Can someone please explain to me how these work? How many stops do you get? Do you have to go 'around the world'? I have researched the net and found prices as low as $1,500. Wifey wants to go to Ireland and Europe with a couple of stops in between. Is this the most economical method.

Many thanks

Both the Star Alliance and Oneworld airline alliances offer these, because usually a round the world (RTW) trip involves several different airlines. I've seen a few for around $2,000 but they are usually a fixed itinerary. The more flexible ones (more stops and choice of stopovers) are usually more. There are some rules, including:

-You have to travel in one direction (i.e. keep going one way generally, no backtracking)
-You can only depart from the same airport once, so...that usually means all the way around the world
-You have to complete your journey within a certain number of miles (or the fare goes up)
-There is a set number of stops.

If you find that you don't need to go around the world, there are some regional passes (like the circle-Pacific) which center on just one area that may be more suited to your trip. Or just a straight fare from A to B with perhaps an additional ticket might work better.

I would strongly recommend joining a frequent-flyer program and using the alliance that airline belongs to before going, as you'll rack up enough miles for some type of free ticket after it's over.

Here's a couple of resources online to check out. You may not see fare info on them, so for that, either look into the individual airline sites (United, British Aiways, Air New Zealand etc) or find a good, knowledgable travel agent in your area:

http://www.staralliance.com/en/trave..._fare_faq.html

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-trave...he-world-fares


Greg M.

nice knowledge.