Build Your Own Round The World Ticket
With a Build Your Own itinerary, rather than booking a single Round The World ticket, you instead book a series of one-way tickets. As you can see on the Franky Compares pages, it is often possible for a Build Your Own itinerary to undercut the price of a Oneworld or Star Alliance Round The World ticket, sometimes by a considerable amount.
Build Your Own tickets have disadvantages as well as advantages:
The primary advantage can be the price.
As you can book tickets as you go you can also freestyle it and change your planned route along the way. However you have to be aware that most countries require you to be able to show that you have a ticket departing from their country before they permit you to enter their country. Therefore you generally have to plan and book at least one step ahead or use a service such as dummyticket.com.
Build Your Own itineraries have no maximum stay requirements so your trip can last for longer than a year.
With a Build Your Own itinerary you are going to need to do a lot more research, a lot more work, and you need to have excellent admin skills because you are going to be juggling a lot of bookings.
During the planning stage, unless you are a total free spirit or have an unlimited budget, it is wise to plan and cost out your entire likely route. This doesn’t mean you have to stick to that route, but you need to see if a Build Your Own itinerary is likely to come in cheaper than a Oneworld or Star Alliance ticket, and to give you an idea of budget so you know how much money you need to keep aside for future flights once you are underway.
To do this you can engage a travel agent, who will charge a service fee, or get busy yourself on the internet. There are myriad Online Travel Agencies out there, but Franky recommends trip.com for ease of use.
Next you need to make a spreadsheet and get to work. Let’s say the initial part of your chosen route is London – Helsinki – Delhi – Bangkok.
Firstly use the “Multi City” option to price London – Helsinki – Delhi – Bangkok. Make sure you tick the “Fares Including Baggage” box because you’ll be needing that included.
Be aware that Economy Class internal flights in the USA do not usually include baggage and the fees for this are paid during online or airport check-in.
Any “Multi City” tickets you find may not be flexible so bear in mind that this might lock in your dates for those flights.
Next start breaking it down. Find the price for London – Helsinki on its own. Find the price for Helsinki – Delhi on its own. Find the price for Delhi – Bangkok on its own. Find the price for a London – Helsinki – Delhi “Multi City” ticket. Find the price for a Helsinki – Delhi – Bangkok “Multi City” ticket.
Compare every option to find the optimum combination.
You need to go this process for every flight and every combination of flights on your planned route. You are going to have to put in the hours and have a very well designed spreadsheet!
You need to do the work to get the rewards.
The prices you find for Build Your Own itinerary tickets you intend to book in the future are indicative only and are not guaranteed to be the same in six months or even tomorrow!