Star Alliance comprises 26 member airlines:
They serve over 2,000 destinations in 186 countries.
Your journey has to start and end in the same country, but not necessarily in the same city. Therefore you can’t, for example, go from London to Beijing by train, take your first flight in this city and finish your trip in London.
Your trip must be completed within a minimum of 10 days and a maximum of 1 year between the date of your first flight and that of your last flight.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) divides the world into three areas, also known as “Traffic Conference Areas” (TC Areas). The RTW tickets use these TC Areas:
Between each of these three areas, you must always travel in the same direction: West to East or East to West. So you can’t, for example, do the following route: Europe – Asia – Africa – Australia – America – Europe, as the Asia – Africa section would make you turn back on yourself.
You must cross the Atlantic and the Pacific exactly once (no more, no less).
The first crossing between two areas has to be done by plane. It can’t be a surface sector. If you want to include the Trans-Siberian in the itinerary of your RTW ticket, you’ll have to go through a specialist travel agency.
On the other hand, within each area, you don’t always have to travel in the same direction. You can zigzag if you want to.
Your itinerary can include 3 to 16 segments, except for the fare limited to 26,000 miles, which can’t have more than 6 segments.
Each flight sector with a stopover counts as a segment. Travelling between two airports by land also counts as a segment.
You can change the travel dates of all your tickets free of charge up to 24 hours before departure, but no later than one year after the date of your first flight.
To change the date of one of your tickets, you just have to email or call the airline you’re flying with. It’s usually sorted in less than 24 hours.
Staying in a city for more than 24 hours and crossing a surface sector between two regions count as stopovers.
You can change the departure and / or arrival city of flights, but that’ll result in a fee of $125 (£90) for each ticket change.
1 piece of luggage at the weight of 20 kg (44 lbs)
With Star Alliance, you can cross the South Pacific, but you can’t stop at Easter Island.
All flights with Star Alliance’s member airlines will allow you to earn miles which can then be redeemed for an upgrade or a free ticket.
The base fare depends on the mileage. Taxes and surcharges aren’t included in this fare. This detail is important, because they’re usually between $550 (£400) and $1,150 (£800) on top of the base fare. We can’t give you an exact total price, as taxes and surcharges vary a lot depending on which airports you choose.
It’s the largest of the three alliances with good connections to Africa and South America. However, if you want to stop at Easter Island, you’ll have to go through Oneworld or an agency.
