Round the world ticket and air miles

[Halcyon Days]

Looking at buying a Round the world ticket for early 2016-probably the Global Explorer with the One world alliance. Starting and finishing in LON.
Any recommendations as to where one should buy it-ie in the UK or elsewhere?
Have heard mention that buying in a different country can work out considerably cheaper-but hard to get anyone to quote prices-so for instance-make my own way to/from Helsinki on a low cost carrier-and do the multi stop trip from there?
Also would want to try and get max air miles points-so again any recommendations would be appreciated. Currently not got any-or linked to a specific carrier etc.

[jijpc]

There are some agents such as Travelbag and Trailfinders who can quote prices and itineraries. Having said that there is a planning facility on Oneworld's website.

I am thinking of doing something similar and used Oneworld.com to look at some example itineraries. These itineraries give specific flight options on specific days which means that you can choose airlines and aircraft (eg A380) for each leg of the journey. Hope this is of some help.

[Halcyon Days]

Thanks. I have played with the one world site and its not terribly user friendly. There are so many rules and regs that it keeps saying you cant do this/that etc-but without saying why.
I have spoken to STA travel and Trailfinders-but they were also a bit vague and seemed like they were not particularly interested.

[Hartington]

Remember that agents are in business to make money. If you are vague they are also likely to be vague. Give them something specific to work with and things will almost certainly change.

As for starting somewhere other than London a UK based agent probably can't help you because they have to convert the foreign currency back into GBP if they issue the ticket. Can you do it through the web? Possibly but with a GB postal address attached to your card it might be declined and, in any case, the bank will then convert into GBP to bill you. Mind you the bank will probably be kinder in their conversion than the airline.

[mixture]

As for starting somewhere other than London a UK based agent probably can't help you because they have to convert the foreign currency back into GBP if they issue the ticket.

Utter codswallop.

You most certainly CAN buy tickets non-UK start tickets from a UK based agent.

The only time you buy tickets that don't originate from your home-turf is if the savings are substantial, in which case the risk of agent passing on a couple of percent in forex costs is not likely to make a big difference to your life.

I seem to have a vague recollection that IATA set currency rates for tickets anyway ? Neutral unit of currency or something ?

[ExXB]

Ah ... mixture. Close, but no cigar!

A ticket from Helsinki needs to be calculated in euros, regardless of country of sale. If tickets from Finland are purchased outside of Finland then the final euro price is converted to the currency of country of sale via the IATA rate of exchange (IROE). (ie euro price converted to NUCs (see below) and then converted to GBP)

In a complicated journey involving many fare components each of those 'local currency' components are converted to NUC's (Neutral Units of Construction) at the IROE; summed and then converted to the currency of the country of sale at the IROE.

It sounds complicated but it isn't (the work is does by computers) but is easier than adding pounds to euros to rubles to Thai baht to AU Dollars to Canuck Bucks etc. and then converting everything back to pounds.

Back to the original question. I would go to someone who is experienced in RTW journeys (like Travelbag or Trailfinders) and ask them for a price for a specific journey, naming your desired (and optional) stopping points, and desired departure and return dates. RTW calculations are complicated (nature of the beast) and a simple change of itinerary or dates can make a big difference. Before they go to work they want a reasonable assurance that you will buy from them.

Also don't forget that RTW tickets do require you to end your journey in the country of origin (If you're ticketed from Finland you should end your journey there as well) So factor in a RT ticket to/from your point of origin. I think you will find that most RTW prices from Europe are going to be similar in price - tickets from places like Thailand are the ones you have heard about as being really inexpensive!

*A NUC is actually a US Dollar, but IATA wasn't allowed to call it a dollar for political reasons. Some governments (who have to approve IATA Resolutions) would not accept that term. Nobody seems to mind calling a spade something else. (Old joke: What's a camel? A horse designed in IATA)

[Hartington]

Mixture, UK agents can only pay BSP in GBP. As you say they can (and do) issue tickets starting outside the UK but the fare has to be calculated using the appropriate currency for the country where the journey commences (which isn't always the local currency). Then there are a series of steps to convert that to GBP. The airlines, being aware of the fact that their fares in some markets are much lower than others have a habit of applying rules that mean that unless you actually buy the ticket in the cheap country the cheap fare is raised to the GBP level if you buy it in the UK. It's a grey area and I was oversimplyfing in my original answer but buying the ticket to start in Helsinki (if that is cheaper) from a UK agent MAY not be as cheap as buying in Helsinki. Note the use of MAY not WILL.

If you try and buy the ticket from the oneWorld website (which I've never tried) it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that if you put in the start city as (say) Helsinki and you get quoted a fare in Euros when you enter the billing address for the payment card as being in the UK they (and here's that word again) MAY decline to accept that card.

I'll be interested to hear how the OP gets on.

[philbky]

In November 2013 I bought tickets for my wife and myself for Heathrow to Hong Kong to Singapore to Melbourne to Alice Springs to Cairns then Sydney to Auckland to Rarotonga to Auckland to Los Angeles then Orlando to Gatwick. I am a member of BA Executive Club but the best deal was through roundtheworldflights.com using Virgin, Singapore, Qantas and Air New Zealand. Total cost travelling economy, including seat reservation charges, was £4847 which included all taxes, charges etc., Australian visas, full medical, travel and cancellation insurance, my medical insurance being over 65 was at double rate.

Travel commenced on February 2 2014 and finished 74 days later.

The company also trades as Global Village. They were extremely helpful, efficient and provided assistance up to the date of travel, also getting in touch immediately when Qantas cancelled the Alice Springs to Cairns sector at six hours notice and followed through my arrangements with the airline which the airline handled very efficiently.

They offered help with hotels and excursions which I did not require.

[Halcyon Days]

The global explorer allows up to 16 stops and is also mileage based-so you have various tiers-up to 24000 miles/29000/34000 etc but pay a standard price regardless of secors flown.
So if your last but one stop was say London-before terminating at Helsinki-then in theory there is nothing to stop you simply not using that last sector and remaining in London. That would of course only be worth doing if indeed the price starting in Helsinki-was significantly cheaper/more cost effective than starting in London?
I have stated Helsinki just as an example-but have read of people starting in Ecuador/Jordan etc even-and it has supposedly been considerably cheaper-even allowing for the cost of travelling to and from that point?
STA and Trailfinders were given a specific route of my preferred stops-but sadly showed even less knowledge than even I had. I suspect they didnt really want to offer me a One world type ticket as they would have made less profit than one constructed independently with their preferred carriers?
Philkby-your route is not far off of what I want-so will see what your suggested company can do-thanks.

[philbky]

Be aware that Cairns to Sydney and Los Angeles to Orlando were overland and no included.