Asia Trip and Round the World Tickets

It's been a while since I've posted to this blog--my apologies. It's been a busy few weeks.

First off, the territories that I cover through my job have changed significantly--I now have Asia (including Japan and India), Oceania (Australia/New Zealand), and Latin America--basically the "rest of world" other than North America and EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa).

As you might expect, this does mean that I will be making some long trips to the various regions. I will start by heading to Mexico City next week, then it's off to Asia from June 16 until July 2.

Due to the number of cities and countries that I will need to visit, I have split my travel into four trips. The first trip will concentrate on South Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore and India). The second trip will concentrate on North Asia (Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and Shanghai), and the third trip will be to Australia and New Zealand. I will also need to slip a trip in to Brazil somewhere, but fortunately that's a relatively easy one to do (I can easily do a trip to Sao Paulo and Rio in a week).

While I was researching my first trip, I came across a great forum that is visited by some of the most hard-core travelers I have ever run into: www.flyertalk.com . Highly recommended for anyone that travels--particularly international.

Fortunately for me, my company travel policy includes paying for business-class if the total segment length is 10 hours or longer. Unfortunately, that generally means that once you get across the ocean, the shorter flights are all coach. I did find an interesting way around this policy--and saved the company thousands of dollars while I was at it--using a 'Round the World' ticket.

It turns out that many of the airline groups (like Star Alliance) have so-called 'circle' fares, in which you pay a fixed price for a trip, and it includes all travel so long as you adhere to certain rules and conditions. For example, the Star Alliance Round the World fare allows you to literally fly around the world for a fixed price, using any of the Star Alliance airlines (20 airlines flying to 965 airports in 20 countries). In my case, it worked out to about $8,600 for business class--including stops in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangalore. The same fare booked through the Star Alliance website was around $15K, and even our travel agent couldn't do better than about $12K.

This is the kicker--when you purchase a RTW fare, it includes travel in that class throughout the trip. This means that if you buy a business class RTW ticket, all flights that are included in the RTW itinerary qualify as business class--10 hour policy notwithstanding! So...I saved the company $3,400 and get to fly business class the entire trip. Not too shabby.

The rules and limitations of the Star Alliance RTW fare are as follows: 1) you have to continue flying in the same general direction (e.g. east-to-west or west-to-east); 2) you must make at least three stopovers, 3) the trip must be at least 10 days and no longer than 12 months in duration; 4) you don't need more than 20 flight coupons (segments), and 5) various other conditions including available ticket classes. Full details on the Star Alliance fare products can be found here. Star Alliance has other 'circle' fares, including Circle Pacific, Circle Asia, and other air passes that are all worth reading up on.

In my case, I wasn't able to find a RTW fare the first time around--something to do with a needed fare class not being available on one of the segments--but after making a change to extend the trip by a couple of days, I was able to qualify for the fare. Specifics of the route I'm taking are as follows:

Flight 1: Denver to Hong Kong (via San Francisco)
Flight 2: Hong Kong to Singapore
Flight 3: Singapore to Bangalore
Flight 4: Bangalore to Denver (via Frankfurt)

One more huge benefit of the RTW fares--if you plan your trip such that you circle the globe from east to west (such as my plan), you supposedly have a much easier time with jet lag. Something to do with flying with the earth's rotation (as opposed to against it). I'll let you know how that turns out after I return.

So, with a little research, it is possible to save my company thousands of dollars while flying around the world in business class--which will yield around 31K elite qualification miles and close to 40K miles deposited into my United account, not to mention the bragging rights of having flown all the way around the world!