I did a little search for RTW airfares. I had decided that I was going to buy all of my tickets along the way so I wouldn’t have to stick to a route (commitment-phobic much?) but a few things made me rethink this. I’ve been reading a book written by a guy who does RTW fares as a specialty. Instead of using the prepackaged airline miles versions he string together a bunch of one way fares that he orders from other countries. It’s actually a fascinating and completely boring read at the same time. So this guy makes it clear to me that it’s way cheaper to book a string of flights that a bunch of one ways since some can be stopovers etc. Also, I was telling my plans to a fellow traveler (who’s flying on a RTW ticket) when I was in NYC and he said that all of the places sounded good but it would be too expensive with one-ways. That got me thinking as well, I knew it was true but I’m going to be travelling over a year probably and you can’t actually buy tickets for more than about 11 months in advance leaving a RTW ticket out for me.
So it dawned on me that I can buy at least the first leg as a linked ticket so I don’t have to worry about the first part then I can buy single tickets or another string of tickets on the road. I’m a genius! I tried out this route ending in Bangkok since BKK has a ton of travel resources and is a big hub where I can get more tickets: Chicago> LA> Tokyo> Beijing -(overland)- Bangkok and it came out to $650. For real! But the real expensive parts like Africa would be late in the trip. I don’t mind spending a few thousand on airfare, that’s fine. I’ve also been deciding exactly where in India I want to go since I’ve decided that I’m going to find a way to get myself into some Bollywood films as an extra. They’re always looking for white people for the background. If I do that and yoga I’ll be spending a lot of time in India although I’m still worried about the food and my stomach.