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Fly to 6 Continents in Style

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Re: Fly to 6 Continents in Style

#61

Post by saryant »

rdl wrote: post #51

The deal with official RTW fares, at least in 2000-2008 when I was checking them, was to buy them ex-interesting country vs. ex-USA. They have a price set in local currency, so when a currency drops vs. the USD, it takes them 6-12 months to adjust prices. ex-CAI, ex-BKK, ex-KUL were all excellent places to buy for a long time. A guy on flyertalk would maintain a list of ex-various *A RTW prices. https://docs.google.c…

sbm13 (Another Flyertalker) maintains a version on that mashed up on Google Maps: http://www.wandr.me/RTW_Fares.aspx/

Re: Fly to 6 Continents in Style

#62

Post by grecy »

drgath wrote: post #42
grecy wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drove from Alaska to Argentina in 22 months, and my expenses on the road were identical to what they had been for the previous two years going to work every day. It's very common to go traveling the world for basically the same amount of money you spend just going to work. http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure

Damn, that really has me thinking about doing something similar. One advantage of being in Web development is I (and many others here) can work from anywhere as long as there is an an occasional Internet connection. Certainly nothing full-time (defeats the purpose of traveling), but a few hundred dollars here and there probably goes a long ways.

Absolutely, go for it.

I'm a software engineer, so I work online too, irrelevant of the country I happen to be in.

If you seriously think about driving (you should!), you'll find http://wikioverland.org very helpful.

Re: Fly to 6 Continents in Style

#64

Post by rdl »

saryant wrote: post #61
rdl wrote: post #51

The deal with official RTW fares, at least in 2000-2008 when I was checking them, was to buy them ex-interesting country vs. ex-USA. They have a price set in local currency, so when a currency drops vs. the USD, it takes them 6-12 months to adjust prices. ex-CAI, ex-BKK, ex-KUL were all excellent places to buy for a long time. A guy on flyertalk would maintain a list of ex-various *A RTW prices. https://docs.google.c…

sbm13 (Another Flyertalker) maintains a version on that mashed up on Google Maps: http://www.wandr.me/RTW_Fares.aspx/

Wow, I remember when FRTWSTAR3 were <$7k, now they're about $20k. (post-9/11)

Re: Fly to 6 Continents in Style

#65

Post by praxulus »

brk wrote: post #26
todsul wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4 months traveling the world, having to eat "meals"... sounds terrible! :)

Well, it is for almost anyone with a halfway decent/steady job. What I'm saying is that it's kind of impractical for a lot people. I would expect a "contest" like this to have a winning result that was a little more practical from a total travel time perspective, or at the very least have 2 winning options, one for "Total trip time of 2 weeks or less" (granted this might have to be 3 or even 4 weeks if you're going t…

Why would you try to visit the entire world if you only have 2 weeks of vacation available? At best you would have time to visit a handful of landmarks per city before getting right back on a plane. That's a complete waste of money.

Re: Fly to 6 Continents in Style

#66

Post by prawn »

brk wrote: post #15
todsul wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi rj, Here are the details for the economy itinerary, which was $1730 for 6 Continents. We're working with the expert of the business class itinerary to see what details he's happy for us to post. JFK 18-Oct-2012 GEO 18-Oct-2012 Delta (New York, US to Georgetown, Guyana) GEO 25-Oct-2012 JFK 25-Oct-2012 Delta (Georgetown, Guyana to New York, US) JFK 14-Nov-2012 TXL 15-Nov-2012 Air Berlin (New York, US to Berlin, Germ…

So, this requires essentially being gone for 4 continuous months in order to get these prices? I'm not sure how amazing that is really. That's also 4 months of living on the road, hotels, meals, etc. If you wanted to visit all 6 continents, it seems like you could do it for a cheaper overall rate by just book 6 individual flights over time taking advantage of various promotions.

So pessimistic. Four months of new adventures, pushing your boundaries, learning new things, meeting new people, new stories, great memories.

Re: Fly to 6 Continents in Style

#67

Post by kqr2 »

b_emery wrote: post #43

But what about that elusive 7th continent? Here's one possible way to check that off your list. Find a research lab that is doing Antarctic Research and apply to join them as a volunteer. There are often positions for volunteers. As you can imagine, these are quite popular so it may be a difficult route, but it seems like there is always a need for people with electronics and computer skills. There are also job openi…

For those interested in working at Antarctica, check out the Big Dead Place:

http://www.bigdeadplace.com/welcome.html

From the old Antarctica FAQ on working there:

  First time is for the adventure, 
  Second time for the money, 
  And third because you can't work anywhere else
http://antarctica.kulgun.net/Jobs/

Re: Fly to 6 Continents in Style

#68

Post by Samuel_Michon »

b_emery wrote: post #43

But what about that elusive 7th continent? Here's one possible way to check that off your list. Find a research lab that is doing Antarctic Research and apply to join them as a volunteer. There are often positions for volunteers. As you can imagine, these are quite popular so it may be a difficult route, but it seems like there is always a need for people with electronics and computer skills. There are also job openi…

How many continents are there, really. The answer isn't necessarily 7.

“Remove the ice sheet that covers Antarctica and you reveal it for the archipelago it really is, not the single land mass it pretends to be. And, to complicate matters, the largest of these Antarctic Islands is smaller than Australia. So if you want to keep calling Antarctica a continent, then there’s a bunch of other islands that might want to be continents too. Islands like New Guinea, Borneo, Madagascar, Baffin Island, Sumatra, and Honshu.”

http://blog.cgpgrey.com/what-are-continents/

Re: Fly to 6 Continents in Style

#69

Post by Geekette »

This post confused me in terms of itinerary options available. If you decide to setup a trip "contest", is there any way to specify whether you want economy or business class?

Also, in terms of experts guarding their tips, what's to stop users sharing/comparing/aggregating their contest and tips/tricks behind them elsewhere? Eg if someone asks on quora and several customers answer with details of their bookings...

Re: Fly to 6 Continents in Style

#70

Post by robryan »

paulgb wrote: post #44
todsul wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi rj, Here are the details for the economy itinerary, which was $1730 for 6 Continents. We're working with the expert of the business class itinerary to see what details he's happy for us to post. JFK 18-Oct-2012 GEO 18-Oct-2012 Delta (New York, US to Georgetown, Guyana) GEO 25-Oct-2012 JFK 25-Oct-2012 Delta (Georgetown, Guyana to New York, US) JFK 14-Nov-2012 TXL 15-Nov-2012 Air Berlin (New York, US to Berlin, Germ…

I was curious to see how the prices broke down and made a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ArqFVqywuf39dEZ... My total was $2617. I know flight prices change over time, but I'm guessing that whoever found this took advantage of some promotions or booking methods other than buying directly from the airline?

The rules for economy were that to be freely bookable online. The contest was a while ago now though so the same deals they took advantage of probably ended.
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