Round the world, six continents in a business class fare for $US3,630, including taxes and surcharges. Yes, you just read that right. Normally such a ticket will set you back about $US11,000 minimum. But this isn’t some spammy whammy deal. It’s the real thing. The el cheapo price was trumpeted by FlightFox, the online company which posts your trip details, and for a finder’s fee, lets the experts compete to find you the best fare. The contest is won when the customer decides which itinerary and price is the best. Flightfox has 900 registered flight expert worldwide helping people book the best flights. I recently used FlightFox to find the cheapest flights between Nice and Athens return.
They did indeed find me a super cheap ticket that cost about $A260 with Alitalia. However I would never recommend anyone fly that airline after my experience involved sitting on the tarmac for two hours on the return trip, which resulted in a missed flight Rome-Nice and would have made me miss my Emirates flight Nice-Dubai. And Alitalia didn’t care. They slid a form across the counter and said without a shred of sympathy: “File a complaint.” More about that in another post.
FlightFox did an in-house round-the-world contest for business class: The rules were six continents, other modes of transport were allowed within continents and there was no minimum stay. Cities visited include Los Angeles, Bogota, London, Cairo, Bangkok, Sydney and more. Airlines included United, Emirates, British Airways and more. Usually with super cheap tickets on FlightFox you need maximum flexibility: Fly on any airline to save money, Consider multiple stops to save money, Consider long layover times ditto.
The finder’s fee for this miracle ticket was $500. The fee on my European hop would have been $A29, but it was waived because this was my first use of the website. What the in-house contest business class results don’t reveal: how many multiple stops, and where they awere, how long the layover times were, whether the cities on all six continents were pre-selected or the route is dictated by the cheap flights available. The same flight expert submitted an itinerary with a quote of only $US2569. The catch? “We had to verify this itinerary over the phone, which contravened the original rules,” FlightFox says.
Flightfox also did an in-house contest for round the world in economy class: Airlines included Delta, Air Berlin, Easyjet, AirAsia and more, and the winning price was $US1,730 including taxes and surcharges.
If you plan to take one of these trips, drop us a tweet: @TravelTaster. We’re curious to know how it goes.
