Unlimited Air Ticket

ASL13 · January 2009

I have ran into people who are traveling on a worldwide air ticket. It works something like they can fly as much as they like around the globe in one year as long as it's in the same direction. What is this and who offers this and what are the restrictions?

Philipgs · January 2009

There are many airline partnership such as the Star Alliance , British Airways and Qantas, and Virgin Atlantic ,Air NewZealand combining with Singapore Airlines offering Round the World Fares for up to 12 months travel. There are many conditions but basically you supply the airline with the routing you require and with the exception of the first flight the dates can be changed as you travel but not your itinerary.
Most allow you 29,000 miles total mileage but it is possible to buy additional miles. Travel must be in the same global direction. Refunds are restricted.
Basically the more expensive the RTW is, the more options of stopover points and airlines you have.
I can help with flights originating from ythe UK otherwise it would be a question of contacting a good independent travel agent where you live or your national carrier.
Hope this helps.

AlexanderStone · January 2009

Ok these tickets are great if a little confusing. It starts by choosing either two ways to determine how much you can fly; you can choose total miles or number of continents visited. Flying in the same direction is a good idea because it eats up less total miles. If you run out of miles you can buy more. The ticket for continents visited limits the number of flights to 20 which is usually enough to go all over the world. There are many different types of each which balance air miles and number of stops. The tickets are usually good for a year after the first flight. Different airlines together form an alliance which allows RTW tickets to be used on many airlines. However some alliances are more complete in some parts of the world than others so it is a good idea to preplan where you want to buzz around in most and buy from that alliance. Some of the alliances are named World Discovery, One World Explorer, Star Alliance, Great Escapade, and World Journey. The most complete and most expensive are shy of 3000 dollars and go down from there.