In the latest version of the Around the World Airfare Report, we shopped prices for RTW plane tickets from nine different companies and rated each company based on three criteria:

• Price: How much does it cost?
• Service speed: How long does it take to get a bookable price?
• Frustration factor: How frustrating is the process of building and pricing a multi-stop route?

Note: We used World Traveler’s Club out of San Francisco when researching for this report.

Price

Here is how the cost of searching these routes on SkyTeam Alliance compared to other companies for each of the three routes we searched:

• Route 1: 2nd lowest price out of 9 options
• Route 2: 3rd lowest price out of 7 options
• Route 3: Lowest price out of 5

Service speed

Here is how the speed of searches compared to other companies we searched.

• Route 1: Slowest out of 9 options
• Route 2: 4th fastest out of 7 options
• Route 3: Slowest option out of 5

Frustration Factor

Specialized agents are travel agents who specialize in multi-stop fares, and for the purpose of this report, we used World Traveler’s Club based out of San Francisco, USA.

There is no online booking tool to use and not much in the way of information on the website about the details of a multi-stop ticket. Ther are sample itineraries to check out. Users fill out a form and wait for a response. Once you speak with a customer service rep, you find out there are no strict rules, terms, and conditions to worry about, and crafting your itinerary is easy.

You must speak (or email) with an agent to get a price and to book. We spoke with the same agent in all three searches, and she was friendly and helpful in answering all our questions.

The process for making changes once you book your ticket is similar to all other companies specializing in multi-stop fares outside of the airline alliances.

If you have used a specialized agent for your round the world trip, we want to hear from you. Specify who you used and leave a review below in the comments.