Dreaming of cashing in your points and miles and going globe-trotting? A round-the-world fare may be just the ticket (pun intended) to fulfill your travel dreams. And you can do it with points and miles. Read on for all you need to know about booking a round-the-world trip with travel rewards.
Table of contents
What is a round-the-world fare?
The short answer: A round-the-world (RTW) fare is a single itinerary that allows travelers to visit multiple destinations around the world.
The long answer: A round-the-world ticket doesn’t necessarily require you to stick to the earth’s equatorial or polar circumference, but you do typically need to travel in a continuous forward direction, either east or west, and start and end in the same general location. So an eastward itinerary might include flights from New York to Barcelona to Berlin to New Delhi to Bali to Tokyo to Honolulu, and from there back to New York again.
Some round-the-world fares may also have additional requirements. Star Alliance round-the-world fares must start and end in the same country, cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and include a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 15 stops, for example.
How many frequent flyer miles does it take to fly around the world?
The number of travel rewards it takes to fly around the world depends on which loyalty program you’re booking with, but you should expect to spend at least 100,000 miles.
Booking round-the-world flights with points and miles by airline alliance
An RTW trip can be a pricey venture, so it pays to shop around. Linking far-flung destinations across the earth’s surface, airline alliances were practically built for this type of exercise, so we’ll start there.
Oneworld
Qantas’s Classic Flight Rewards represent one of the best options for booking Oneworld RTW flights. In this example, we’ll book a New York-Paris-Doha-Tokyo-Chicago RTW itinerary.
Once we have the trip mapped out, we can price out the ticket with Qantas points using the airline’s Classic Flight Rewards Calculator. You’ll have to calculate the cost of each leg individually.
The following rules apply when booking an RTW flight with Qantas:
- You must travel in one continuous direction, either east to west or west to east.
- You should visit each of these zones on your journey:
- Zone 1: North and South America
- Zone 2: Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
- Zone 3: Asia and the South West Pacific
- You can visit up to 16 cities; however, anyplace you connect in counts as a stop on your trip. And if you arrive and depart in different cities, it’s also considered a sector on your itinerary.
- Your trip may last up to one year.
SkyTeam
SkyTeam no longer offers RTW bookings, but you can still piece together your own round-the-world trip using one-ways or multi-city flights.
Star Alliance
The Star Alliance Book and Fly portal can help you plan and book multi-destination fares online.
For RTW travel, your itinerary must:
- Make a minimum of two stops;
- Cross the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean once each;
- Start and end in the same country;
- Travel a maximum of 39,000 miles;
- Travel in one direction, east or west.
If your booking doesn’t reflect all of these, you’ll receive an error message. You’ll also see an error message if there are no flights between any of your chosen cities during your travel dates.
Leveraging Star Alliance hub airports will ensure better connections, but it’s not a perfect system and will likely involve some hiccups along the way. Regardless of whether or not you decide to go with Star Alliance, though, the Book and Fly tool can help you become more comfortable with planning and pricing out an RTW trip.
The best airlines for booking round-the-world flights with points and miles
The best airlines for booking round-the-world flights with points and miles are Qantas and Star Alliance members, such as All Nippon Airways (ANA).
ANA Mileage Club, in particular, is a fantastic way to book RTW flights, especially if you belong to any other Star Alliance airlines’ loyalty programs. It uses a pretty straightforward RTW award chart, so you’ll spend miles according to the speed and total distance flown.
If you were to book an RTW flight between 20,001 and 22,000 miles in distance, for instance, you’d need 85,000 miles for a round-trip economy ticket, 125,000 for a business class ticket, and 200,000 for a first-class ticket.
When booking an RTW flight with ANA Mileage Club miles, the following rules apply:
- The required mileage is calculated according to the total basic sector mileage for the entire itinerary.
- Flights must cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans once.
- The flight direction of the itinerary must be east to west or west to east — no backtracking allowed.
- Up to eight stopovers are permitted between the departure point and the final return point.
- The departure date of your final international flight returning to your country of origin must be at least ten days after the departure of the first international flight on your itinerary.
- Your itinerary may include a maximum of four ground transport sectors, including travel between different airports in the same city.
- If traveling on a mixed-cabin itinerary, the required mileage for the highest class of travel in the entire itinerary will apply.
Creating a round-the-world trip with one-way award flights
If you prefer to DIY your RTW itinerary, you can cobble together a series of one-way award flights through each individual loyalty program — and often come out ahead, especially if you have a healthy point balance across a variety of programs (i.e., airlines and banks).
For a traditional RTW award, you’ll pay a fixed price, but you’ll also need to find availability for the entire trip on the same airline partners. When you piece together an entire RTW on separate one-way tickets, on the other hand, you should have more options since you’re not restricted to just one airline alliance.
Both approaches have their pluses and minuses, so it can be a tricky situation to navigate — and also a perfect time to let point.me do the heavy lifting for you.
Rules to know about booking round-the-world flights with points and miles
The rules for booking round-the-world flights with points and miles depend on which airline(s) you’re booking with. You won’t need to stick to the earth’s radius at the equator, for example, but most programs generally require you to travel in one continuous direction and cross the Atlantic and Pacific at least once.
Booking a round-the-world trip with point.me
If you’re not up for navigating the RTW booking process on your own, point.me can help. Let’s use a Los Angeles-Singapore-Dubai-London-Newark itinerary on Star Alliance airlines as an example.
Our first leg is from Los Angeles to Singapore on Singapore Airlines, starting at 42,000 KrisFlyer miles.
Next, we’ll search for our Singapore-Dubai leg. In this case, that flight will cost 40,000 Aeroplan points one-way.
Then we’ll search for a connecting flight to London. We’ll book an Egypt Air flight using 25,000 Aeroplan points for this leg.
And finally, the last stretch — London to Newark — will cost just 24,000 United MileagePlan miles.
Our total cost for this RTW itinerary is just 131,000 miles — a fantastic deal for a flight around the globe!
Tips and tricks for booking RTW flights
The more flexible you can be, the easier it is to make a round-the-world trip work. We suggest letting the destinations’ availability guide you, especially if you’re hoping to travel in business class, where it can be more difficult to find award space if your location or dates are set.
For example, if you’re in Europe and want to head to Japan, look for flights all over Asia. It might cost a lot fewer points to fly to Seoul first, spend some time exploring South Korea, and then hop over to Tokyo vs flying to Japan directly from Europe. And don’t forget to look at multiple dates; fares can fluctuate quite a bit even across just a few days.
Finally, if you’re piecing together an RTW itinerary by booking several one ways (rather than buying one RTW ticket), we recommend saving your points for the longer hauls. Within a region like Europe or Southeast Asia, it’s often much cheaper to fly low-cost local carriers (or take a bus, ferry, or train) rather than using points. Often, you can snag a short-haul flight for under $50 each way.
Frequently asked questions about booking an RTW flight with points
Can I use my frequent flyer miles to book a round-the-world trip with points and miles?
Yes, you can use your frequent flyer miles to book a round-the-world trip with points and miles, either by booking an RTW ticket, or DIY-ing an round-the-world itinerary through a series of one-ways or multi-city flights.
What fees do I have to pay on round-the-world flight awards?
Fees on round-the-world flight awards can include taxes, airport charges, and fuel surcharges.
How many frequent flyer miles do I need for a free round-the-world flight?
The specifics vary depending on several factors, but if you’re traveling from the U.S., you can expect to need at least 100,000 miles or points to see the world on a free ticket.
How do I earn enough points or miles for a free round-the-world flight?
You can earn enough points or miles for a free round-the-world flight by opening a travel credit card, making eligible purchases, and earning a sign-up bonus; booking flights with your preferred airline directly; or shopping your favorite loyalty program’s online store, among others.
Is it possible to combine points and miles for an RTW flight?
No, you can’t combine points and miles from different airlines to book a single RTW ticket (e.g. you can’t use AA miles, United miles, and Chase miles to book a single RTW ticket with using the Star Alliane tool). You can, however, transfer points from several programs to a single airline and book your itinerary there, or you can use points from several different prorgams to book a series of flights that essentially transport you around the world.
Do I still earn miles if I book with points?
No, you won’t earn miles if you book your RTW trip with points.
Getting started on point.me
Rather than sifting through 10 different websites and 20 different airline programs to figure out award travel, point.me does the work for you. All you need is your dates, your airports, and who’s traveling and where, and our real-time search and booking engine handles the rest. Try it for free today.
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