Green Light: The Ticket Has Been Issued!

It took working with nine different American Airlines representatives and an average on one hour total "talk time" with each agent, call backs, arguing, cajoling, biting my tongue, emails to customer relations and more patience than I thought I had, but the ticket has been issued. Who would have thought that all of this could be done with an e-ticket? Even I was amazed and maybe a tad nervous. The total cost: 220, 000 American Airlines Advantage frequent flyer miles and $626.50 for taxes, security fees and the like as well as a $20.00 airline ticketing fee. I emailed a complaint to AA regarding the ticket fee since their website prohibits booking an around-the-world (a.k.a. "complex reservation") ticket by the consumer, thus there's no alternative but to work with their representatives. The complaint fell on deaf ears according to the response. Whatever!

The Itinerary is Established

Deciding on where to go and how long to stay at various places was really time-consuming and difficult. And then there are rules to be followed as outlined by the airlines. Fortunately, the oneworld airline alliance has a very handy planning tool that anyone can use. This was also available to us during the RTW classroom training sessions. If anyone is planning a trip of this nature I highly recommend the website and tools provided, they're very smart.

The map above shows the route of travel beginning in Minneapolis/St. Paul. There is a change of planes in Dallas and again in Tokyo with rather lengthy lay-overs before making it to the first stop, Sydney. Five nights in Sydney followed by a flight to Singapore, scheduled to be aboard the Qantas Airbus A380. Four nights in Singapore. Continue on to Hong Kong with another four nights. Then a rather lengthy flight to Johannesburg and a connecting flight to Cape Town with a stay of five nights. Return flight to Johannesburg to catch a flight to London where the stay is relatively brief, two nights. Departing London the next stop is Madrid to connect with the longest flight segment heading to Santiago, Chile. Four nights in Santiago before heading out to the middle of the Pacific Ocean and Easter Island, a.k.a. Rapa Nui, the navel of the earth for three nights. Back to Santiago to connect with a flight to Miami, a very long layover and the final flight back to Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Objectives

It's always a good idea to define one's intentions so here are some objectives for this RTW trip.

Primary Objective: Circumnavigate the globe touching on six continents during the course of a single journey, in business class, utilizing members of the oneworld airline alliance and frequent-flyer miles.

Secondary Objective: Travel on the Airbus A380, preferably with Qantas, the airline of Australia.

Other Objectives: A return visit to Australia (last visit was in 1982). Visit South Africa and specifically the city of Cape Town (new country). Visit Easter Island (exotic destination). Travel frugally wherever possible. Photograph and journal extensively throughout. Tour and admire newer airport construction (Hong Kong and Singapore).

Around The World Trip 2010 - The Notion Takes Form

The idea, or "notion" of doing some sort of exciting travel has been in the back of my mind since the dawn of the new millennium. One would have thought that after returning from an expedition to Antarctica in January, 2006 and thus having now visited all seven continents on Earth, my wanderlust might be sated. Not so. When one has accrued nearly half a million airline frequent flyer miles evenly divided between two airlines the feeling is much like money burning a hole in one's pocket. Therein lies the problem, albeit a happy one.



Early in January of this year I came across my Cancerian horoscope written by one of my favorite astrologers, Rob Brezsny.



I'm hoping that you will get out more in 2010. And I mean way out. Far out. Not just to the unexplored hotspots on the other side of town (although that would be good), but also out to marvelous sanctuaries on the other side of paradise. Not just out to the parts of the human zoo where you feel right at home, but also out to places in the urban wilderness where you'll encounter human types previously unknown to you. In conclusion, traveler, let me ask you this: What was the most kaleidoscopic trip you've ever taken? Consider the possibility of surpassing it in the next 12 months.



Well, there's a challenge! So what was the most kaleidoscopic trip I'd taken? I determined it was my first trip abroad for six weeks scouring Europe with a group of local high school students; we went all the way into the heart of Turkey. I had just turned 16. What an adventure it was and seemingly hard to surpass.



During an international training class I was conducting for American Express corporate travel counselors one of my students asked if I'd ever flown around-the-world. We were discussing how to book such a RTW itinerary for a customer. "I have not," was my reply, "but I intend to do so some day, that's for sure!" The seed was planted and it began to grow.