Strictly speaking, an Around the World Ticket, or RTW, travels in one direction and crosses both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, stopping at however many destinations the traveller wishes. The traveller can travel to any destination in the world and has the option to travel by land for portions of their trip if they wish. So long as you fly over both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, your trip does a complete journey around the world and thus constitutes an Around the World Ticket.
Backtracking, which is when you reverse the general direction of travel mid-trip, is not generally allowed on an RTW, by it’s very definition. If you book with airline alliances, this is simply not an option. We can however, offer you this option by selling you a Multi-Stop ticket.
A Multi-Stop ticket does not need to meet the above requirements, but simply must include at least 3 flights and the destinations must be on at least 2 different continents or zones. Your route can bounce around a lot more, going in any direction, and you still have the option of overland travel between destinations as well. These tickets offer a bit more flexibility while still having the option of travelling all around the world.
Price is not affected by the type of ticket you have, but more so by the number of flights you’re taking and the distances these flights are travelling. Obviously, the more back and forth you have, the more distance you will cover and likely, the higher the cost so it is still generally best to travel in one direct line, but depending on the places you wish to travel to, either an RTW or a Multi-Stop Ticket could be more economical. At the end of the day, whether you name your ticket Around the World or Multi-Stop, you’ll be doing the travelling all over the world. Speak to one of our agents today to determine what works best for you.