NZ to fly RTW alone

Full story from Flight International.

Excerpt: "Passengers from London can buy an economy ticket that includes stops in Auckland, Hong Kong and Los Angeles for £801 ($1521) including taxes. Not a bad deal considering return tickets to only Hong Kong and Los Angeles typically sell for more than that. Premium economy around the world fares start at £1402 and business class seats are being sold from £2796 including taxes."

In short, obviously it's not a single flight, but NZ now offer not just Auckland-Los Angeles-London but also Auckland-Hong Kong-London, thus permitting an itinerary which involves different routes out and back between London and Auckland to go around the globe. International-Date-Line-tastic!

The obvious question that presents itself is how this impacts The Great Escapade; presumably not at all, because Hong Kong to London is a route already served by Virgin, but it makes me wonder whether NZ were thinking about this when deciding to serve the route.

Wheeee!
Chris

Yes, the new ANZ RTW offering has been discussed widely of late. As someone who had been on the verge of booking a Great Escapade for next year, the ANZ deals have certainly made me think twice. GE business class comes in at £3,900. ANZ offer the chance to mix n'match with VS - great for miles & tier point earning! They are promoting Options in partnership with Virgin Atlantic - Travel on these fares and enjoy free stopovers in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong & Los Angeles .....all all this for nearly a grand less than GE's offering.

Clearly ANZ's deal isn't as flexible as a Great Escapade, but if your RTW target destinations include the ones on offer it really does seem to be huge saving. Also remember that ANZ have the identical UCS to VS - just no bar!

SQ's options are fairly interesting - You can route SIN-EWR-(Taxi!!!)-JFK-FRA-SIN as one way round the globe.

SIN-EWR-SIN A345 can be routed as an unofficial RTW during the winter. It's not uncommon due to wind conditions for the EWR-SIN sector to operate out over the Atlantic, North Pole and down through Russia into SIN eastbound. It's worth noting that SIN-EWR follows a Pacific crossing in all seasons making a RTW possible on certain days. You certainly can't plan for this one as a solid routing though.........