The ultimate guide to booking a round-the-world ticket and how to get it without paying for it
With just over 300k MR points, you can go around the world in First Class
Singapore Airlines
Lufthansa
Cathay Pacific
All Nippon Airways (ANA)
Aeromexico
Star Alliance
SkyTeam
Oneworld
It doesn't matter if the first time you dreamed of going around the world was because of Jules Verne and his novel or the cartoon aired during Bim Bum Bam starring Willy Fog.
In this article:
There are many ways today to travel around the world: by bus, by train, by cruise, and even by air travel through the Four Seasons hotel chain., or by arranging their own itinerary, stops and timing.
Pros and cons of "organized" world travel
Imagine making thel around the world cruise, more than 100 days aboard a 5-star hotel with the ability to wake up, in a different place in the world, without ever having to repack.
The best bonuses
An organized trip has the advantage of taking all the stress out of booking, choosing an itinerary, goodbye to the fear of being in a hotel with bad reviews, missing a connecting flight, or any other unforeseen event.
In the case of cruises, as with the Four Seasons proposal everything is decided, paid for and tested to eliminate any possible problems.
You have to keep in mind, however, that for 4 months you will be locked in a ship, you will not be able to choose how long to stay in one place, there will be several days of sailing where you can do nothing but enjoy the services offered and hope that the sea is always calm.
All these organized trips leave no possibility of experiencing the experience at your own pace, impossible to be "alone" somewhere because the lineup is rigid and of course in case of bad weather the stopover, for example on Easter Island, could be skipped.
That's why if you want to travel around the world by drawing your own route, the only real way to do it is to use the plane and build your own dream itinerary.
How to book a ticket to go around the world
There are many ways to detach a round-the-world ticket, or as all frequent flyers call it RTW (aRound The World). We are talking about a series of tickets that allow you to take a trip around the earth.
In this article we will try to explain all aspects, particularly how:
- Buying (paying for) a ticket to RTW through one of the 3 alliances
- Using points and miles to detach an award ticket to go around the world
The first thing to know when you want to book a round-the-world ticket is that it is a single ticket, a single PNR that identifies the entire itinerary from the first to the last flight.
The second important rule is that you can never "turn back," meaning that once you have chosen to fly from the east to the west, or vice versa, our itinerary must continue in that direction.
How to buy a ticket by taking advantage of aviation alliances
No airline allows you to go around the world, or rather, no carrier has routes that cover the entire globe. Sure if you live in Dubai probably, Emirates will allow you to reach every continent and many countries, but except in rare cases you will be forced to fly back and forth from the UAE and that is not exactly convenient.
Thanks to the aviation alliances it will be possible to build an itinerary by taking advantage of the connections offered by the various companies participating in the same alliance.
In order to have a term of comparison between the various alliances, I hypothesized an itinerary: one starts from Rome to Istanbul, from Turkey to Moscow. One leaves Europe to go to Asia, first Bangkok and then Tokyo. One jumps from Japan to Hawaii, from there San Francisco and New York. The last flight before returning home will be to Brazil.
This way we will compare the ticket cost and rules of each individual alliance.
Book a round-the-world trip with SkyTeam
The first alliance we will analyze is the one to which the following is a member. Alitalia: we say it now of the three alliances is probably the worst since it has very few companies covering Asia and Oceania.
SkyTeam puts to provision of a configurator that allows you to design your own itinerary and see an approximate cost of the ticket. Then you will be able to choose your travel dates, any options among multiple companies covering the same routes, and when you get to the end, you can proceed to purchase your tickets.
Our itinerary, 12 flight segments totaling just over 29 thousand miles, falls within the parameters of SkyTeam, the rules of this alliance require you to make a minimum of 3 up to a maximum of 16 flights and fly no more than 38k miles. The cost to make this economy trip is approximately €4,500.
If you lack imagination, are looking for inspiration, or simply have no idea where to start the configurator also provides some ready-made routes from which to choose.
If you want to save money on airport taxes, which in such a ticket can account for a good percentage of the total cost,and it is advisable to try to set the starting point in a different nation. In Europe, the cheapest nations are Spain, Ireland and Sweden, while England is definitely one of the cheapest.
Booking a round-the-world tour with Oneworld
Oneworld offers two options To book this type of ticket:
- Oneworld Explorer, with this option the cost will depend on the class of travel and how many continents you will touch.
- Global Explorer, in which case the final cost of the ticket will depend on the class and distance traveled, up to a maximum of 39k miles.
As with Skyteam, Oneworld places a maximum limit of 16 total flights. If you plan to use this alliance let me suggest that you do not start your trip from London, where the taxes on your ticket will be almost twice as high as in, for example, Spain.
Also Oneworld provides a configurator To create their own RTW ticket. This alliance Allows you to use stop-overs, then land and depart at two different airports, but unlike SkyTeam it imposes a maximum number of stops in the three areas into which it divides the world: Europe and the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, and the Americas.
We were therefore forced to modify our itinerary, eliminating Istanbul and New York. In doing so, the indicative cost of the ticket is just over €3,100.
One of Oneworld's unique features is that every flight in an RTW ticket, regardless of duration, costs the same. That's why taking advantage of stop-overs could help save money, but more importantly, complete the itinerary. We could, in fact, land in San Francisco and re-route from New York, buying a separate ticket for the specific leg.
Booking a round-the-world tour with Star Alliance
Probably This is the alliance that is best able to cover the world and thus offer the best opportunities to create your own ticket.
The rules are very similar: minimum 3 flights, you must make a stop in at least Asia, North America and the Western Pacific. Otherwise, the duration of the trip must be a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 6 months, for a maximum of 16 flight segments.
The Star Alliance configurator Is definitely the best. With a mirror that summarizes important ticket data in real time and immediately calculates the cost. As you can see compared to SkyTeam it is cheaper by almost 1,000 euros, confirming how the alliance between Alitalia, Air France/KLM, Delta and Korean is not only the weakest but also the most expensive of the three.
Trivia. Star Alliance on its dedicated site also suggests itineraries, the special feature being that the ideas are designed to maximize travel experiences for the least possible cost. Certainly appreciable is the attempt to give the passenger the opportunity to visit more places while spending as little as possible.
Use points and miles to detach a round-the-world award ticket
Let's start with the bad news. It is not possible to detach an RTW ticket using Alitalia miles, having said that we will mainly talk about how to get this ticket by transferring Membership Rewards points to partner companies that, unlike Alitalia, sell this type of ticket.
IMPORTANT before transferring points to a program you need to make sure there is availability for the flights needed for your itinerary. In this article we also explain how to option places while waiting to complete the transfer.
Krisflyer, the Singapore Airlines program
Among the Amex partners available to Italian users, Singapore's program is definitely the best. Using Star Alliance carriers, it is possible to detach a ticket to visit up to 7 cities for 180k krisflyer points in economy, 240k in business and 360k to make the itinerary in first class.
Transferring points from Amex to the Singapore loyalty program takes less than 3 days and the conversion rate is 3:2, which means that to get a ticket in business we will need to transfer 360,000 Membership Rewards points.
Asia Miles, Cathay Pacific's program
The best aspect of the Cathay offer is the cost of the ticket, which is calculated according to class and distance traveled, but the rules are very restrictive starting with the fact that a maximum of 5 stops are allowed.
Cathay is inferior to the Singapore offer and the limitation to only 5 destinations for a round the world trip is really important. However, if you are aiming for first class this might be the ideal solution since it would allow you to test the first class of Cathay, JAL and Qatar which are among the best in the world.
The other airlines selling this type of award ticket are: Lufthansa, ANA, Korean Air, and Aeromexico.
Lufthansa for 7 stopovers asks for 180k miles for economy ticket, 335k for business and 500k for first class.
ANA, the Japanese company is one of the most interesting when it comes to round-the-world award tickets.
The philosophy for redeeming the ticket is based on the class of travel and the distance traveled, this means that you can get to detach an RTW ticket at only 170k points.
In conclusion
Going around the world is a unique experience, my first ticket was deleted from the covid And now I am looking forward to my new itinerary. Mine will be a 5-day madness, not exactly a walk, however, it will be a great opportunity to wake up every day on a different continent.
I really hope this guide can help you build your golden ticket.