8 Reasons to book a round the world flight ticket

Your flights are your foundation

When it comes to putting together a round the world holiday, there are all kinds of approaches that you can take. Some travellers build their trip around key experiences or world festivals, while others try to chase the sunshine from continent to continent. Some travellers organise every detail before they depart, while others like to leave themselves plenty of room for manoeuvre. It all depends on your timeframe, budget, and reason for taking the trip.

No matter what type of traveller you are, the first step to building a round the world holiday is fixing down your flight route. Your flights will literally get your trip off the ground. After two decades in the business, we still firmly believe that a round the world flight ticket is the best option for most multi-continent trips.

The amazing hidden value of round the world flights

While there are some remarkably cheap round the world fares out there, sometimes they can seem more expensive at face value. However, the flexibility of round the world flight tickets can end up saving you hundreds of pounds later down the line. Equally, by booking your round the world flights with an expert consultant, you’re securing a support lifeline from the beginning to the end of your trip. This support is often priceless – especially if you run into any problems.

We’ve put together a list of benefits to booking round the world flights, based on years of real-life experience. You’ll quickly see that that the price in the shop window only tells a small part of the story. The hidden value of round the world tickets is huge. Here’s why.

1. Flexibility

Imagine your plans change. This happens, and sometimes for unforeseen reasons. The weather might prevent you from reaching the airport, overland transport might be cancelled or delayed, or something happening at home might draw you back. You might fall head over in heels in love with a place - or a person - and decide to stay wherever you are. Anything can happen!

If you’ve opted for a series of do-it-yourself flights, even small changes can lead to splitting headaches. Say, for example, you’ve booked six separate flight tickets to get you round the world. If you need to change your onward dates, that means contacting 6 different airlines from a foreign land, which can lead to wasting valuable hours (and money!) on hold to general customer helplines. 

With a round the world ticket, you’ll only need to get in touch with one person – your travel consultant. That’s a huge timesaver. Your consultant will be able to organise all changes to your round the world flights at once, managing everything within one system. Simple!

2. Date change fees

With a round the world ticket, date changes are often usually free of charge once your trip has commenced. Your consultant will run through all the details of this at the time of booking. It's a huge benefit that gives you the freedom to tweak your plans as you travel.

In contrast, if you've booked a number of flights online and you need to change your dates, you will be liable for a change fee for each separate flight. There’s a baseline admin fee for changing flight dates and this fee will be outlined in the terms of the ticket. It usually comes in at between £100 and £200 per change. If you need to change the date of several separate flights, these fees will soon mount up. 

Equally, this change fee doesn’t include any ‘fare difference’ on standard flight tickets. If your new date is more expensive than your original flight, you’ll need to pay the admin fee PLUS the difference in fare. If you need to change the dates of several flights, these fees can soon mount up to hundreds (even thousands). 

3. Personal service and ongoing support

Imagine if you’ve got arrangements booked on the ground too. The dates of your transfers, hotels, tours, car hire, and cruises may also need to be changed. If you’ve booked each element independently, this is going to burn through your hard-earned time and money. Think multiple customer helplines in multiple languages across international date lines. These are the kind of DIY travel disasters that we hear about all the time.

When you book a round the world ticket with us, you’ll set off on your travels with the direct contact details of your dedicated consultant. This is the person that built your trip, that knows its intricacies and, most importantly, that knows you!

You’ll also have our 24-hour emergency number for anything urgent that crops up and we can manage any knock-on effects in terms of your arrangements. In many ways, this sort of support is priceless. It allows you to travel with total peace of mind.

4. Expert advice and added value

The beauty of round the world tickets is that they can take you to places that you’ve never even dreamed of. Using our expert knowledge, we can help you squeeze the most out of your opportunities and add real value to your trip. 

Each round the world ticket offer stopovers in strategic destinations at no extra cost. This means that you can add further destinations to your itinerary without spending extra cash.

For example, travellers that book their flights online often fly directly from North America to Australia or New Zealand (or vice-versa) on their round the world trips. However, with a round the world ticket, you can usually choose to stop in Hawaii, Fiji, or French Polynesia at little or no extra charge. What an amazing bonus!

5. No immigration mishaps

Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to get into most countries on a one-way ticket. You’re likely to need proof of an onward ticket, so you’ll need to show evidence for each flight. With a round the world, all your onward tickets are already arranged, making immigration a doddle at every destination. Your travel consultant will also walk you through the visa requirements of each destination featured in your trip, so that nothing is left to chance.

6. No hidden costs

If you put your flight itinerary together in a piecemeal fashion online, it’s unlikely to be as cheap as it first seems. Nowadays, base fares rarely include hold baggage. At the same time, only small cabin bags are usually permitted. Chances are, you’ll need to check anything over 7kgs into the hold. These baggage fees can really add up. Instead, with a round the world ticket, your hold baggage is generally included on every leg of your journey.

Baggage is only the beginning. These days, most low-cost airlines and domestic flights within the USA or Australia don’t include meals or entertainment. Buying these extras on-board isn’t cheap.  Again, with a round the world ticket, these things are all taken care of, so you won’t find yourself paying through the nose for a packet of peanuts.

7. Better airlines

If you opt for an online approach and plump for a bundle of budget flights, you need to be prepared to get what you pay for. Often, the cheapest flights are run by budget airlines, with inferior customer service, no TVs, no food and a general lack of support. These airlines also tend to be less reliable, so you’ll need to build in buffers for delays and cancellations.

With round the world tickets, you’ll travel on the best major airlines in the world, such as Qatar Airways, Qantas, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and many more. These airlines are far more dependable. If you’ve organised every detail down to the ground and you need your trip to run like clockwork, you’re in much safer hands with a round the world ticket.

8. Exciting surface sectors

Anything is possible! Round the world flight tickets offer huge scope for the quirkiest of routings.  As tickets are mileage or sector-based, there are fewer restrictions than standard ‘point-to-point’ tickets. This means that you can get seriously creative.

Cross the Australian Outback by flying into Sydney and out of Perth, travel the length of Southeast Asia by flying into Vietnam and out of Singapore, or explore a bunch of countries in South America by flying into Chile and out of Peru. There are all kinds of fascinating routes you can take, offering an endless combination of destinations.

Ready to book your round the world flight ticket?

At Travel Nation, we love a challenge, so we’ll happily put together complex itineraries for unusual routes. Wherever you want to go, and whatever you want to do, we can make it happen. Mix Madagascar with Mexico, travel from Tanzania to Tonga or combine Christmas and Easter Island.  

We know how to stretch the possibilities of every round the world ticket, so we’ll find the one that perfectly matches your trip of a lifetime. Simply give us a call on +44 1273 947 314 or send us a quote request by email.