Have you ever heard of round-the-world airfares and wondered what they are? What about an open-jaw or a mixed-class ticket?
Let’s talk about airfares.
Although at times frustrating, booking flights is a necessary part of most international itineraries. With so many airlines to choose from, as well as different alliances and departure times, it can be hard to know what you’re booking and whether it’s the best itinerary for you.
However, if you know what to look for, you and your travelling party can save thousands of dollars. This is money that can be better spent on your accommodation or activities. Who doesn’t want more Cerveza in their lives?
Multi-Stop and Open-Jaw Airfares
Whether you’re travelling to Europe or the USA, there’s a good chance you’ll be stopping in more than one place and taking more than one flight.
Are you heading to New York but want to stop in LA on the way there and then mix it up with a stop in San Francisco on the way back? Or maybe you’re flying into Barcelona but meeting up with friends in London for a few days prior?
Thankfully, this doesn’t need to result in a dramatically higher price or a bunch of unnecessary tickets. In fact, you can often add one or two internal flights to your itinerary without changing the price much at all.
The trick is knowing what fares exist, who offers them, and which airlines are friends.
Qantas, for example, has a strong relationship with American Airlines in the USA, opening up gateways throughout the USA for Australian travellers. Qantas also teams up with British Airways in the UK, ensuring multiple European destinations can be added to your London ticket.
Open-jaw flight itineraries allow you to fly into one destination and home from another, removing unnecessary flights back and forth. If you’re flying into Athens and starting a tour that finishes in London two weeks later, an open-jaw itinerary will allow you to fly into Athens and then pick up the fare again from London for your return.
When you combine this with a multi-stop fare, the value quickly adds up.
Round-the-World Airfares
Starting from as low as $1,900 per person, a Round-the-World (RTW) airfare is the perfect option for those seeking to pack as much into their holidays as possible.
COVID-19 prevented many of us from travelling, so it’s no surprise that the demand for RTW airfares has skyrocketed in recent months.
How do these work?
Airlines are desperate to win as much of your business as possible, so they are more than happy to team up with each other if it results in a bigger slice of the pie.
For example, the Lufthansa Group does not have aircraft flying between Australia and Asia or Australia and the Americas, so it teams up with Qantas, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, and many others to capture some of the market.
There are also Alliance fares offered by OneWorld, Star Alliance and Sky Team.
This is great for consumers as it provides more options, flexibility, and very competitive pricing. And with the entire world to choose from, the possibilities are endless.
There are also other benefits of booking RTW and multi-stop fares. The most significant benefit is that your itinerary is all on one ticket rather than a bunch of individual tickets (stressful!). This is beneficial as it protects you if there are changes to your itinerary (both voluntary and involuntary), and it also ensures that your luggage allowance is the same throughout (anyone who has travelled throughout the USA will understand how important this is!).
Having your itinerary on one ticket means you’ll only pay one change fee if you need to make changes. Life happens, so when it does, why not minimise the cost as much as possible?
Schedule changes and delays may be outside of your control, but when they happen, you will most definitely know about it. If you’ve booked everything on one ticket, you will be taken care of. If you’ve booked separate tickets and you miss a flight as a result, you’ll need to cross your fingers and toes and hope your travel insurance covers it.
Mixed Class Fares
I’m sure we’d all love to fly business class for every flight, but the $10,000+ price tag often associated with the privilege is enough to turn us all back to cattle class.
Luckily, there are a growing number of airlines that allow you to mix it up, booking one class for one half of the itinerary and another class on the opposite.
This means that you can look into a number of different combinations, such as premium economy over and business class back, or maybe business class over and economy back. These are all possibilities that can reduce the hole in the back pocket.
It’s important to note that not all airlines allow this, and the quality of classes between airlines can vary drastically so it is important to exercise caution.
How do I put these together?
If you visit most airline websites you’ll be able to find interactive tools that allow you to play around with different itineraries.
This is a great place to start, and you might get away with putting a multi-stop or open jaw together, but we always recommend following up with a travel agent to see if there are any further savings to be made. As mentioned, changing your itinerary by even one day can have costly consequences, and although this might be easier to manage with a simple return itinerary, it can be impossible to navigate when multiple stops, airlines and dates are involved.
RTW fares on the other hand are extremely difficult to even put together online (in some cases impossible). There are a number of rules that need to be followed, and straying even just slightly away from these rules can affect the price by thousands of dollars.
Travel agents have access to the latest and most informative flight GDS systems, something not available to the genera public, and even the most experienced travel agents can struggle to put these fares together. It takes skill, close attention to detail, and often years of technical training to be able to master these fares.
In my very biased opinion, I think Legacy Travel is the best travel agency in the country when it comes to RTW fares, so if we can assist you, please get in touch. But if you must go elsewhere, ensure you enquire with an agent who is experienced in this field.
And if you’re discussing RTW fares with a travel agent and their face turns red and begins to sweat, you should probably look elsewhere!
