To Avoid Hefty Fees, Plan Your Itinerary
Q. I want to see Greece and Turkey in September and October. As long as we’re heading that far, we might consider extending the trip and going on to see New Zealand, dive the Great Barrier Reef, and see Fiji.
I would be interested in an around-the-world ticket without any arrival and departure commitments. We could set destinations but I would rather not set times. How can I get this kind of ticket?
A. There are a number of ways to arrange around-the-world air travel, but I predict you’ll have a problem on flexible arrival and departure dates unless you’re willing to pay hefty penalties.
Several airline ticket consolidators offer around-the-world programs. Every major passenger airline also has its own flying partners - two or more airlines that team up for globe-circling itineraries.
The airlines are generally more restrictive than consolidators. Travel must be completed within a time frame, usually six months or one year; all destinations must be chosen before the trip begins and must proceed one way (no backtracking) around the world; routings are generally in the northern hemisphere with extra fees for flights to the southern hemisphere. All dates are predetermined and once tickets are issued, there are penalties for any changes; the whole trip is made exclusively on jets of the airline partners who arrange it. This requires a lot of planning, since the flights you want may not run daily. Around-the-world fares are available in coach, club and first class. All tickets are issued before the trip begins.
The around-the-world program at Air Brokers International Inc., (800) 883-3273, is different, and is typical of the consolidators who piece together a collection of oneway discounted tickets to create a world itinerary. Air Brokers needs to know round-the-world travelers’ exact itineraries at least 30 days before they wish to travel, the exact date they wish to start the trip, and at least approximate dates of each leg of the journey. Air Brokers’ customers, mostly leisure travelers, can take up to a year to complete the trip. Travel is in coach class, said reservations agent Dawn Keall, because discounted tickets are almost never available for club or first-class travel.
A sample routing, all in the northern hemisphere, mentioned by several consolidators: San Francisco or New York to Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Europe and return to the United States. Air Brokers’ price for a coach fare to those places is about $1,299 including India, $1,199 without India. Prices vary according to the season. New York or San Francisco is the usual starting point.
Other air ticket consolidators who handle world routings include Travel Time, (800) 956-9327; Sunco Travel International, (800) 989-6017; Democracy Travel, (800) 536-8728; and High Adventure Travel, (800) 428-8735.
Persons interested in flying around the world or in using a consolidator in search of discounted airline tickets might find useful the book Fly for Less 1997 by Gary E. Schmidt, $19.95.