Back in the spring, we at BootsnAll published our first version of the Around the World Airfare Report.  The purpose of this research project was to outline the various flight options available to round the world travelers and price out several real itineraries for comparison purposes.  We not only recorded the difference in prices, but also customer service, search options, route flexibility, and date flexibility.

As we were putting the finishing touches on the first version of the report, we were already looking forward to the next version, which we just recently published.

Download the free summer version of the Around the World Airfare Report here

Anytime you take on a project like this, you’re bound to learn quite a bit, which will bring about changes the next time you do it. So when we started on this version of the report, we took all feedback we received along with what we learned the first time so we make this version bigger and better.

Like the first time, we searched real RTW routes leaving from three different cities around the world – New York, London, and Sydney. Only this time instead of using the same companies to search from each country, we only used companies located in the respective countries.

We also eliminated searching directly with the airline alliances. There were several reasons for this:

• The alliances don’t make RTW tickets a priority. It’s not where they make their money, so they don’t put a lot of resources into these types of tickets. The customer service reps working for the airline alliances simply aren’t as educated as companies who sell these types of tickets themselves or travel agents who specialize in RTW fares.
• In the last version, there were a few travel agents who could get us prices on routes by using the alliances, but when working with the alliances directly, they couldn’t offer a quote on that same route, so we made it a point to find travel agents who were well versed in alliance tickets (among other options).
• If you’re going to use an alliance (because you have miles with a certain airline or want to build miles), it pays to be very well versed in each one’s terms and conditions, which a travel agent specializing in RTW fares is (moreso than a CSR from an airline alliance).
• Alliances are also good for simpler routes that fit well within their rules, and the routes we searched for this version of the project have several out of the way places that we knew would be problematic.

When listening to feedback about the inaugural version of the report that was published in March, we heard concerns about how we searched the one-way flight option using Kayak.  Because Kayak uses other sites to book their flights, there was concern that we only used the price on Kayak’s search page rather than clicking through to actually book the ticket and make sure the final price was accurate.

While we did indeed click through in the first version, this time we took it a step further and recorded the original price from Kayak and final price after clicking through.  The difference was a miniscule 3.65% (and much of the time the prices were actually lower after clicking through).

So download the free summer version of the RTW Airfare Report, then head on over to the Airfare Report review page to leave your feedback so we can make the third version even better!