Over a decade before, my wife had been diagnosed with a slowly-progressing autoimmune disease that could impair her ability to travel past a certain point (and which ultimately ended her life) so our mindset was not to wait around but to go to work on our joint bucket lists sooner rather than later, so in late 2004 we started putting together plans to spend a few months traveling the world. Between the start and finish, however, you have enormous discretion as to where to go and stop over, and what routes to take. The tickets are generally good for a year, require that you cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the same direction, and end up in the same country where the trip began. These products, sold mainly by members in the three big airline alliances, Oneworld, Star Alliance and Skyteam, feature one-price tickets that cover a number of flights that allow one (require, actually) to circle the globe. what was I saying?Īround 16 years ago I became aware of some (relatively) little known airline ticket products, called round-the-world (or “RTW”) tickets. Mind you my memory might not be what it once was. I'll post it in sections and will be happy to answer any questions or accept any criticism you might have. With lots of spare time in my locked-down world, I've decided to jump into the wayback machine big time and post a ridiculously long trip report from my and my wife's first round-the-world trip, taken fifteen years ago.

Maybe I'll put short links on the destination boards to point to it. ) I've put it on this board because it involves several destinations. Don't hold back on criticism, my skin is thick even if my hair is thin (but oh so long.

It started out as a fairly straightforward accounting of the trip (including some pre- and post-trip times) but as I got into it I realized that it has been a real watershed in our lives, and that some of the things we learned and experienced and confronted on that trip had left a permanent mark on us.Īnyway, I figured I might post it here, too. A couple of weeks ago I decided to post an account on Flyertalk of the first round-the-world (RTW) trip my wife and I took fifteen years ago.

With a lot - a lot - of time on my hands these past weeks, I've been doing a lot of work scanning old pictures and renewing old memories.

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