RTW With Toddler and Baby - In Business/First

[gvix]

Hi all,

First time poster.

Having completed creating our little nest, wife and I think that we should try and do our dream of travelling around the world before we are both in our fifties and waiting for the kids to leave home and thinking of doing it in old age.

In a nutshell, we want to travel around the world, in at least business, preferably First, with one 2+ year old and one baby less than 6 months.

We want to travel to Japan (or somewhere in Asia), go to Moscow, to London and the States, in preferably that order. We can cut out Japan and Moscow, if we can bring the price down (will explain). We want to come back via States. In States, we want to travel to a few cities (NYC, Seattle, LAX). Edit: Wanted to mention that we both can travel year around, if that helps in lowering the price, as we have flexible jobs.

Now, this is the kicker. We want to do this for our flight budget of $15000-$18000 all inclusive. ? Again, that is the maximum we want to pay for our flights.

So what are the options? (Should mention that we are members of QFF, but nothing of note). We do have 100K+ points on a card that we can transfer.

1. Forget about it. Can't do it in that budget?

2. Mix Economy and Business/First? We really don't want to travel Economy.

3. Go to Malaysia or Singapore via premium economy and purchase a RTW fare Business/First from there?

4. Anything else?

Thanks everyone.

Vikram

 

[jamesatfish]

Firstly, welcome to AFF.

Sounds like a great trip and I'm sure it'll be enjoyable travelling as a family. My wife and I are taking our daughter (7 months) on her first trip overseas in June (assuming we're able to fly to the UK by then...), doing it on a OneWorld AONE4 ticket (First class RTW).

Unfortunately, as far as OneWorld options go, the budget you've set isn't going to work for the class of travel you're hoping for. A DONE4 (the cheapest RTW Business fare) is about $11K per adult; your infant child would add 10% to one of those fares and I'm not sure of the 2+ year old child but last time I checked you'd be looking at 70-100% of the fare for them. So that's close to $30K already.

If you had some additional points (perhaps you can transfer some from family?) you can try to book one adult as a RTW Points redemption - I think that's about 300K points in Business. On a points redemption there is no additional charge for infants, so one adult plus the infant could travel on the points redemption and then you'd just need to buy one adult and one child DONE4 ticket, which may (depending on the cost of the child ticket) come in under $18K.

You'd need to book the points ticket first, taking whatever availability you could get, then book the DONE4 tickets to match those flights as D class seating is much easier to get than award point seating.

I know there are others on this site with experience in booking RTW fares from other countries, using cheaper positioning flights, but I can't be bothered with that approach so unfortunately I can't provide any input on that option.

Best of luck with the search and hope you enjoy your trip.

 

[gvix]

Thanks for that info.

Regarding what you said here:

Unfortunately, as far as OneWorld options go, the budget you've set isn't going to work for the class of travel you're hoping for. A DONE4 (the cheapest RTW Business fare) is about $11K per adult; your infant child would add 10% to one of those fares and I'm not sure of the 2+ year old child but last time I checked you'd be looking at 70-100% of the fare for them. So that's close to $30K already.

I was given hope by the fares on the bestflights.com.au page.

They list some RTW Business fares at $6500. Am I missing the fine print in these fares?

Vikram

 

[jamesatfish]

I was given hope by the fares on the bestflights.com.au page.

They list some RTW Business fares at $6500. Am I missing the fine print in these fares?

Sorry - I had my OneWorld goggles on and had not looked at fares crossing over different carriers & alliances.

To be honest I don't quite understand the fare listed on the bestflights website - I think I've found the one you're looking at (Lufthansa, Thai & United Business & Mixed Round WorldBusiness & Mixed with Qantas, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines & more Apr 10-Mar 11) but I can't see how the US flights fit into the fare. Obviously there's a trick as the example routing includes US cities but I don't know exactly how.

Unfortunately I'm out of my league with this one - I just stick to the simple OneWorld explorer fares as ease of booking and OneWorld status (recognition and earning) are my priorities, and I'd rather book direct with one airline than through an agent with multiple carriers in case something goes wrong or I want to change my plans.

 

[BensAdventures]

I actually rung Best Flights about a similar RTW fare, and I could incorporate US travel. There were some restrictions, and if I book I'll have to purchase at least one extra domestic one-way far to SFO or LAX.

I'd also love to know what people's perceptions are of these types of RTW fares provided by bestflights.com.au. Anyone used them?