Around-the-world plane tickets

I suggest you Google it or go to TripAdvisor.

I've done it. What is your question? The rule is you can only move in one direction (either always East or always West), no back tracking but you can fly NE or SW or NW or SE... Usually you fly along the hubs of one of the large airline alliances. So say from Seattle you fly via Chicago and New York to Frankfurt to Vienna to Istanbul to Bangkok to Singapore to Sydney to Auckland to San Francisco to Seattle.

I've never done it, but have read a fair amount about them. There was a recent thread about it on the Airlines forum on Fodors.com, and they in turn said the real experts are on flyertalk.com. I've read that this is one area where a travel agent can be worthwhile - there are some that specialize in RTW trips. In addition to the "only one direction" rule, there is often a higher cost for routes that go to southern continents. Also, you can add separate segments off the ticket (for instance, if you want to go to Cairo but can only get the RTW ticket to go to Istanbul, you can book a separate round trip from Cairo to Istanbul). One thing that stuck with me from the Fodors thread: many people pick an air alliance (Star Alliance, OneWorld, SkyTeam), and then configure an itinerary. But he said that, unless you're purchasing the ticket with miles, that's the wrong way to go. Since each alliance has strengths and weaknesses in where they go and what they charge for deviations, and you will get a lot of miles for the trip, first figure out where you want to go, and then see who can give you the best route and best price.