
Fly to 6 Continents in Style - laumac
http://flightfox.com/rtw
======
b_emery
But what about that elusive 7th continent? Here's one possible way to check
that off your list. Find a research lab that is doing Antarctic Research and
apply to join them as a volunteer. There are often positions for volunteers.
As you can imagine, these are quite popular so it may be a difficult route,
but it seems like there is always a need for people with electronics and
computer skills. There are also job openings, eg
<http://www.usap.gov/jobsAndOpportunities/>.

It may cost you your time, but possibly not much else. I went to Palmer
Station as a volunteer on an oceanographic research cruise and was able to use
my travel stipend to stay in Chile for a few weeks afterward. For all my hard
work I also received the Antarctic Service Medal [1]. (Not exactly sure why
since I was not affiliated with the Military!). Definitely one of the best
deals of my life.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica_Service_Medal>

~~~
zheng
Would love to read a bit more about your experiences, that sounds like a ton
of fun! Consider this a request for a blog post.

~~~
iamdave
Agreed, I would absolutely love to read this and share it with my mother.
She's a huge nerd for expeditionary travel and research.

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rjsamson
So this is pretty cool and everything, but the frustrating thing for me is I
would love to see the itineraries that won, but I keep getting greeted with a
"only the contest owner can view flight details." I'd love to see this opened
up - I think it would build a lot more trust in their platform.

~~~
todsul
Hi rj,

Here are the details for the economy itinerary, which was $1730 for 6
Continents. We're working with the expert of the business class itinerary to
see what details he's happy for us to post.

    
    
       JFK 18-Oct-2012 GEO 18-Oct-2012 Delta (New York, US to Georgetown, Guyana)
       GEO 25-Oct-2012 JFK 25-Oct-2012 Delta (Georgetown, Guyana to New York, US)
       JFK 14-Nov-2012 TXL 15-Nov-2012 Air Berlin (New York, US to Berlin, Germany)
       SXF 29-Jan-2013 AGA 29-Jan-2013 EasyJet (Berlin, Germany to Agadir, Morocco)
       AGA 05-Feb-2013 LGW 05-Feb-2013 EasyJet (Agadir, Morocco to London, UK)
       LTN 26-Feb-2013 SAW 26-Feb-2013 EasyJet (London, UK to Istanbul, Turkey)
       SAW 18-Mar-2013 IKA 19-Mar-2013 Pegasus (Istanbul, Turkey to Tehran, Iran)
       IKA 29-Mar-2013 KUL 30-Mar-2013 AirAsia (Tehran, Iran to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
       KUL 02-Apr-2013 PER 02-Apr-2013 AirAsia (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Perth, Australia - YAY!)
       PER 07-Apr-2013 KUL 07-Apr-2013 AirAsia (Perth, Australia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
       KUL 09-Apr-2013 BKK 09-Apr-2013 AirAsia (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Bangkok, Thailand)
       BKK 18-Apr-2013 KBP 18-Apr-2013 Aerosvit (Bangkok, Thailand to Kiev, Ukraine)
       KBP 18-Apr-2013 JFK 18-Apr-2013 Aerosvit (Kiev, Ukraine to New York, US)

~~~
corin_
Would it not make sense to enable public viewing for it on the site - at least
in instances like above where you are happy to let people know?

I feel the rough cost should be promoted up front, I remember the last time
you did one of these promo contests (or at least the last time one was on HN)
I found it interesting, then was put off by the fact that you didn't allow
viewing of the winning itinerary, and the fact that information on the service
didn't seem to be as accessible as it could have been... I then completely
forgot about you.

This time I clicked around, entered some information and saw the prices - and
signed up to pay for a search. If the results are good, or even suggest
promise for the future, I'll be sure to remember you. But I'm not sure I would
have done any of this if a.) I wasn't sat here watching a football (soccer)
match that's boring the hell out of me and b.) Next week I need to go on a
trip to two cities in hopefully a single day, i.e. good timing

Edit: More feedback, would be nice to have more flexibility in requesting
flight details. For example my trip next week, I don't care what day it's on
(any of Mon-Fri would be fine), but I don't want to put +/- 3 days because I
don't want one flight Monday and the next on Friday. Additionally I want to go
to two cities, I don't care in which order. Maybe you could take a look at my
notes on <http://flightfox.com/contest/23238> and tell me a.) If it's OK that
I specified them there and b.) If it might be possible to be able to specify
them somewhere more efficient rather than just writing prose

~~~
todsul
Hi corin_5, coincidentally we're working on improved date flexibility right
now. You'll be able to specify before/after and many more day period options.
We're doing the same for passenger type. Not just adults, but students,
infants, etc.

We can't enable public viewing because the experts don't want to divulge their
most prized tips and tricks to the wider public. This is their livelihood, and
we are mostly holding these contests to test their skills and proving
something more interesting that the typical simple return trips.

Glad you're giving us a go. Please let us know if you have any issues or
questions.

~~~
corin_
Another piece of flexibility feedback - wildcard destinations, for finding a
decent priced holiday (obviously with some guidance on rough location). I
guess this is possible from the competition you just ran, but I must have
missed the option.

As to the reasons for not enabling public viewing... as you've publicly shared
here on HN, could you not at least share that much on the site? Alternatively
could you not offer an option for people to "buy it now", to use an ebay
phrase? Or would the necessary price tag be too high for most people to be
interested?

p.s. The 5 was attached to the number of minutes, not my name! ;D

~~~
todsul
Great point re destinations. You can actually do wildcard destinations right
now, but it's just not obvious. We have an autocomplete function on the
airport box, but you can enter anything you want. As you'll see on the RTW
contests, we just entered "Round the World" for 'from' city and "6 Continents"
for the 'to' city.

That said, we need to make this more obvious and probably tease out more
adventurous use of this feature. Thanks for the feedback.

------
rdl
The deal with official RTW fares, at least in 2000-2008 when I was checking
them, was to buy them ex-interesting country vs. ex-USA. They have a price set
in local currency, so when a currency drops vs. the USD, it takes them 6-12
months to adjust prices. ex-CAI, ex-BKK, ex-KUL were all excellent places to
buy for a long time.

A guy on flyertalk would maintain a list of ex-various *A RTW prices.
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuTBktAWbGhwdHd...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuTBktAWbGhwdHdCWFpLUjVVLUxVeVJHNUxsVEdsOFE&authkey=CMST4bsD&hl=en&authkey=CMST4bsD#gid=0)

~~~
saryant
sbm13 (Another Flyertalker) maintains a version on that mashed up on Google
Maps: <http://www.wandr.me/RTW_Fares.aspx/>

~~~
rdl
Wow, I remember when FRTWSTAR3 were <$7k, now they're about $20k. (post-9/11)

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patdennis
Six continents for what I spend per month on rent? Pretty amazing. Even at
three grand it would be a great deal...

This seems like a useful service. I wonder how often it produces results this
good.

~~~
grecy
I drove from Alaska to Argentina in 22 months, and my expenses on the road
were identical to what they had been for the previous two years going to work
every day.

It's very common to go traveling the world for basically the same amount of
money you spend just going to work.

<http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure>

~~~
drgath
Damn, that really has me thinking about doing something similar. One advantage
of being in Web development is I (and many others here) can work from anywhere
as long as there is an an occasional Internet connection. Certainly nothing
full-time (defeats the purpose of traveling), but a few hundred dollars here
and there probably goes a long ways.

~~~
jayunit
Do it! I commented elsewhere in the thread, but for my wife & I together we
spend 3500USD/mo and are quite comfortable. Travel's a blast. I found I really
prefer contiguous blocks of work (several-week chunks) so work and travel
don't each distract me from the other.

Travel slowly, immerse yourself in the daily in-and-outs. Rent apartments, do
housesitting. Stay at least a month in a big city, use it as a "home base,"
and make shorter excursions out from there.

At the same time, there's adventure to be had coding and traveling at the same
time... had to mute myself in a Google Hangout daily standup once because the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohri> drums from the Delhi streets below were
drowning me out. Brushed death on a Bangkok mototaxi in rush hour traffic en
route to a give a meetup talk. Most exciting of all: found novel timezone bug
in an app once by working in a zone (India Standard Time) with a 30-minute
offset.

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tayl0r
I really want to submit my upcoming trip to FlightFox but I'm not sure of the
best time to do it and there also isn't a date range that is wide enough for
what I want.

I want to travel anytime in late October or November (5 week window vs the 6
day window the site allows). I have 2 adults and 1 lap infant. I am going one-
way from Berlin, Germany to Orlando, Florida.

When would be the best time to submit this trip? Is it even worth it given the
best price I can find online is about 1200 EUR total?

~~~
todsul
Hi tayl0r, yes, you can mention your extra flexibility in the description
section of your contest. We're working on better handling flexibility, such as
in your case around dates/times.

The best time to submit is sooner rather than later since, for the most part,
fares go up, not down. 1200E is a fairly good price. However, if you want
absolute rock bottom prices, make sure you say that in your contest and our
experts will really go to work.

As you can imagine, not everyone wants the lowest price, especially traveling
with an infant. But I highly recommend you give Flightfox a go and see how our
experts can help you.

The great thing is it's often just $20 or $30, which is not a lot compared to
the price of your trip. At worst, we can refund your fee, but more likely,
you'll see how the experts work and may save a couple of hundred dollars.

~~~
tayl0r
I just booked it from Flightfox. Only 1080 USD and the flight is shorter with
less stopovers than the one I found for 1200 EUR. I'm pretty impressed and
will definitely be using Flightfox again.

I really like how you can talk back and forth with the experts via the comment
system.

------
brk
OK, I don't get it (granted I didn't spend a ton of time reading through all
the details).

What I was hoping for is some way I could book the "winning" itinerary through
some means. I was ready to buy 2 of the business-class trips instantly, but it
seems this is more of a "bragging" site (in a good way), showing how cheaply
you've managed to book a given itinerary?

~~~
todsul
Hi brk, This was an in-house contest to test the skills of our experts. You
can absolutely put up a similar contest to receive similar results. Love the
idea about being able to book other flyers' itineraries. We're in a heavy
product dev phase, so I'll share it with the team. Yes, in one sense we are
bragging what real travel experts can do. The premise of Flightfox is,
especially for high-value trips, you should leverage the skills and local
knowledge of experts. Best.

~~~
brk
OK, thanks for the explanation.

So, how exactly would I _use_ the site for my benefit (honest question from
someone who books about 50-70K flight miles per year)?

~~~
todsul
If you visit the homepage, there's a "Get Started" button. The next page is a
form asking for your trip details. Once you complete the form and pay the
finder's fee, experts start competing to build you the best itinerary. You can
communicate with the experts during the process to specify preferences.
Clearly it works best with higher-value itineraries.

A more high level explanation is that Flightfox is a marketplace for freelance
travel agents (and flight experts). We're bringing human travel experts online
with a new crowdsourced model. Because customers pay a fixed fee upfront, we
hope to remove the dependence on commissions. With diminishing commissions on
flights, it's difficult to find agents who'll take the time to find you the
best flights. That's what we're aiming to fix.

For frequent flyers like yourself, we're currently building out features to
also earn/spend miles. I'm not sure if you do mileage runs or book award
flights, but this is where we could become much more interesting for you.

~~~
_casperc
So does the travel agent book the flight for you when you award him the
finder's fee?

I mean I know it says in your FAQ: "Our experts provide detailed booking
instructions for you to buy those flights."

But I am just not totally clear on how this works and how the prices listed
are provided. Could you elaborate? Also, is there potential for price
differences when an agent finds prices for someone in another country?

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rdl
Wow, this makes me want to book a flight in the near future just to get
flightfox to find me an awesome routing.

What I'd really like is if they could take into account FF status, and also
hotel pricing (at the particular chain I like, Starwood).

Book me a 3-8 week trip visiting as many places as possible from a set of N
cities (plus transits anywhere) staying at Starwood properties (as nice as
possible), using CX preferentially, with at least 20k miles on Star Alliance
carriers, and avoiding UAE transit or stops, and willing to pay certain
multiples for business class flights or upgraded hotels (St. Regis vs. Aloft).

Combining hotel and airfare bookings would make the whole thing a lot more
valuable for multi-stop itineraries. E.g. spending $500 more for a BKK transit
(and 3-5 day stop) vs. a SIN transit, since BKK has 5 star hotels for
$120/night vs. $300/night.

~~~
accountoftheday
i am curious about what you find wrong with UAE transit or stops. was fun to
me.

~~~
rdl
Several people I know have gotten arrested on BS charges (related to being
journalists/grad students and investigating the slave-labor-of-subcontinentals
thing).

~~~
corin_
There's some other reasons too - as much as I'm sure I could avoid any public
displays giving myself away, I'm not a fan of the idea of going to a country
where the fact that I'm gay is enough to get me arrested. I've turned down
work in Dubai for this reason in the past (twice) and would do it again.

------
ashbrahma
If I am interested in the business class itinerary - do I have to recreate the
entire contest or is there a chance I can jump on this deal by paying the same
finders fee?

~~~
todsul
Hi ashbrahma, please email us at team at flightfox.com if you're interested in
this specific itinerary and we can help you get booked. Alternatively, if
you're after something similar, but equally adventurous, also get in contact
and we can work with you to post a new contest.

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samstave
In October of 2000 I took a 5 month sebattical trip to backpack through SE
Asia. The ticket was called a pan pacific ticket, it allowed for up to (I
think 7) stops. You just called and scheduled the flight you wanted when you
wanted it. It had no set itinerary, and the ticket cost $2,300.

I went from SFO to HK, and then hopped all around Tom Singapore, Thailand,
Malaysia, and was planned to go to Sydney for the last stop, but had to come
back early.

I spent five months total, most of the trip was in hostels and beach
bungalows, I stayed in a hotel in hong long and spent nearly $3,000 there over
two weeks.

I spent over a month on Koh Phangan in Thailand, at Haad Yao beach - all my
meals, drinks and bungalow for that month, as well as all the meals and drinks
for a girlfriend from germany who stayed with me a week: $250.

I'd love to do this again, but now I have kids and it will be until they are
in their teens before I can take them on a similar trip.

~~~
todsul
Hi Sam, we met a few couples traveling the world with young children. One of
our friends even gave birth in Thailand and after a short break, just kept
traveling. When you speak to their children, even though they're young, you
sense a real difference. Anyway, just wanted to say that people do still do
this. Here's a blog of the aforementioned friend: <http://almostfearless.com/>
(update: she's expecting a second and is currently in Lebanon).

------
Geekette
This post confused me in terms of itinerary options available. If you decide
to setup a trip "contest", is there any way to specify whether you want
economy or business class?

Also, in terms of experts guarding their tips, what's to stop users
sharing/comparing/aggregating their contest and tips/tricks behind them
elsewhere? Eg if someone asks on quora and several customers answer with
details of their bookings...

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michael991
Here's a 25% affiliate discount: <http://flightfox.com/referral/16686>

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natekapi
Did the trip span the entire month of October? This seems like a pretty
awesome itinerary. I wish you could post the dates too, so people could see
how many days they got in each city.

------
volandovengo
Great stuff Todd! Is there any way to ensure that the best experts bid on the
flights submitted. Seems like a few people really are crafty with their
details!

~~~
todsul
Hi there, really it comes down to the size of the finder's fee. For a trip
that will cost a lot regardless, it's worth submitting a large fee to attract
the best experts. We have almost 1000 experts, and the ones who win these RTW
contests aren't necessarily the ones that can help you. Some people know
certains countries or airlines better that others.

------
Irishsteve
Is the price of the business trip in anyway linked to certain political
'disagreements' in Cairo which happens to be one of the locations.

------
yefim323
Why not use <http://www.orbitz.com/> ?

~~~
nachteilig
This site supposedly lets one do complicated trips for less than one might
spend on orbitz and the like. It's essentially 21st century travel agent mixed
with a competition.

