Trouble Buying New Around-the-World Ticket

Monday, July 21, 2008--Bangkok

Even though I took a long nap in the afternoon, I still felt tired. It was probably due to two things: 1) the warmer weather here in Chiang Mai, and 2) all the walking I did to get from the airport to my hotel last night. Anyway, after being at the cyber cafe, all I had left to do was eat and then go back to my room. I was too tired to want to do anything else.

I walked to the Anusarn Market which is right beside my hotel. They were just setting up for the evening, since it was 17:30. It is an extension of the famous Night Market in Chiang Mai which is located on the streets and sells mostly souvenirs. Anusarn has it's own grounds and is known mostly for its food, although there are some souvenir stands also. Much of the food is seafood at Anusarn. It looked good, but I skipped it last night. Instead, I went to the side where women operated small stalls. I went to the most popular of these and had a fried rice with chicken dish. It was very tasty. Then I moved to another one of the stalls there and had a chocolate roti. That's an envelope of thin dough (pressed and flung until it has a transparent thinness and then folded to form a square-shaped envelope) that is fired in oil and butter on a griddle until it is crispy. Then it is cut into small pieces and chocolate sauce is squeezed over it. It is served with a toothpick for picking up the pieces to transfer them to the mouth. It was delicious!

After that, I bought a drink at 7-11 around the corner from my hotel and went to the room. I watched a French film on TV that had English subtitles, then I went to bed around 22:00 and slept for 10 hours!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008--Bangkok

Trouble with Around-the-World Ticketing--I went back to the Thai Airlines office this morning and received bad news. They have changed the rules for the around-the-world airfares from Star Alliance. They changed one month ago. As usual with Star Alliance, they are still essential secret, however. There was no publicity about changing them, and there was no notice on their website. So all my planning I did in the spring has to be adjusted. Essentially, this is what I had planned and how it is affected by the new rules:

I planned 29,000 miles, but the new rules put the limit at 26,000 miles.
I planned a total of 15 stops without counting transfer airports, but the new rules allow only 16 coupons, so transfer airports get counted now AND they still continue to count overland routes--now as one of the 16 coupons!!!

Besides all of this, the price of the ticket has gone up dramatically. I am adjusting my routing by eliminating a side trip to Pueblo Colorado, eliminating a segment from Vancouver to San Francisco (which was there to fly United and put in miles to get me to the 29,000 mark) by flying Air Canada straight from Vancouver to Inchon in Korea, by eliminating flights on Star Alliance to get me from Borneo to Saigon via Singapore and having to plan to buy AirAsia (low-cost airline)tickets to cover the same route (On AirAsia, I will go Borneo to Kuala Lumpur to Cambodia and travel overland to Saigon) at a cost to me of $150 at current prices. That eliminates flight segments so that I am down to the 16 maximum. It also eliminates mileage so that I am just under 26,000. And the ticket will cost approximately $4600--$1000 more than I paid a year ago for my present ticket.

With all these changes, the Star Alliance is no longer necessarily the best one for Around-the-World tickets. I think that OneWorld (British, American, Quantas, Cathay Pacific, LanChile, etc.) probably has better offers now. I am glad I had already planned for this to be either my last or my next-to-the-last ticket. I will complete this present ticket (getting me all the way back to Bangkok), but I am not sure I will buy another one next year. I may just buy a one-way ticket back to the U.S. But if I buy ATW X, it will be with an itinerary that will use 14 of coupons to get me to San Antonio and then leave only 2 coupons which would take me directly from San Antonio to Bangkok, and I will throw away those last two coupons. The Golden Age of around-the-world travel is coming to an end, so it's time I quit it.