Oops, missed a whole continent
Mauritius
The first time I went on a 35,000 mile round-the-world tour, it was a bit of an accident. If you read the introduction to why I made this website, it describes the one time I took a 24-hour trip from London to Melbourne with Scoot, after which I decided to learn how to earn enough air miles to never repeat that.
Well that worked just fine; I tossed hours of my life to aviation blogs, transformed like a caterpillar from someone who hated planes to being happy to think about little else than flying, acquired the points through absurd means, booked a very nice itinerary on Qantas and Finnair in wonderful Business suites…
…and then cancelled it.
Why?
The situation went something like this. It cost 159,000 Qantas Points to take three flight segments, one way from Australia to Europe. I was not really in a rush to get back to Europe, as I was working remotely and had nowhere to live in Europe. But I still had to get out of Australia, because that temporary visa's days were numbered. It never occurred to me to take several months making my way back in linear fashion, via cheap countries with generous tourist visas. If things like this just occur to you, then well done, give yourself a medal. But sensible things don't always occur to me when there's a more ridiculous alternative.
It was easier than I'd expected to earn the required points. Australia is a points-earning paradise compared with Europe. The shift in mindset to focus on points-earning seemed, and was, ABSURD, and led to situations in the supermarket where I was advance-buying toilet rolls for the next six months in order to refresh my app on the tram home and see I’d just earned tens of thousands of points in the process, worth a flight in themselves. At the time of booking the Reward flights I was already more than half way to a points balance sufficient for a full, round-the-world ticket with the OneWorld alliance of airlines. I just didn’t think it was in any way relevant to consider this as a thing to do. Then I realised, it was. Coming home from Australia is so far, may as well keep on Spinning Around the planet like Kylie; I know you're feeling me 'cause you like it like this. So I cancelled the one-way and had my points returned (minus a relatively small cancellation penalty). There was now very little time to get the final points, and book this round-the-world ticket; something daunting that I'd never done before, and so really no time to waste being sensible and rational.
I bought two cases of wine that I never drank, for a start, because in Australia, Qantas Wine = points worth more than the value of the wine. Incidentally, I gave them away to someone Indian who doesn’t drink alcohol, so maybe they've still to this day never been uncorked. The visa was expiring; tick-tock…
Finally, the points were acquired for “the correct price” as I shall call it (significantly less than the value of the redemption) and it was time to book a World Tour. I had a list of destinations, a set of rules for the validity of the itinerary, and by this point some knowledge of which are the best airlines/aircraft in the alliance, and which to avoid. Also, Qantas and Qatar had/have some ludicrous beef with one another, so no Qatar flights for me. That ruled out many of the ideal ways to hop off Australia, but at this late stage I found ONE Malaysia Airlines flight with Reward seats available.
It was now February 2024, the Internet had been around for a few decades, and AI was already a reality. Surely, Qantas would be able to process on their website an itinerary that they say they can ticket? It turns out, no. The website could not handle the complexity of booking a Round-the-World ticket, and required spending the best part of two days on the phone with people who often knew less than me about the rules of what I was trying to book. I can't emphasise enough how convoluted, precarious and tedious the process was. But in the end, it worked, and I went.
I genuinely flew 35,000 miles around the planet in Business class, it was a truly wonderful thing to do, and the flights cost the same price as I once paid for a direct return fare in Economy, which was various flavours of awful. I was conveniently both homeless and also working remotely, so I lived in various hotels and Airbnbs, while not paying any rent elsewhere and earning huge sums of points for my accommodation bookings since there was a Triple Points promotion on Qantas Hotels at the point of finally receiving the ticket. The hotels earned almost enough points at the end for another round-the-world ticket.
As for the environmental cost of all this excess travel… I’m more than happy to share my views on the value of living in different places in the world, but I’m not sure how interesting my opinions about the carbon footprint might be. At least in my former life my carbon footprint was so low that I’ve got a few more circumferences of the world before I cancel out the good work! If trivialising the apocalypse is not your thing, then the nonsense you have to do to collect airline points might not be up your alley anyway. For me and my absurdist outlook, it’s time to start thinking about a World Tour 2, Here We Go Again. Did I forget to mention that I found a new direction, and it leads back to Camus?
Below is a quick summary of what I got for 318,000 points, acquired at a cost range in Australian dollars from zero to 1.8 cents per point, plus fees and taxes. The details are at the end.
I’m not claiming that reading this is enough to get you on a World Tour, I’m just illustrating how it’s possible for anyone with a long-haul Economy budget to achieve. Plant that seed in the garden of your mind today and next year you could be living a life even more ridiculous than mine.
If you're a person with rent/a mortgage/a job(!) and you don’t have time to take weeks going on tour, you can make this work for yourself by splitting the flights into two itineraries, and essentially having two holidays within 12 months that complete the distance. The rules for this are complex but achievable. I won’t explain them all here now, but I can make a future guide to booking a round-the-world itinerary if you can’t afford the time for a World Tour, and I’ll explain in simple terms how it’s possible for almost the same price.
If you’re not Australian (like I’m clearly not) the principle is the same for most places in the world, but outside of Australia and the USA it might take you longer to acquire enough points. If you’re new to airline points, probably don’t start with a World Tour in mind for your first itinerary! Although as you’ve just read, it’s exactly what I did; I refused to be daunted by the endless complexities. Even if you’re less reckless than me, read this anyway and you may well think big for the future.
If I had paid cash for these flights, it would’ve cost me more than FOUR TIMES what I paid for the points.
South Africa
What I did
1. Perth — Melbourne
Qantas A330 Business class
This was a 3-hour overnight flight, followed by eight hours in the Qantas lounge in Melbourne waiting for the next flight. The Southern Lights could be seen from the window; in my ignorance I didn't even know the Northern ones had a cousin. A suitably ridiculous start. It was necessary because we couldn’t spend more than 24 hours in Melbourne (it was a transfer, not a stop) and this was the only Reward flight (payable with points) in the time window to meet the Malaysia flight. But short overnight flights are not something I recommend doing unless you're a nocturnal marsupial. Often an 8-hour stay in an airport lounge is not possible, but I think the staff took pity.
2. Melbourne — Penang
Malaysia Airlines A330 Business class + B737 Economy class
The only available Business class Reward flight out of Australia for the whole month at the time of booking, so Malaysia it was. Staying at the Blue Mansion in Penang, this was one of the unintentional highlights of the whole trip. Business Reward availability was only between Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur, with a 1-hour Economy connection. People love to talk about the history of Malaysia Airlines planes disappearing or crashing… From my experience flying their long-haul Business class twice, I’d say take your life in their hands; that’s the risk you should take for the delicious satay. Unless you have a nut allergy, in which case you’ll probably die on board long before the plane even has a chance to crash.
3. Penang — Tokyo
Malaysia Airlines B737 Economy class + A350 Business class
Persuading the check-in agent at Penang to allow Business class luggage allowance on a 1-hour economy segment, that had a Business class transfer on the same ticket, was part of the "fun" and was one of many situations that taught me that among all the thousands of OneWorld alliance customer service staff: everyone has an opinion and no one knows all the rules. I certainly didn't have a clue in the moment if I was allowed the luggage or not. Everything turned out OK.
4. Seoul — New York
Finnair A350 + A321 + British Airways B777, all Business class
Yes, we had to swim over to South Korea because there was no availability on any of the alliance airlines between Tokyo and New York, and yes, going via Helsinki and London is definitely "the long way round" (and, in terms of fees, the expensive way). But Finnair is a wonderful airline, with amusing flight attendants that act like school matrons, and they make their seats ideal for sleeping on a 13-hour overnight flight, wiggling around the Russia–Ukraine war, and I woke up in Helsinki drinking blueberry juice like nothing had happened.
Within North America it was a separate itinerary in order to spend a month with a friend in Mexico. The distance from New York to Mexico added too many miles to be within the 35,000 limit of our round-the-world ticket, since there had been no availability across the Pacific from Japan to the USA and so everything had to go via London Heathrow.
5. New York — Johannesburg
British Airways B777 + A380 Business class
The final stop was a safari, which was totally indulgent and unnecessary, and once again an unintentional highlight. I will write about it in a blog post, because it was probably the best thing I’ve ever booked, and I wasn’t even interested in doing a safari, it just happened to be en-route since there were no available direct flights to the next destination. Before returning to London the plan was for a nostalgic trip back to Mauritius, where I could visit my old school, plus a trip to my partner's grandparents on Réunion. Johannesburg was as close as we could get, and so, being something of a giraffe in proportion myself, I went to see my cousins on the savannah before leaving South Africa. The ancient BA seat on the overnight flight to Johannesburg is very outdated, but in terms of space to stretch out and sleep, it's not bad. Although remember, paying for Business class does not mean the screaming baby in the seat behind you will realise it’s time to be quiet. However, I did discover that BA flight attendants can do some secret voodoo when the baby is still having a fit after several hours, and the rest of the overnight flight was silent. Astonishing.
The details
Points required
318,000
Qantas Points
I was living in Australia at the time, so I was collecting Qantas Points. You can earn airline points from anywhere in the world, and it’s possible to acquire transferable points, eg. AMEX Points that can be converted into airline points. 318,000 points is the amount required for up to 35,000 miles return on Qantas + partner airlines in Business class.
You DO NOT need Qantas Points to go around the world, you can use points from other airlines in the alliance, such as Avios or Cathay Asia Miles. For each the rules are slightly different.
I have a guide to earning airline points, in order to save $$$ on long-haul Business class fares by comparison with the cash price.
You can fill in the form below to stay informed about when there will also be a course to guide you from zero to plane, and then YOU can detonate your mortal body around the planet too, before it’s TOO LATE!
Costs
AU $1,400 taxes
+ cost of points
To keep things simple, there’s a range of total prices this itinerary could have cost me, and the extremes are:
$1,400 + $0 = AU $1,400 Total
In this scenario I get all the points for free. This is unlikely, but theoretically possible. Given a Round-the-World cash ticket would’ve been around $11,000, this is a rough saving of nearly 90%!
$1,400 + $5,724 = AU $7,124 Total
In this scenario I buy all the points and get none for free (this is also ridiculous as they’re so easy to acquire in Australia for free, but I’m showing you the reasonable extremes). I never pay more than 1.8 cents per point, which is realistic when buying Qantas Wine, or buying points directly from Qantas when they have a sale. $7,124 represents saving about 1/3 of the cash price, so it’s still a reasonable deal.
In reality, I paid around $1,300 for the points, so I saved about 75% compared with the cash price.
Rules
OneWorld Classic Flight Reward
Qantas is a member of OneWorld, see below. In order to fly around the world in Business class for around AU $3,000, you must strictly follow these rules:
MAX distance: 35,000 miles
The total return distance is counted as a direct line between airports, and in my case that includes Tokyo—Seoul & Johannesburg–Perth, even when these are not flown.
MAX stops more than 24 hrs: 5
I only took 4, because Seoul was going to be one of them but I couldn’t get a reward flight from Tokyo, so I paid for it myself and Seoul counted as the “same place” as Tokyo.
MAX transfers per city: 2
MAX total flight segments: 16 within 12 months
All flights have to be available as Partner Reward seats from Qantas at the time of booking.
The full rules can be found on the Qantas website here
There’s no denying, it can be tedious, overwhelming and seem impossible to book a round-the-world trip with points, in order to save thousands off the cash price. When you pay cash, you can take pretty much any plane you like. With points, it has to be a Reward seat, and these can be a needle in a haystack. But the fact remains, I was clueless one year before I did it. I didn’t even know it existed. And I managed to do it. It might not be for you, in which case I can teach you how to book simpler itineraries. But if you like a challenge and can work remotely, this is the best way to see the world.
Or at least, five bits of it!
Airline Alliances
There are three global airline alliances. The biggest is Star Alliance with 25 airlines. The second biggest is SkyTeam, with 19 airlines. The smallest, yet best in my opinion, is OneWorld, with 13 (soon to be 16) airlines. I’m not sponsored by any OneWorld airline, and some of my favourite airlines are in the other two! But I was in Australia when I started acquiring all the vast knowledge necessary to book an itinerary like the one on this page, and I’d already flown several Qantas flights, so it made sense to collect Qantas Points. If you’re not in Australia, the best OneWorld points currencies, in my opinion, are American AAdvantage or Alaska Mileage Plan for all you poor citizens of the USA… and for those in Europe or the Middle East, Avios (BA, Qatar and Finnair all use this same currency).
Here are the current, and future, OneWorld airlines:
Alaska
American
British Airways
Cathay Pacific
Finnair
Iberia
Japan Airlines
Malaysia Airlines
Qantas
Qatar
Royal Air Maroc
Royal Jordanian
Sri Lankan Airlines
Oman Air, Fiji Airways and Hawaiian Airlines are all lined up to join OneWorld in the future.
Other airlines besides Qantas, offering a variation on a Round-the-World ticket bookable with points for a fraction of the cash price, are:
Air Canada (Star Alliance)
ANA (Star Alliance)
British Airways (OneWorld)
Cathay Pacific (OneWorld)
Japan Airlines (OneWorld)
Lufthansa (Star Alliance)
TAP Air Portugal (Star Alliance)
Good luck with SkyTeam…
So if you have the chance to collect points with/transferred to any of these airlines in blue, this means you too could take a World Tour in Business class for the price of Economy.