Idnas71

I'm looking for all opinions and advice anyone is willing to share about this. What is the best way to go about securing airline reservations for an itinerary like this?

Jan 1: St. Louis to Beijing
Jan 5: Beijing to Xi'an
Jan 6: Xi'an to Hong Kong
Jan 9: Hong Kong to Siem Reap
Jan 11: Siem Reap to Hong Kong
(I understand I can get a Discovery Pass for less than $300 with Bangkok Airways for this Siem Reap portion.)
Jan 13: Hong Kong to Sydney
Jan 16: Sydney to Auckland
Jan 27: Christchurch to Raratonga, Cook Islands
Jan 31: Raratonga to St. Louis

Would a Round the World type of ticket come into play here if I flew out of the East Coast and back home via the West, or vice versa?

I haven't looked into these RTW tickets yet so I don't have a clue how they work, if they are less expensive, etc., etc. But I plan to investigate it.

Thanks in advance for any comments!

alanRow

You couldn't do that on a RTW as you are supposed to travel in one direction only.

You could try a Circle Pacific ticket

You might find that booking a basic round Pacific ticket with additional airfares for offshoots like your HK to Siem Reap flights would work out cheaper

Gardyloo

It can be done on a RTW ticket (which requires you to cross the Atlantic and Pacific once each) or as a Circle-Pacific itinerary. If you want to go to the Cook Islands, then you're pretty much stuck with the Star Alliance (United, Air NZ, Thai et al) which have a 22,000 and 26,000 mile Circle fares, or you could work it with a 29,000 mile RTW ticket on the same carriers.

On the Circle fare you have to watch the routing carefully to stay in the limits - for instance using Star carriers, Xi'an is only served by Asiana Airlines from Korea, so you might consider saving the 2000 miles for the Seoul - Xi'an round trip by handling that as a side trip from Peking using a Chinese airline (or the train.)

Price for the 22,000 mile CP fare is US$2800 plus tax for trips starting in the US; the 26K circle fare is $3360. I can't see too many routings that work from and to STL that fit in the 22K plan, but most would in the 26K trip. (You'd have to start/end in LA for the smaller one to work.)

For the 29K RTW you'd have to alter the route by starting in the Cooks/NZ/Oz and then progressing on to Asia for the westbound route to fit in the mileage limit. Otherwise, you could start by going east to Europe and then over to Asia and Oz/NZ, then Cooks to LAX on the way home. The 29K mile RTW is currently US$4069 plus tax if bought in the US.

(Note those prices are all for economy. If you fly in business class on the Circle fares, they're around $2000-$2500 more expensive for each tier, i.e. $4800 and $5700. Going from coach to biz on the RTW bumps to almost $8K, so the circle fares offer more bang for business class.)

You can phone United or Air NZ to get going on these.

Idnas71

Thanks for the responses, guys. And especially to Gardyloo for spelling it out for me. I still don't quite get it, but you gave me enough info to question the airlines about. Thank you!!! The best fares I could find otherwise were starting out at $5,000 and up.

Idnas71

Gardyloo,

Do you know if the Circle Pacific ticket has to start on the west coast or can I start it in St. Louis? I got two different answers on that when I spoke to two different United agents today.

Gardyloo

Anywhere in the country. However as they're mileage-limited, long domestic segments (like STL-LAX) gobble up a lot of miles. If you start on the west coast you might be able to get away with a lower-limit ticket; take JetBlue or some cheapo seats to get there.

Fool around with this website - http://gc.kls2.com/ - along with a Star Alliance timetable - to see what routes would work for you and how the miles add up.

Idnas71

Thanks... I didn't think that was right when the second agent told me you had to start the C.P. ticket from the west coast. I understand how it could be mileage- and money-saving to do it that way, though. I am also talking to an air consolidator (Air Brokers International in SFO) who supposedly specializes in these multi-destination tickets. They have slightly different routings and are trying to talk me into Fiji instead of the Cook Islands to save some money.

Thanks for the website. I'll check it out.

Thanks for your help.