A quick guide to airline and travel agent jargon

Open Jaw – simply means flying into one city & flying back from another e.g.. Australia to Delhi then Mumbai back to Australia.

Surface Sectors – similar to the above but this time flying onwards to another destination e.g. Australia – Delhi – surface – Mumbai – Cairo. Surface means that you make your own arrangements to travel overland by bus or train perhaps. It’s a great idea to include one or two surface sectors in any round the world itinerary (RTW).

Stopover – most RTW tickets are based on stopovers which simply mean a break in your itinerary in a particular city. The more stopovers you want then the more expensive the ticket.

Don’t get stopovers mixed up with transits. This is where you simply change aircraft in a particular city in order to connect flights. These are rarely counted as a stopover unless you decide to break your journey there and spend a night or two.

Taxes – unless you are travelling in Australia, airline ticket taxes do not refer to GST or any other type of sales tax. These taxes are levied by governments & airports around the world and have become a nice legal rort for the bureaucrats and politicians. You pay almost $30 just for the privilege of leaving Australia and it’s very likely that on any RTW your tax bill will run into $100’s. Fortunately most taxes are pre-paid when you buy your ticket but watch out for the occasional local payments like on departure from Thailand for example.

Fuel surcharges are a relatively new phenomenon. Most airlines have these extra charges in place now (but each airline has a different level) to cover the significant increase in jet fuel. They add them to the taxes which is a bit naughty because these surcharges are a business overhead not a government charge. Most of the time the tax quote will include these surcharges.

And for clarification sake round the world means just that; your ticket must involve a circumnavigation of the globe. If you just want to go to Europe and back via say Asia then Africa you will limit your options