The only date anchors are leaving on May 1st and returning by May 30/31st (actually one of the seats can probably be for June 1st) with a stop in Leipzig from May 16-21.
We'd like to stop in LA or SFO for a weekend, Vegas for a few days at the start of the week. I'd be open to a stop in New Orleans but only a nice to have then NYC for a weekend, Dublin for 4-6 days and Berlin for a few days. Open to an overnight somewhere in Asia or ME on the way home too..

We'd like to do as many of the Long haul and US legs as PE or better and we'd like to maximize SCs (either VA of QF) especially from those low cost US legs, but without any unnecessary legs as my partner isn't into that idea (no SJU SR for us :/) BUT we need to keep the costs on airfares down as we're on a bit of a budget (hopefully no more than $4k PP)

Probably a tough problem but I'd like to try to figure it out myself first before throwing myself on the mercy of the forum eggheads

So I've been looking at it in Matrix and Sky scanner but I just can't make it work so I was wondering if there are any hot tips for a n00b?

Cheers!

PS I actually have the MEL-LAX leg covered so starting in LA

 

[casanovawa]

So your wanting to buy individual flights are you? So not an actual single RTW ticket (as both of you are starting in LAX back to Oz and buying a single ticket would have to be all the same class for every flight and i imagine a PE RTW ticket would cost a lot more than $4000 each)...

If you weren't interested in the status credits so much you could do what I do and just make an award booking for the intercontinental legs in business class for around $2500 (perhaps less) or so and then just fly domestic Y to get around the US and Europe as to me the cost of business class flights are wasted on 1-3 hour domestic hops... But everyone is different...

Having just been to New Orleans, yes it was fun... Never stopped int he ME, only transited so not sure about that...

 

[lobo76]

So your wanting to buy individual flights are you? So not an actual single RTW ticket (as both of you are starting in LAX back to Oz and buying a single ticket would have to be all the same class for every flight and i imagine a PE RTW ticket would cost a lot more than $4000 each)...

If you weren't interested in the status credits so much you could do what I do and just make an award booking for the intercontinental legs in business class for around $2500 (perhaps less) or so and then just fly domestic Y to get around the US and Europe as to me the cost of business class flights are wasted on 1-3 hour domestic hops... But everyone is different...

Having just been to New Orleans, yes it was fun... Never stopped int he ME, only transited so not sure about that...

I'm actually pretty open to ideas and advice. I always assumed you had to get a return or RTW ticket to get the best price but The Matrix site looks like you can score some real bargains and cheap 1st class and SC accumulation if you have the know how.
I've knocked up some cool multi stop ones on there for shorter runs (trans US) in first class for pretty cheap but it all falls over when I try to add the euro and home to Oz legs.

I wonder if it would be better getting return AU-US and return US-EU tix but that seems like a lot of wasted days and miles... any ideas welcome on how best to approach this

 

[Bundy Bear]

Hey guys,

I'm planning a trip for 2 people to the US and Europe in May next year. I figure flying AU-US-EU-AU is the best bet direction-wise. The only date anchors are leaving on May 1st and returning by May 30/31st (actually one of the seats can probably be for June 1st) with a stop in Leipzig from May 16-21.
We'd like to stop in LA or SFO for a weekend, Vegas for a few days at the start of the week. I'd be open to a stop in New Orleans but only a nice to have then NYC for a weekend, Dublin for 4-6 days and Berlin for a few days. Open to an overnight somewhere in Asia or ME on the way home too..

We'd like to do as many of the Long haul and US legs as PE or better and we'd like to maximize SCs (either VA of QF) especially from those low cost US legs, but without any unnecessary legs as my partner isn't into that idea (no SJU SR for us :/) BUT we need to keep the costs on airfares down as we're on a bit of a budget (hopefully no more than $4k PP)

Probably a tough problem but I'd like to try to figure it out myself first before throwing myself on the mercy of the forum eggheads

So I've been looking at it in Matrix and Sky scanner but I just can't make it work so I was wondering if there are any hot tips for a n00b?

Cheers!

PS I actually have the MEL-LAX leg covered so starting in LA

Generally around the world airfares, you start in one country and then return to the country of origin.

There is no way you can get a MEL-LAX-SFO-LAS-MSY-JFK-DUB-TXL-LEJ-DXB-MEL in PE or higher, you will be lucky to get it under $4,000 per person.

My response would be similar to a famous line from the movie "The Castle"

 

[lobo76]

Generally around the world airfares, you start in one country and then return to the country of origin.

There is no way you can get a MEL-LAX-SFO-LAS-MSY-JFK-DUB-TXL-LEJ-DXB-MEL in PE or higher, you will be lucky to get it under $4,000 per person.

My response would be similar to a famous line from the movie "The Castle"

Hahaha, I was actually hearing that line in my head as I composed my first post
I guess it's a wish list. I've got a cheap MEL-US fare already but it'll be standby. So I'm really looking for ways to get the best bang for buck LAX-DUB-LEJ-MEL with some side stops in there to round out the experience. Obviously some PE+ legs are a bonus but not a requirement....

More importantly I'm looking for pro-tips on methodology rather than a set itinerary.

 

[lobo76]

hehe ok.. Ive managed to find a route something like what I want...

MEL-SFO (standby)
SFO-LAX-DFW-EWR ($995 total - all in first class)
JFK-KEF-FRA ($750 PE)
FRA-LHR-SIN-MEL ($1700 All PE except FRA-LHR)

Would need to add some awful Cityjet flights around europe but it's in the ballpark and mostly PE+!
If anyone knows of any improvements I can make (like am I even going the right direction or are there better routes) I'm all ears

One problem (well more irritation) is that it's all on different carriers so I'm definitely not maximizing SC earning, would have been nice to make gold on one airline

 

[browski]

OK, I'll take a shot.
1. Reverse your direction. Fly West and head to Europe first.

2. Forget PE for the price you want. However you can fly premium on LCC.
3. Fly JetStar StarClass or Air Asia Premium Seat to SIN/KUL/BKK for approx $800.
4. Fly Business Class on Sri Lankan from BKK-CMB-FRA/CDG/LHR for $1100
5. Fly Premium Economy (Economy Comfort) on Icelandair between LHR-JFK for $850 or FRA-SEA for $1250
6. Fly Air Pacific LAX-NAN-MEL in economy for $650.........but buy 2 tickets each for the extra space. So that is $1300.

Total: 800 + 1100 + 850 + 1300 = $4050. (plus your internal Europe and US flights)

 

[lobo76]

5. Fly Premium Economy (Economy Comfort) on Icelandair between LHR-JFK for $850 or FRA-SEA for $1250

Ooohh that Frankfurt-Seattle leg is an interesting one to look at...

Any particular reason you'd suggest flying West?

 

[casanovawa]

Ok well what i just did in May/June was
I bought a business class award ticket and flew: PER-BKK-ZRH-FRA-ATL stop
Within the US i bought cheap economy fares on any airline roughly going where i wanted and did: ATL-MIA-CUN-MSY-DEN-ORF-ATL
Rejoined my business class fare and flew: ATL-IAD-FRA stop
Then some cheap economy flights on Lufthansa and others around Europe: FRA-SJJ//SPL-PRA//KRK-FRA
Rejoined my business class itinerary: FRA-BKK-PER

The Business class fare OZ-US-EU-OZ cost me about $2000 including taxes (probably more like $2500 now) the tickets in the US about $800 (i did book one or two short hops on QFF on AA which kept prices down but you seem to have your flights within the US sorted) and the tickets in Europe about $400... No SC or FF miles/points earned, but i figured the savings i made on that award was much better value than anything i would get out of the SC/FF miles etc...

 

[browski]

Ooohh that Frankfurt-Seattle leg is an interesting one to look at...

Any particular reason you'd suggest flying West?

3 reasons.

1. There are no LCCs between Australia and the US (except Jetstar SYD-HNL)...........but flying LAX-MEL is always a lot cheaper than flying MEL-LAX
2. There are at least 3 LCCs between Australia and Asia (JetStar, Air Asia and Tiger). And purchasing premium seat flights on full service airlines ex-Asia is often great value.
3. I find jet lag more manageable travelling East to West.

 

[lobo76]

3 reasons.

1. There are no LCCs between Australia and the US (except Jetstar SYD-HNL)...........but flying LAX-MEL is always a lot cheaper than flying MEL-LAX
2. There are at least 3 LCCs between Australia and Asia (JetStar, Air Asia and Tiger). And purchasing premium seat flights on full service airlines ex-Asia is often great value.
3. I find jet lag more manageable travelling East to West.

Yea I've read a few different views on the jetlag thing, it seems that it boils down to whether you're a morning person or a night-owl. Last time I went to the US I think I got all the jetlag on the return home.. and I think it was the reverse last time I went to Europe.

I've got a discount ticket from MEL-LAX so I think that benefits me the most pricewise as I've been able to find routes on Premium Economy or better almost all legs goung AU-US-EU-AU that are a couple of grand cheaper than any routes I can find going the other direction... and I'm not getting thousands off that MEL-LAX flight
I might not be looking at the right hubs though... I'll keep trying itineraries...

LOL at Fat Yak incident