The Great Escapade

Recently stumbled upon the great escapade, and it fits my needs really well, as I will be travelling across the globe in March next year.

Just some questions for anyone who has done it before or is familiar with it. The price is really exceptional, just 1500 quid for all the legs I need, is there some sort of catch? Almost seems unbelievable to me. Also, are the dates completely flexible, or are your choice of dates quite restricted?

Any advice about it is greatly appreciated. I read HighFlyer's epic thread from a few years back and now I'm already super excited

We did a Great Escapade trip in 2008. Our itinerary was:

LHR-HKG-SIN-SYD...(Qantas internal flights)...CNS-AKL-RAR-LAX-LHR.

You're right, it's a very good deal. I believe the fares quoted online don't include some taxes so I would allow a little lee-way there.

The only stumbling points we found were:
- limited to 29,000 flight miles
- limited to VS, Singapore Airlines and Air NZ. Whilst these are 3 very good airlines, it does mean you'll pay more for domestic flights in countries like the US and Australia. I believe Star/One World's RTW tickets can include domestics.

With the very welcome help we received from VFlyer, we had a wonderful Great Escapade a few years ago. We had to have a very confirmed itinerary date and time (there is a substantial fee for changes) so that research had to happen prior to booking. Tickets were (at that time) booked by phone with paper tickets which we guarded carefully. Personally I think it is an extraordinary opportunity, this idea of a trip around the world—and VS make it affordable and fairly simple.

One caveat—we decided to use the UC option as it was particularly reasonable and made the trip a pleasant one even when 35000 miles up. Virgin now offer I believe a couple of other choices (4 Stop for half of the GE fee) and a V Australia package which are worth exploring.

Have booked several RTW trips with Great Escapade, journey has normaly taken in Los Angeles or San Fransisco, Auckland, Melbourne, Singapore and Hong Kong. These fares provide fantastic value eg around £5k for Upper/Business.

Have a great trip


oldboy

One caveat—we decided to use the UC option as it was particularly reasonable and made the trip a pleasant one even when 35000 miles up. Virgin now offer I believe a couple of other choices (4 Stop for half of the GE fee) and a V Australia package which are worth exploring.

Any ideas where I find this offer please.

-Steve

This is something I've also been looking at for the future. Worth pricing up against the Ba/OneWorld offering, I've also found a website called roundtheworldexperts.co.uk that seem to specialise and may provide additional flexibility - if that's what you want.

Keep us updated...

Can someone tell me how this actually works please. When my husband retires we are looking to do a nice long trip and from the little I've read here this would sound the ideal way to do it, do you have to go to specific countries, is there a max/min time you have to spend in each place? Do you have to book your own internal flights/hotels? Any info gratefully received

Can someone tell me how this actually works please. When my husband retires we are looking to do a nice long trip and from the little I've read here this would sound the ideal way to do it, do you have to go to specific countries, is there a max/min time you have to spend in each place? Do you have to book your own internal flights/hotels? Any info gratefully received

All explained here - enjoy!

Oh thanks for that, now to start planning

So you have probably checked out http://www.thegreatescapade.com/ which is a fairly informational site. All you have to do is decide which stops and when within the parameters of allowed miles. You can travel by other means at your own whim /cost outside of the planned GE between domestic stops which can significantly increase distance (e.g. by Virgin America cross US) for your trip. We were able to leave our final flight segment open jaw which was a great help as it was good for a year.

The GE is ONLY about flights. You plan everything else outside of that and yes that includes car rental, lodging etc. There are sites that offer info to help (http://www.roundtheworldtickets.com/hong-kong-to-los-angeles-escapade-economy-plus/, http://www.westernair.co.uk/rtwairnewzealand.html,http://www.roundtheworldflights.com/, http://www.hoparoundtheworld.com/step-2/round-the-world-tickets.php but you can also call and speak directly with Virgin staff for assistance.

So you have probably checked out http://www.thegreatescapade.com/ which is a fairly informational site. All you have to do is decide which stops and when within the parameters of allowed miles. You can travel by other means at your own whim /cost outside of the planned GE between domestic stops which can significantly increase distance (e.g. by Virgin America cross US) for your trip. We were able to leave our final flight segment open jaw which was a great help as it was good for a year.

The GE is ONLY about flights. You plan everything else outside of that and yes that includes car rental, lodging etc. There are sites that offer info to help (http://www.roundtheworldtickets.com/hong-kong-to-los-angeles-escapade-economy-plus/, http://www.westernair.co.uk/rtwairnewzealand.html,http://www.roundtheworldflights.com/, http://www.hoparoundtheworld.com/step-2/round-the-world-tickets.php but you can also call and speak directly with Virgin staff for assistance.