Why we didn't buy a Round the World airline ticket
When we first started planning our trip we totally thought we would FOR SURE buy a round the world ticket, we even dreamed it might be in business class, ‘cause why not?
Turns out we didn’t and this is why
You must return within 1 year, to the same country you left from. You could forfeit your last leg, but if you miss any legs in between, it’s a problem. Like with any multi-leg ticket, if you miss any legs, all of the remaining legs are canceled. On a round the world ticket, however, you can change the date of flights for a fee, but not the airport, so that gives a little flexibility. This was a problem for us because we thought we might spill over the year, but we didn’t know by much. In the end it was good because we ended up traveling for 2 years instead.
You must book all your legs before you leave. So, if you are super tight on time, this is actually a really good option. You know in advance where you’ll be and how long you have. For us, this was a little too constricting, what if the weather is bad and you need to stay a few more days? or if you love a place and decide to extend your stay?
You must travel in one direction. For the most part, we actually did travel in 1 direction, generally going west. Although we did backtrack a little, we probably could’ve planned this and bought round trip flights before continuing on with our round the world trip ticket legs. But again, for us, having the flexibility to change our plans was something we valued.
Would we have saved money?
Let’s look at how much a round the world ticket might cost on airtreks.com. If we traveled from LA -> Tokyo, Japan -> Cebu, Philippines, -> Bali, Indonesia -> Istanbul, Turkey -> Lisbon, Portugal -> LA
For a similar route, we spent about USD $1,800/person. So, technically, this type of ticket wouldn’t have saved us any money, but it does save you the time to be looking for your next ticket, so if you have little time to do the research, this is a good option. Also, not sponsored by Airtreks and we haven’t booked with them, but they seem to have good info, definitely waaaaay better than the alliance’s, like Star Alliance or OneWorld, websites.
Would we buy one next time?
If we could get one in business class, maybe with miles, heck YES! In all seriousness, we would definitely do the research again and would strongly consider buying this kind of world ticket, not just for business class. Also, this kind of ticket is really good if you are traveling with a lot of family; it’s a one and done stop shop with all your info about the flights in one place.
Bonus - Booking an around the world airline ticket
We didn’t book this kind of ticket, but in the process of investigating if it was a good fit for us, we found lots of resources we’ll link below. We hope you find them as useful as we did.
Nomadic Matt has a very good, and recently updated, guide to buying a round the world ticket.
Trip planner with Airtreks - we didn’t contact this company but the site was really useful.
Thrifty Nomads has a really great section about regional passes in their round the world tickets guide.
If you have any questions or tips about round the world airline tickets, please leave them in the comments below the video.