I am still waiting to hear back from the companies that do round the world tickets to see what their input is, however I have been researching one way tickets with departure dates 3 weeks away. I chose 3 weeks as a reference since that would be the most I would likely purchase any tickets in advance if I opted for that route. Surprisingly I found fares that connect from Asia and South America (via Europe) but the total cost (currently) is only a few hundred dollars more than a 3 continent round the world ticket before tax. Since I would probably have to get a 4 continent pass, this is something that I need to explore in much greater detail. (Pictured: Sunset at Detroit's airport after being booted for the flight being overbooked, waving goodbye to my flight - March 2008)
These are some of the routes that I saw and their various prices (Note all air prices are from kayak.com):
Ferry from Osaka to Shanghai: ~$250
Singapore to Jakarta: $125*
Denpasar, Bali to Mumbai via Kuala Lumpur: $725
Delhi to Rio via Chicago and Miami: $852
Santiago to Easter Island (Round Trip): $700**
Lima to Miami via Bogota: $352
Miami round trip to Cancun, Mexico via Houston: $257
Miami to Dayton: $107
Total: $4238 after taxes
*This fare would have been purchased outside of the round the world airfare ticket anyway
*This fare is the one that is a major worry, prices can fluctuate up to $1100 but being open on the days would make it significantly cheaper.
I was pleasantly surprised at this. There may be slightly more expenses associated with doing overland - I have to do research into possible routes from Chile up to Peru. But this discovery is astonishing. I would have thought a series of one way tickets would have been murder. Of course this is just a preliminary study, I will try and see what other direct fares are cheaper as this might be a viable route and would still give the freedom of not having a specific date to go to. The only downside is that there is a gamble in that prices may fluctuate while on the road with the volatility of the airline industry however the risk might be worth it. I think i'll ocassionally check these prices in the next year to see how they fluctuate on a month to month basis for high and low travel seasons (if any) for those routes.
I also need to figure out the little problem of "proof of onward travel" that some countries require. This will be a problem no matter what airfare setup I choose as I want to do some rather long overland routes as well. I will discuss this in a future post regarding visas and visitor durations.
For now I think this is looking like a viable course of action for my obscure route around the world.
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