Which Way Round ???

[Gold60]

I am planning a BIZ RTW flight, probably using the Lufthansa fare for about $8000, using this routing:
BNE>Tokyo>INC>FRA>MCO>Washington>LAS>LAX>BNE


I was going to fly anti-clockwise – mainly because I believe the jet lag isn’t as bad – especially for us older folk. But of course jet lag does effect different people differently.



Most of what I want to see is in the USA, and there is a possibility I might have to cut the trip short and come home early, due to family circumstances.



If the trip was cut short, I would then finish it off at a later date – and it would probably be the part in the US, if i follow the routing above.


Then I realized, it might be cheaper to reverse the route because you would only have to pay for one travel insurance policy with a NORTH AMERICA component, if by reversing the trip, you could get most if /not all of the US done first. i was amazed/disturbed how much adding in the US bit - all be it just for a few days - makes to the price of TI.


TWO Questions – is the jet lag part of any relevance/significance to most people – i.e. – does it matter to most people, considering i will be flying in BIZ class all the way (i hope LOL) ? Secondly – am I missing anything if I reverse the route and do the State’s first ?


Once I have done the few things I want to do in the States, I think it is unlikely I would go back there – I have sister living in London – so any future trips overseas, if they were outside of Asia/Pacific, would be UK/EUR focused.


Any ideas please anyone ?


TIAdv.

 

[Skyring]

I've done nine RTW trips, and I've always gone east to west. The first time was just for the convenience of dates, but I realised then that flights with the sun tended to work a lot better than flights going the other way. Typically if I fly east to west, I can take a mid-morning flight, arrive about afternoon tea, and have time to get to the hotel in daylight, walk out and see a bit of the place.

The same two destinations the other way around means an early morning flight and an evening arrival because the days are so much shorter.

I've never had jet lag, though sometimes I'll be very tired after a long flight, and sometimes I'll be "out of phase". My first trip to London, I did the 24 hours travel, got to my hostel, fell soundly asleep and was woken up by room-mates.

"Ah, what time is it?" I asked.

"Nine o'clock," one said.

"Oh no! Have I missed breakfast?"

When they fell about laughing, I realised that no, I had plenty of time, and they had been out drinking.

Having said that, from your circumstances above, seeing the USA first might be the best bet.

I used to think that if I went overseas, I'd want to do a proper long trip and see everything. Nowadays, if I miss something, I figure I'll catch it next time around.

There's a lot to see in the USA. I've lost count of the number of times I've been, often on quite long and far-ranging roadtrips, and there's still more. Fabulous place.

 

[JohnM]

I've done 13 (full) RTW trips in J or F and have gone both ways. I don't really notice jet lag, so direction is irrelevant in that regard.

Since QF all but abandoned PER for INT flights, I always position to SYD or possibly MEL and have gone either way from there. I don't really like SYD/MEL-DXB-LHR as the short second sector and its timing up to LHR is a PITA IMO. I do like to leave Australia in the afternoon to take full advantage of the J/F food and bev at my preferred time of eating and drinking in the latter part of the day.

That's why I have in recent times (and especially since since QF put the A380 on SYD-DFW - for F UPGs ) taken to exclusively going E SYD-DFW and working my way around from there.

So, those are things that are significant drivers for my choice of direction - but *A may offer a different proposition.