The cheapest round the world trip

Around the World in 80K

19/1/2013

How we maximized our status miles to book the world's cheapest round-the-world flights.

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Soon we'll be seeing more of this!

My husband and I are about to undertake an incredible journey. We've cashed in every frequent flyer point we've ever had and spent 80,000 points each to purchase tickets to Australia. Except we don't really have tickets JUST to Australia - we have tickets around the world. And while we spent 80,000 points, we really got 200,000 plus points worth of tickets. Confused? So were we - at first.

Hopefully we'll have a little more space!

Learning To Play Aeroplan The Points Game

It's taken a lot of research on websites like FlyerTalk - but we've learned how to use the fine print in frequent flyer program policy to our advantage. We live in Ottawa, making Australia about half way around the world for us. Given that it's just about the same distance no matter which way we fly, the Aeroplan program rules allow us to essentially fly to Australia going east and go home by flying west. There are a few provisos to that though, so for full rules, check out Aeroplan, look on the FlyerTalk forums, or check your own frequent flyer program website. The rules of our program also allow for two stopovers of our choosing as long as it's on an established flight path. Rarotonga, Auckland, Tokyo, Bangkok, Frankfurt, Los Angeles - they all fit the bill.

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Singapore

Love the Layovers!

The program rules also allow you some flexibility with airport layovers. So long as you make your connecting flight in under 24 hours, it's not considered a proper stopover, just an airport layover. You are not compelled to take the very next available flight to your destination. This allows you to enjoy short visits of up to 23 1/2 hours along the way. Imagine the many ways to enjoy nearly 24 hours in New York City, Singapore, Munich, Jakarta, and more!

Australia via Brussels? OK!

One Destination, Two Stopovers, Endless Layovers

If you've been following along, you've grasped much more quickly than us that you can turn these loopholes into one heck of a trip! For the amount of points it takes to get to Australia, you can not only enjoy as much time as you want 'down under', but you can have a week at each of your chosen official stopovers (and they can be back to back, one before your destination, one after, it doesn't matter) and every time your plane touches down you can get off and spend nearly 24 hours in town before taking the next plane onto your destination.

Our Dream Destinations

After a lot of research, examining other successful routes and taking into consideration many tips and suggestions, we settled on our route. Newark (New York City) 12 hours, Brussels (5 days as stopover #1, with our own side trip to Paris) Istanbul (13 hours) Bangkok (7 days as stopover #2 with our own side trip to Myanmar), Singapore (23 hours), Sydney (our main destination where we'll stay for 8 days), San Francisco (23 hours) and - we can't forget! - 2 hours in the Chicago airport! We had originally hoped to make our stopovers in Asia and in the South Pacific, but we weren't seeing any published rewards routes that went through Rarotonga during our desired timeline.

For the curious: 24,727 miles / 39,795 kilometres!

Taxes And Fees? No Way!

We researched the exact routes and flights we wanted. We chose airports and airlines within our alliance that minimized "scam charges" - extreme surcharges for airport improvement fees, outrageous fuel surcharges on certain airlines, and the like. For instance, we took care to avoid expensive airports like Pearson and Heathrow and avoided using Air Canada when flying to Europe. Overall, we paid approximately $350 each in fees ($320 in taxes, a $30 phone booking charge - necessary for a complicated route), an excellent deal when you consider how many flights we're taking. But to get the route and savings we desired we had to make some compromises. We are flying through Newark airport, which consistently ranks among the worst in the United States for delays. And we're taking two very long flights on United, which receives mixed reviews.

A Wee Splurge

While we did make the extravagant upgrade to economy plus on our overnight flight from Newark to Brussels (1 of us was seated there for free (unknown reason), so we paid the fee to get us seated together), for the rest of our flights we are flying in bare bones economy. In order to make the most of our travels, we used Seat Guru to choose the best possible seats. When it made sense, we chose seats near the front of the plane so we can exit as easily and quickly as possible. We avoided seats that offered more leg room (for instance, at emergency exits) if it limited storage or armrest movements. When possible, we chose configurations of two seats so we could of course sit next to each other but also sleep and slump, get up and move around, without bothering a third person.

Design Your Own Dream

Of course, you don't have to go literally around the world to enjoy this kind of trip. People have used their points to fly to places in Asia and/or Europe and still take advantage of the two stopovers. There was just something about circumnavigating the globe that greatly appealed to us and, with a little luck, going in a continuous circle will help us with jet lag.

My blog has always focused on value for travel - making the most of what time and money you have, finding extraordinary travel experiences on an ordinary budget, and doing things just a little bit different to have unforgettable memories. Paid for individually, these flights would have cost thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars, but instead we've managed to do it on $700 for 2 people. I'm hoping to chronicle every aspect of this trip and repeat this experience of gaining great value again and again.

You can read about of some of my travel philosophies I'll be trying to use throughout this trip, and to keep up as it unfolds, you can read more below, or use the "Round the World" post tag on the right. Thanks for reading!

Part 2: The Start of Our Accommodation Search for Bruges, Belgium, and getting value for our time and money.

Part 3: Slow Travel on a Fast Trip - How you can make sure you're actually getting a vacation.

Part 4: Our Proud New Partnership - We'll be travelling in style with Tilley Endurables

67 Comments

Vino-ista link

19/1/2013 02:49:52 pm

Thiis is a fantastic idea to max out use of points. Looking forward to seeing your chronicle.

Vanessa

19/1/2013 03:04:19 pm

Thank you so much! If you have any recommendations on checking out the Australian wine scene I would love to hear them!

Sarah (@sarahjanesroom)

19/1/2013 03:08:26 pm

Wow. This is quite impressive! I will have to do some investigating regarding the Air Miles fine print for stopovers. You have some great adventures ahead!

19/1/2013 03:13:55 pm

Thank you so much! It took us a while to figure out the fine print but it was worth it Can't wait to start planning!

Ad-lib Traveller link

20/1/2013 01:52:12 am

You guys are after my own heart! Such an amazing amount of research to utilise the system that's available just by paying attention to the small print. Great read and some more than fair compromises to get such a good deal. Look forward to reading about the trip :-)

20/1/2013 03:45:21 am

Yay! Thank you! Once we got into it, we really enjoyed the research. It took a while to master the lingo of the frequent flyer points world but once we did a whole host of opportunities seemed to open us to up.

Alfred A Michon

21/1/2013 02:26:52 pm

Looking forward to reading about your trip!

21/1/2013 03:09:21 pm

Thank you so much!

Kate

21/1/2013 02:29:32 pm

Really got me excited! We are using our Aeroplan points in a similar manner to go to South Africa and South East Asia stopping to see the Great Wall and a bit of Europe too. You had some great tips I didn't think of though, thank you! Can't wait to hear how your trip goes. When do you leave?

21/1/2013 03:10:53 pm

I'm so glad you have an awesome trip planned out. We're planning to go at the end of Nov for just under a month.

21/1/2013 04:33:09 pm

Anticipation must be killer!
I wondered, were you only offered the 20+hr layover/connections when you called Aeroplan for assistance? We've noticed there's only around 14hr max layover's on the Aeroplan website...

Ryan (for Vanessa) link

21/1/2013 11:55:52 pm

Thanks for the question!

There are places than you can check for flight availability other than Aeroplan. It takes a bit more work, but the flight possibilities really open up.

If you check the posted Flyertalk links it'll really help. Check for the search methods by using other Star Alliance members (Like ANA), or other flight tracking tools like KVS.

We used ANA (Air Nippon Awards) to search. You can find all of the info on how on Flyertalk. That said, maybe I can ask Vanessa on if its worth another blog post on exactly how we did it. :)

Aeroplan's site really tries to default you to Air Canada flights first, and the shortest connections.

A less complicated way to do a search is to do a search for flights segment by segment. For example, if you search for Toronto to Cape Town and notice that your flight options have you connecting through Paris, do a follow up search for Toronto to Paris, then a search for Paris to Cape Town. That way you can see availability on more flights and really try to maximize layover time.

Hope some of that helps!

Ryan

Ryan (for Vanessa)

21/1/2013 11:23:26 pm

22/1/2013 12:13:50 pm

That's really helpful. I've been digging around on flyer talk but found it a bit above my head. Your advice really helps narrow it down.
Another blog post would be awesome though, of course!
One more thing, you two booked on 80,000 pts total?! How the heck did you snag that? We're looking at 200,000. Was that something you managed by booking through other carriers?

22/1/2013 12:35:24 pm

I wish! It was 80,000 points each, which is the reward cost for Australia. Aeroplan counts your destination (turnaround / furthest point of travel) when calculating your mileage cost.

There are a few caveats of course. If your trip is going through Africa, you'll be charged for Africa (I believe that's 100K?), though the rest of the rules hold true.

I really recommend looking for the flyertalk thread on valid and booked minirtw itineraries. There are some in there that include South Africa. You do have to wade through a LOT of info first, but it's worth it even just for a baseline itinerary.

As for my recommendation of using the ANA Rewards website to look, there is a simple trick you can use, and it is easier than it sounds.

The reason for using them: they allow you to search ALL Star Alliance carriers for flights, much greater selection listed there.

But: First you need to sign up for their frequent flyer program. See the instructions here:

http://thepointsguy.com/2011/06/how-to-use-the-ana-award-tool-to-search-star-alliance-award-availability/

Ignore Step 1. It's unnecessary. Go to Step 2 for the workaround. Search segment by segment. It takes some leg work, but very, very worth it. I promise.

Good luck!

If you need more help, I'll do my best to assist. :)

Ryan

Jim link

22/1/2013 03:43:11 pm

I just stumbled across your site here, and am impressed with what you're able to do with so few points. I too live in Ottawa. I have travelled throughout Europe and the Caribbean and Central America. Itching to go further afield and have lots of points expiring at the end of the year. Thanks for the inspiration! When you call up to actually book, do you need to have all of your desired flight segments ready in front of you? Do you need some alternatives in case flights run out of points seats between your search and your actual attempt to book?

22/1/2013 11:33:08 pm

Hi Jim,

I would recommend knowing which segments if you are planning a more complicated itinerary like this one. For example, we first wanted to fly through the Cook Islands on the trip, but the reward seats when we wanted to go just weren't available yet and we weren't willing to risk waiting to see if any opened up. On our revised plan, I wanted to spend 6 days in Europe and 8 days in Australia. The available flights left us with 5 in Europe, 9 in Australia. By checking ahead (see my responses above to Kate for exactly how), we knew that there were 2 seats on each segment, and we could really make sure we had the airlines we wanted, not just what Aeroplan site suggested; as well as being able to maximize our layover times in the cities we wanted.

Because its a much more complicated itinerary to book, you have to call in and it's easier to spoon feed the flight segments to the call centre. If they had to search with you, you wouldn't get everything you wanted, the call would take 3 hours, and you'd be paying a lot more ticket fees.

Hope that helps and that you find more things on the site that you like!

22/1/2013 11:37:18 pm

Sorry, missed answering 1 question... I did have backup flights handy, yes.

You can find valid round the world itineraries on flyertalk. Do a search for "minirtw".

23/1/2013 06:28:05 am

Thanks so much for the info! I thought 80,000 pts for two was a steal, haha. We have yet to book but your tips have changed things for us, thank you!

23/1/2013 06:40:22 am

Good luck! Can't wait to hear where you book.

Jessica link

24/1/2013 12:05:36 pm

wow! that's all i have to say! SO impressed!!!

do you know if any other reward programs work this way? with the availability of having a week stop over? I am from NYC and fly out of JFK (mostly) on Delta. Any idea if they do something like this? thanks!

24/1/2013 11:46:49 pm

Hi Jessica,

While I have some minor familiarity with other airline programs, Delta is sadly not one of them. But! Don't despair! Talking to people by following http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles-665/ or more specifically http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/698126-around-world-ticket-using-delta-air-lines-skymiles-definitive-thread.html

Jim

19/12/2014 05:33:18 am

Sadly, many of Delta's flights tend to give you very minimal air miles points in their program, and sometimes points which are not accepted the other Skyteam partners' programs.

Manuela

25/1/2013 02:26:42 pm

I have done this a few times and though it doea say that star alliance flies to South Pacific, and they do through New Zealand, in a window of an entire year, Aeroplan was unable to provide me and my family with 2 seats to Tahiti ... So we had to go to Fiji instea, which was ok, but now i continue to dream about Tahiti:(

13/2/2013 03:22:25 pm

Oh, I know all about Tahiti dreams! So beautiful, right! It's always a bit hard when you have your heart set on one destination, but you get directed towards another. Fiji would be wonderful, I'm sure, but when something is a second choice you always want to get to your first choice. Good luck!

Shereen Rayle link

26/3/2013 07:52:22 am

This is so smart and creative. I love it, and obviously the best use of frequent flyer miles I've come across. Your trip is going to be awesome! I look forward to reading about it.

27/3/2013 10:44:59 am

Thank you so much for the kind comments -we're having so much fun planning and I can't wait to keep reporting on our plans!

Suzy link

30/3/2013 12:52:29 pm

Wow! This is an impressive route that no doubt took a great deal of time to figure out.

17/4/2013 01:13:45 am

It took some time, but worth every minute. It's just as much fun to plan as it is to book! See the other comments in the thread above and below. They give a few more tips and tricks.

Thanks for reading! Please come back soon!

Katie

14/4/2013 02:36:29 pm

Hi!

Was just looking over your blog again and noticed- you guys have 3 major destinations! Is this through the multi city option or are you travel wizards? Havn't found anything that would allow us to have anything more than 2 destinations with 3 -24 hour layovers between cities... Thanks!

Ryan link

17/4/2013 01:12:01 am

Hi Katie!

Sorry for not responding sooner. Are you booking with Aeroplan? AP allows for 2 stops in addition to your destination. It doesn't matter where along the path that you stop for those two, as long as they aren't in the same region.

For example, you can book North america to Europe (stop), Asia (stop), Australia (destination) like we did, but we also looked at Asia (s), Australia (d), South Pacific (s).

In order to be able to see most of the flights, the Aeroplan site isn't the greatest. They tend to push you towards AC flights, which come with many extra fuel charges and don't show you ALL available flights. In previous comments I spoke about using the ANA tool, or other websites.

They key is this: Look through the Valid and Booked mini-RTW thread on Flyertalk to get an idea of what's allowed. For example, most flights will have to go through Singapore. That still leaves TONNES of options. Connect in Europe through Belgium, Switzerland, France, England, Germany.. there are tonnes of options. You don't need to hit australia at all. Maybe another asia stop? New Zealand?

After you've figured out the general route that you want (as well as a backup option or 2), you can research flights using the ANA tool (or similar) one leg at a time to ensure that there are the seats available to book. Build your itinerary one leg at a time, until complete.

Then: CALL Aeroplan directly. This is the ONLY way to get a complicated itinerary to book. You cannot do this online. You'll have to spoonfeed each flight and flight number to the agents, but most of them are pleasant to deal with once you get through.

If they tell you that your flights aren't allowed and you're reasonably sure that they are, well, hangup, call back, and speak to someone new.

Yes, booking can be a pain sometimes, but you're also getting $10,000+ worth of flights for under $400 if you do it fairly well :)

Good luck!!!!!

18/4/2013 03:47:11 pm

Thanks for the information!
I did manage to get a hang of the "system" after I left the question and am now seeing how much work is involved in this. My only issue now has been finding more itineraries on ANA. Only one itinerary or none show up for my point to point searches, did you have this problem?

19/12/2014 05:57:07 am

We didn't - we found ANA pretty helpful but maybe we either lucked out or maybe they have changed things since we used it.

Anita Mac link

20/5/2013 05:12:28 am

Love how you laid it all out...I am so impressed! I always try to use the layovers to max benefit to reduce costs! They once tried to charge us an extra $800 for our bicycles when we did a one week layover in Melbourne - but I knew my rights and my ticket and it was so easy to eliminate the sudden fee! So excited for your upcoming travels...you guys will have a blast!

20/5/2013 07:49:33 am

Thanks so much! The fine print is always worth reading to see how it can benefit you!

Karla link

21/5/2013 05:41:47 am

That is absolutely amazing! Wow, looks like doing some thorough research and putting the miles to work will definitely pay off in the end for you and your husband Vanessa.

How exciting it is to simply look at the map and see at all the places you'll visit.

Have a fab trip ;)

21/5/2013 06:55:20 am

Thanks Karla! We're getting so excited as we start to count down the time!

Andrea Rees link

21/5/2013 06:22:08 am

This is truly amazing and a very helpful post. Can't wait to sit down and plan something like this! Thanks for sharing!

21/5/2013 06:56:15 am

Thanks Andrea! Glad I could help with the inspiration!

Toga link

30/5/2013 01:20:21 am

This blog made me your crazy follower. I am deeply impressed by your work and therefore adding you in my favorite list so that next time I could read you again.

20/9/2013 04:48:43 pm

Angel | CNEHolidays Singapore link

25/6/2013 08:58:40 pm

A lot of friends are confused about how to maximize their miles. I hope it's okay to share this to others. Thanks!!!

20/9/2013 04:49:14 pm

Please do - just tell them to drop by the site and we're happy to help

Suzanne link

15/9/2013 02:33:03 pm

Love that you have two stopovers on your RTW - my USAirways award only allows for one. Make sure to check out the free city tours that Singapore airport offers for those with a long delay - i am hoping that i can do those during my time there as i have 10hrs.
Great advice to check segment by segment and spoon feed agent - its the only way to make it work. It does take work whether the time to read through FlyerTalk or the other blogs but well worth it

20/9/2013 04:50:33 pm

You're right - doing the research and taking the time to call in is well worth it.

Singapore is one airport that does it right, from everything we've heard. I hope they add on even more tour options, as it seems to be a system that works so well and is so popular.

10/11/2013 05:57:35 am

Can't wait to hear all the details! What a terrific start!

10/11/2013 09:33:07 am

Thank you! It won't be long now until we depart...

Bethaney - Flashpacker Family link

10/11/2013 01:53:07 pm

Wow. This is brilliant!!! Such a great way to get around the world.

11/11/2013 01:03:40 am

Thanks Bethaney! We're getting really excited now!

Britany link

12/11/2013 06:51:09 am

I am terrible at taking advantage of frequent flyer programs but you may have inspired me to finally give it a try!

12/11/2013 12:06:01 pm

I hope you do! It's so well worth it.

Jeff link

15/11/2013 03:00:29 am

I love flyertalk. I could be on that thing all day if I'm not careful.

15/11/2013 04:01:00 am

That site should come with a warning!

Preeti

21/11/2013 04:16:00 am

Wow this is impressive. I need your advise. do you think this is a valid itinerary. Flying from Vancouver- to Sydney(1st stop), Auckland (destination), Fiji(2nd stop). with 80,000 Points.

27/1/2014 04:07:39 pm

I think it looks good - we saw many similar routes on Flyer Talk.

anup

22/1/2014 12:24:51 pm

this is definitely a great story.

27/1/2014 04:08:08 pm

Thank you - so glad you enjoyed it!

Thomas

29/1/2014 03:33:42 am

This is a great story - just came across this while looking up Mini RTW on Aeroplan. Do you know if you'd be able to do this with a one-way flight reward? I can't seem to find that much information about one-way rewards (I guess technically it's not a mini-RTW though).

Also, I am wondering, does this type of booking limit the number of valid days or did you intentionally decide to do the trip within 20 days give or take?

Thanks for sharing!

7/4/2014 06:17:28 am

I am not sure about the one way reward but I do know you can have as many 24 hour or less unofficial layovers as can had in terms of connecting flights on the path to your main destination.

We intentionally decided to do the trip in under 1 month but we could have had as much time as we wanted in Brussels, Bangkok, and Sydney. Good question!

The Guy link

5/4/2014 07:31:36 am

It looks like you got a fabulous deal and also saved a fair bit with taxes too, they can be a real stinger.

RTW tickets are generally great value if you have the time and flexibility like you have. I've used 2 or 3 myself but they have been with work travel. As a result I've not been bothered so much with costs or intricate planning, as long as I got to my target destinations it worked a treat.

7/4/2014 06:18:24 am

A round the world for work sounds like a dream!

It's true, the taxes are such a pain - and it only seems like they are going to go up and up

Meem

9/7/2014 08:29:07 pm

Hi I'm still trying to figure out what your itninerary was..did you fly from Newark -> Brussels, Brussels -> Istanbul, Istanbul -> Bangkok, Bangkok-> Singapore, Singapore -> Sydney and then fly back to Newark? Cause I understood the multicity ticket you have to fly in a full circle pretty much and connecting each flight..how did you by pass that? thanks for sharing your tips :)

10/7/2014 01:32:43 am

Good question! We actually technically started out in our home town of Ottawa and then went to Newark, Brussels, Istanbul, Bangkok, Singapore, Sydney, San Francisco, Chicago, Ottawa. Maybe we should have talked about Ottawa more but being our home town it didn't seem like too exciting a destination compared to our other stops.

Stacey link

2/11/2014 03:17:02 pm

I came here through a twitter link.

I didn't know you'd done this, good on you! I love great travel hacking stories.

2/11/2014 04:57:17 pm

Yay! I'm so glad you found the article and enjoyed it :-)

Murissa link

14/1/2015 08:10:21 am

I collect Aeroplan points and flew from Kelowna,BC to Paris and back for 60,000 points. I didn't see any options for layovers really other than connection for 2 hours to Toronto then onward. I paid $600 in taxes and fees with Air Canada.

In order to maximize the option 24 hour layover routes like you have would you recommend calling in? I am definitely following this for the next time I redeem my aeroplan points.

14/1/2015 08:32:03 am

I think any reason to visit Paris is a great one!!

Yes, I definitely recommend phoning in to book. Sadly, you have to pay a booking fee of about $35 when you do this, but it's worth it. By calling in, for instance, you could have taken an earlier flight into Toronto and had a day there instead of just just a two hour lay over (if you had wanted to, of course).

I think the reason you only had one main layover (Toronto) is that it was a fairly directly flight. Flights are a funny thing. Sometimes they're direct. Sometimes they might go half way around the world and just stop once, sometimes they just go across Canada and stop in every province. I found FlyerTalk was a great resource for finding the 'bad' flight routes - aka the flight routes that everyone else things is bad because they stop a lot. In my books, these are the great routes!!!

I think an easy way to get started with exploring the 24 hour layover routes is, when you find the flight you want with your points and you are ready to book, ask the agent if there is an earlier/later flight you can take advantage of so you can have more time in Toronto (or wherever you might be). Good luck!!!