How do round the world tickets work? I am interested in a RTW ticket from the eastern US to Asia-Africa-Europe/Latin America-US. What should I look for when buying a RTW ticket. Thanks for any help.

...You must travel in the same direction w/o back tracking with the exception of changing planes.

Here is a website that might help you:

www.airtreks.com

They handle round the world trips.

(Is this the question you had for an agent who didn't know what to do?)

If you belong to United or American Frequent Flyer Programs, they also offer RTW tickets. You should check out all programs to determine which work best for where you wish to travel in conjunction with their partner airlines. So map out your route of travel first.

At least with United's and American's programs you can accrue miles, as with airtreks.com you can't. In addition, airtreks works direct with clients and not thru travel agents.

jsm....I suggest you go to
www.oneworld.com there is a very thorough but easy to follow set of rules and how to plan your itinerary....

AAFrequentFlyer probably knows more about this than I do, but he is off on his trek to Africa, so I will try to help.
Apparently the cost of the round the world ticket can vary quite a bit depending on where you actually purchase the ticket.
I know that in the past, a lot of people have gone to Cairo just to buy the ticket.
Oneworld has a couple of round the world products whose cost vary depending on number of stops in the trip and where the ticket is purchased.
Delta also has a similar thing.
Are you a member of any frequent flyer programs? Because you will accrue enough miles to get elite status quite quickly.
Go the flyertalk.com and do a search about this and you should get lots of good info.

Check out the Star Alliance website. I frequently use RTW tickets for business travel and have found that the connections available with Star Alliance beat the rest hands down. Strangely, I have found that for some destinations it is cheaper to tack on a few stops and get a RTW ticket than to fly round trip to one city only (YUL-DAK,or YUL-SGN, for example). You have three fare levels and they are pretty much open as far as number of stops are concerned. For final pricing you will have to call an agent or airline for a quote. I have had the best price by booking with Singapore Air rather than my local carrier (I was actually tipped off by an Air Canada booking agent).

I have used many, many of these tickets and they are bewildering at first but worth using. As an example, round trip business class ticket from Sydney to Houston are more (yes, more) than RTW first (yes, first) class tickets to and from Sydney. I would call international carriers who specialize in these routings = Singapore, Cathay, United. Two and sometimes three carriers are involved. Virtually all require no back-tracking en route and this could work against Africa and Latin destinations, if they are available at all. At one time KLM/NW used to offer a mileage ticket which would allow a bit of backtracking and, because of their extensive international route structure (NW has more gates in Asia than anyone else) I would start with them. You want to do this in at least business class - dedicated check=in lines, lounges, priority baggage handling, first off the plane in foreign airports where mysterious customs' formalities often await are just some of the reasons I would never consider this in steerage. All the best - it's a great way to go. Will do best I can to answer other questions.

ttt

Rachel is soooo correct. BTW, I'm finally home!!!

OneWorld Alliance will sell RTW ticket in businss class for around $6K if you buy your ticket in Cairo. It gets little complicated as you need to either send cash or be there in person but for $6K you are traveling around the world in business class on some of the world's better airlines, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, American, FinnAir, TanChile, Iberia and AerLingus and also soon the new member Swiss. There are rules and as BeachBoi posted earlier, go to www.Oneworld.com for any and all info. Depending on the country of residence, call the appropriate airline and ask for the RTW desk. StarAlliance offers the same kind of a deal, but I don't know the details. The Cairo thing will save you some major $, but you do have to consider getting there as well.

Just found this on CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/03/08...ary/index.html

I heard from a friend that RTW tickets require travelers to visit 3 continents before returning to your home/home continent. Is this true for either OneWorld or StarAlliance?

With OneWorld you could do as little as 3 continents if you start in the Northern Hemisphere and 4 if you start in Southern Hemisphere. You could also do 5 or even 6.

Look here for detailed rules:

www.oneworld.com
or
www.staralliance.com

Both alliances also offer regional airpasses. You will find more info on these other products on the 2 websites.

You may also try www.flyertalk.com, specifically the alliances forums for some expert advice.