SarahOne of the questions I get the most about our nine months trip around the world is always about the cost of it. Or more specifically, on the cost of all those flights.
We flew a total of over 47,000 miles on this trip, and boarded 24 flights. 16 of those flights were part of our round the world ticket (short: RTW ticket) with Star Alliance.
And everyone is always surprised that we payed less than 5,000€ for those 16 flights – including crossing the South Atlantic and the Pacific. Most of the other flights were either super cheap, booked on airline miles or simply because we badly wanted to have the experience (like flying Singapore Airlines Suites class product)
I am currently planning the next itinerary for my whole family that wants to travel to New Zealand end of 2019 and thinks of doing some individual round the world trips. This will probably be four or even more complete personal itineraries for me to plan – including one in business class. So I did (and still do) spend a fair amount of time planning and configuring round the world trips.
Below you will find all the information about how to plan such an itinerary yourself! I’ll try to include as much information and useful tips for you. You can perfectly plan such a trip yourself – no need to book a travel agent. We saved almost 1,000€ by planning our round the world ticket without a travel agent!
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What’s a Round the World Ticket and how does it Work?
A round the world ticket is a flight ticket with a high number of flights (usually up to 16 segments) that takes you around the world within a selected period of time (usually 1 year).
Those RTW tickets are pre-booked and prepaid before you leave home. Most of the time they offer quite a lot of flexibility on the dates you fly (and limited flexibility on route changes) during your trip.
They cost around 4,000-5,500€ in Economy class, including all fees and taxes. Business and first class tickets are sometimes available as well (for around 7,000-9,000€/13,000-16,000€).
Pro’s and Con’s of Round the World Tickets
The first question that comes to most people’s mind when they plan a trip around the world is: “Do I need a round the world ticket?”
The answer is: “No”. You don’t need a round the world ticket. It is perfectly possible to only book one-way tickets or to plan your trip as a pre-booked multi-stop-flight. However, there are quite a few advantages of having a pre-booked round the world ticket (and some downsides), so we decided to go for one. And I absolutely don’t regret it and would personally advise you to do this too!
Benefits of having a Round the world Ticket
Huge savings (on some routes)
The main reason for us to book a round the world ticket were some of the routes we wanted to take.
The direct flight from South Africa to South America is almost impossible to book without a round the world ticket from Star Alliance as a one-way flight can easily cost up to 2,000€ already! Mauritius can be very expensive (from Europe) as well and Polynesia from United States too.
As soon as you plan to include somewhat more exotic destinations on your itinerary, a round the world ticket easily can save you hundreds to thousands of Euro (or Dollar)!
You can easily check the best prices for specific routes with Skyscanner (my favorite flight engine)
If you decide against a round the world ticket, there is also some great hacks on how to save money booking flights!
Easier immigration (border controls)
Having an onward ticket is often an entry requirement in some countries.
While it is not always enforced (like in Thailand), you risk being turned down by the airline when checking in (or by the border official when landed) if you don’t fulfill this requirement. A round the world ticket always gives sufficient proof that you indeed intend to leave the country again and thus can save you a lot of hassle.
Calculable costs of flights
When you book a round the world ticket, you pay the complete price upfront before leaving home. And you know exactly what you pay when using an online configurator. You can also find ways to save some money by looking at the fees and taxes of your exact airport. Sometimes an additional stop can make your ticket cheaper (e.g. when flying from Europe to Los Angeles, round the world tickets often get cheaper if you stop in New York too!)
It was huge relief for us to know that our flights were already payed by the time we left Germany.
We knew that even if we spend more money than we assumed (we didn’t 🙂 ), we would have a ticket home. And more, we knew that we wouldn’t have to cancel some of our trip plans because we didn’t find a reasonably priced flight!
High flexibility on flight dates
Another huge advantage of round the world tickets is the incredible flexibility on flight dates!
While you choose a date for each flight in the beginning, you can most of the time change any date of any flight at any time for no cost at all! Try that with a normal ticket! 😉
And believe us, we took advantage of this numerous times! The most extreme version was when we were already lining up for check-in at Colombo, Sri Lanka for our flight to Delhi: It was around 5:30AM when we realized we did not have a visa for India (yes, you are allowed to call us stupid for that)!
We then (completely freaked out) called Star Alliance – and they simply re-booked the flight for a few days later so that we could directly connect to our next flight. As long as you are not yet sitting in the plane, you can probably change your plans by a simple free call if you have a “full” round the world ticket!
Downsides of Round The World Tickets
Somewhat fixed itinerary
Some people don’t like to play the whole trip around the world in advance and want to decide everything en-route. Obviously, a round the world ticket requires some planning and also comes with some boundaries.
While you can easily change the date of your flight, your itinerary remains somewhat fixed. You can still change it, but it usually costs around 100€ to do so. However, this is still cheap if you compare it to completely booking a new ticket for most trips!
Itinerary limitations
There is no round the world ticket that includes every airline on this planet (unfortunately).
Thus, by choosing your RTW ticket operator (usually one of the big airline alliances), you limit yourself to the flight destinations of this operator. Of course you can always book some extra flights outside your ticket – but that obviously is extra costs.
There is also some rule limitations for round the world tickets that you need to factor in when planning your itinerary (like the maximum number of miles you can travel on your ticket)
Time restrictions
With a round the world ticket, all your flight dates have to be within a specific period of time, almost always one year. This can be a total deal-breaker for some travelers.
As we planned to travel for nine months only, this was no downside to us. But it is definitely something to keep in mind!
How to plan your perfect round the world itinerary
Deciding on the exact route of your round the world trip (before you even left home) can be one of the hardest things about the whole trip (aside from packing your backpack maybe).
I spent quite a few hours online, trying different alliances, routes and options. However, it is also quite a lot of fun and you will totally get into “travel mood” right away!
1) Decide on your “must sees”
Think about the places you absolutely want to visit first! For us, it was visiting my family in California and my family in New Zealand. We also decided that South America will be a focus on our trip around the world as we had been backpacking Asia twice already before.
If you are looking for inspiration – I have some articles that might help you to find some ideas where you want to go!
Click to read:
- The ultimative world traveler bucket list (The 30 most amazing things we did on our trip around the world)
- Best places to travel in 2019 – 12 awesome destinations you need to see right now!
- Best places in Europe you need to travel in 2019 – the ultimate guide!
- The ultimate Instagram travel bucket list – most instaworthy places around the world
2) Choose the best airline (alliance) for your itinerary
Based on where you want to go, some alliances are a better fit for your perfect RTW ticket.
If you want to go to Africa for example, Star Alliance has the best coverage there. Also if you plan to cross the South Atlantic from Africa to South America without a Stopover in North America, you basically don’t even have to think about anyone else. But if your focus is on flying around South America a lot, you might want to have a look at Oneworld round the world tickets instead.
I highlighted the strenghts and weaknesses of the big alliances in the section below so that it will be easier for you to choose your best round the world ticket alliance!
3) Use the online configurators to find direct flights
By booking as many direct flights as possible, you can maximize the numbers of destinations that you can visit on your round the world ticket! Stopover flights count as two segments and thus should be avoided if you have the time.
The direct connections can also be an inspiration on which places to visit (additionally)! For example, we decided to go to Rarotonga because it was a perfect stop on the route from North America to New Zealand!
4) Think of overland travel in case of problems
If you run into a problem with only one or two stops consider tagging them as “overland” – meaning only that you will do this “leg” (airline name for journey) on your own.
You can then book a separate (cheap) flight outside the Alliance for this trip or indeed, travel overland! As we wanted to see a lot of South America, we tagged “Sao Paolo to Bogota” as an overland segment on our journey. We then traveled overland from Sao Paolo all the way to Lima and booked flights from Lima to Bogota with a cheap carrier.
If you run into numerous problems with your RTW itinerary thus, consider changing the Alliance you decided in step two!
5) Continue until the last step in the online configurator
As soon as you think you figured a possible routing, try until the very last booking step as sometimes there is no direct connection within your desired travel time (or not at all even though stated before by the booking system) – effectly requiring you to change the itinary again!
But don’t give up – you will find a suiting itinerary in the end! It takes some time to do the booking online yourself – but you can save a lot of money this way! Travel agents usually take ~10% of the price of the round the world ticket on top for booking the ticket for you. This means, a travel agent will cost you around 500€ PER PERSON just for a economy ticket. As we traveled as a couple, booking the ticket ourselves has saved us around 1000€ (!!!) for a bit of our time! Plus, it was a huge inspiration where to go!
Rule limitations for RTW Tickets
All three alliance tickets work rather the same way: you choose a route and theoretical travel dates within a year. You even choose the specific flight (airline and time) and you can your seat (optional) already at the time of booking.
Luckily, they all have an online configurator that makes it (more or less) easy to check if your dream route is possible (and within the guidelines) so don’t worry to much about those rules – you have plenty of options!
As described above, you can later change the date and time of your flight as often as you want at any time. The only real limitation is that there still needs to be a seat left. There is no quota or something like that – any seat in your booked class is open to you! You can also change your route while you are already traveling for a fee as long as you still follow the guidelines of round the world Tickets (see below).
We would still advise you to put effort into pre-planning your route and not plan on changing it all the time as you might end up breaking one of the guidelines with only small changes (you quickly add few thousand miles to your journey if you exchange e.g. Hongkong for Tokio). This can turn into a real problem, especially if you optimized the journey before.
But now let’s have a look at those guidelines you need to follow while planning your dream trip:
Segment limitation
You can travel a maximum of 16 segments and every flight counts as a segment – a stopover flight therefore is more than one segment!
Try to plan with direct connections only to get the maximum out of your ticket.
Also, overland trips count as segments. If there is no theoretical direct flight connection, those can even count as more than one segment!
The reason behind this limitation is as simple as it is stupid: the booking systems of airlines are not capable of managing bookings with more than 16 segments. And your round the world ticket is one ticket to the booking system!
Mile limitations
Almost all round the world tickets come with a maximum amount of miles that you can fly within the ticket – and that is 39,000 miles. This means you can’t completely zick-zack around the globe on these type of tickets.
Some alliances also offer tickets with less miles – like 29,000 or 36,000 – that come with a slightly lower price tag. This is something you will find out as soon as you use the online configurators!
No “Backtracking”
Airlines cluster the world in areas (e.g. Oceania for Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti, etc) – and you can not enter an area that you already left on your round the world ticket!
You are supposed to either do your RTW trip eastwards or westwards, however as long as you stay within the predefined areas you can actually “backtrack” a little.
One example: You can go Los Angeles (North America) – Sydney (Oceania) – Auckland (Ocenia, even though again east of Sydney) – Tokio (Asia) but you can NOT do Los Angeles (North America) – Auckland (Oceania) – Tokio (Asia) – Sydney (Oceania) as this would include a “backtracking” to Oceania (even though Sydney is west of Tokio and your trip is westwards). Plus, the second itinerary would “cost” you a lot of miles (see mile limitation) anyway…
You need to cross the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean
As long as you really plan a “Round the World Trip” – this limitation is likely no problem for you anyway.
But if you only plan to hop around some parts of the world and thought a round the world ticket would be a smart way for that (due to some routes e.g.), this is a problem. The tickets require you to cross both oceans – however the alliances often also offer “Circle Tickets” or “Zone Tickets” that might works very similar to a “true” RTW ticket!
The three big players (alliances)
There is three big players on the market for round the world tickets – Star Alliance round the world ticket, Oneworld round the world ticket (two versions) and Skyteam round the world tickets.
All three are large Airline alliances that offer their own round the world ticket within their serviced network. Due to different members, some alliances are stronger in certain areas of the world – so think of your focus countries first!
Below, you can find a simple graph I created myself to figure out, which alliance is particularly strong (or weak) in which part of the world.
Star Alliance Round the World Ticket
Star Alliance does have the largest network of airports with the most connections.
If Africa is important for your itinerary you should definitely opt for Star Alliance. They also have the best coverage of India and New Zealand – and there is few to none downside.
Plus, many of its airlines are considered premium (Lufthansa, Thai, Swiss, Singapore, Turkish Airlines…) and thus offer a nicer flight experience.
We decided to book our trip with Star Alliance as we wanted to do South America overland anyway and liked the idea of a flight from South Africa to South America.
As of January 2019, Star Alliance lands on 1,330 airports in 192 countries, making it the largest airline alliance network
- Strongholds: Africa, India, New Zealand
- Weaker areas: Australia, South America
- Johannesburg – Sao Paolo
- Auckland – Rarotonga – Los Angeles
- Auckland – Tahiti – San Francisco
Economy, Premium Economy, Business, First Class
Star Alliance RTW Online configurator: https://bookandfly.staralliance.com/en/bookandfly/
Oneworld Round the World Ticket
Oneworld does have fewer airport than Star Alliance, but the Oneworld round the world ticket the clear winner if you want to fly around South America (LATAM) or Australia (Quantas) a lot.
The Skytrax airline rating of Oneworld carriers is mixed with some top airlines (e.g. Qatar) and some airlines, that are less favorable.
What makes Oneworld really interesting is that they have two different round the world tickets: “Oneworld Explorer” and “Oneworld Global Explorer”. The later is more comparable to the ticket from Star Alliance and Skyteam as it is a mileage based ticket.
“Oneworld Explorer” fees are however based on the number of continents and come without a maximum mile limitation. “Continents” for Oneworld round the world tickets are: “Europe/Middle East, Africa, Asia, South America, North America, Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, South-West Pacific)
As of January 2019, Oneworld services 1012 airports in 158 countries. Oneworld is the smallest of the three alliances, but the airports are more balanced than for Skyteam.
- Strongholds: South America, Australia
- Weaker areas: Africa, Middle East, India
- Easter Islands
- Falkland Islands (Argentina)
Economy, Business, First Class
In Economy Class, single trips can be upgraded to Premium Economy if available (for an extra fee)
Oneworld Explorer vs Oneworld Global Explorer
Oneworld can sometimes be a bit confusing when it comes to the RTW tickets and that’s because they actually offer two different Oneworld round the world tickets – Oneworld Explorer and Oneworld Global Explorer.
One is a milage-based ticket (Oneworld Global Explorer) while the other is priced based on continents traveled (Oneworld Explorer).
If you ask two people which is the better choice, you will get at least three opinion. Thus, I listed the differences between the two tickets so that you can choose for yourself!
- Airlines: Oneworld members only
- Miles: unlimited
- Base Price: based on number of traveled continents (3-6)
- Segments: 3-16
- Overland travel: does NOT count as segment
- Airlines: Oneworld members + additional partner airlines (Aer Lingus, Alaska Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Fiji Airways, Jetstar, Air Italy, WestJet, Quantas Codeshares of Air Tahiti Nui
- Miles: 26,000 (Eco, Business), 29,000 (Eco), 34,000 (Eco, Business, First), 39,000 (Eco)
- Base Price: based on mileage
- Segments: 3-16
- Overland travel: DOES count as segment (reducing the total number of flights)
Skyteam Round the world Ticket
Skyteam’s Round the World Ticket is definitely the weakest of the three Alliances options.
Given that it is roughly the same price and many of the airlines are considered a bit cheaper/less comfortable than most Star Alliance carriers (and some Oneworld members), there isn’t really a reason to choose Skyteam in my opinion.
However, just give it a short look at least (but be warned – their online configurator is the worst of all three) – maybe this was exactly what you were looking for!
As of January 2019, Skyteam services 1,074 airports in 177 countries.
- Strongholds: (China)
- Weaker areas: Australia, New Zealand, India
Economy, Business Class
Other Round the World ticket options
Aside from the big three alliances, there is a number of other round the world ticket options that I don’t want to hide from you.
We had a look at all the options below, but then decided to go with Star Alliance. Many of the other tickets didn’t offer the flexibility we were looking for. Or they were only bookable through a travel agent – a thing we wanted to avoid in order to save costs.
However, since this might be different for you, I decided to include those options for you too!
The Great Escapade
The Great Escapade is a round the world ticket offered by Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and Virgin Atlantic together. The only starting points for this ticket are London and Manchester – making this ticket only attractive to world travelers from Europe.
You can design a round the world ticket with up to 33,500 miles (29,000 miles basis + up to 4,500 miles extra).
What’s special about the Great Escapade is that there is no limitation on the number of stops (instead of the usual 16 segments -> 15 stops).
Tickets can be booked in Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class and dates/times are completely flexible as with a round the world ticket from one of the big three alliances.
There is no online configurator anymore (there was one years ago) – you need to contact a travel agent to find out more. Contact details are available on their website www.thegreatescapade.com
Air New Zealand Round the world ticket
Air New Zealand is the last airline to offer a trip around the world within their own network only. Technically it is not a “round the world ticket” but a “international multistop itinerary”. Thus, the ticket does not have the same flexibility on date changes like the “real” round the world tickets.
However, if New Zealand is one of your main destinations, this ticket could save you quite a lot of money! Some itineraries I configured online were lower than 2,000€ (e.g. FRA-SIN-AKL-SFO-FRA)!
On your way to New Zealand you can do the following stopovers:
- 4 stops in Asia (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore or Tokyo)
- 2 stops in the US (Los Angeles or San Francisco)
- 1 stop in Canada (Vancouver)
- 3 stops in the Pacific (Cook Islands, Fiji or Tahiti)
As you can see, you cannot include a stopover in Europe unless this is your point of origin. Thus, this ticket is more interesting to round the world travelers from Europe than from the United States.
Country specific links for planning/booking:
Emirates + Air Tahiti Nui Round the world ticket
Emirates and Air Tahiti Nui offer a round the world ticket on their own too.
You have to start and end your journey in France (Paris/Nice). There is no online configurator and only very limited information on the website of Emirates about this ticket. However, if you are an aspiring world traveler from Europe (especially from France), you might give them a call and try to find out more.
Key facts about this round the world ticket:
- 6 stopovers (e.g. Dubai, Bangkok, Singapore, Maldives, Sydney, Auckland, Papeete, Los Angeles)
- Only first flight needs to be booked with a date
- free date changes up to 24h prior to departure
Quantas + Emirates + British Airways + American Airlines + LAN Round the world ticket
Quantas has information on their website about a round the world ticket, that they offer together with Emirates, British Airways, American Airlines and LAN. The focus on this ticket is definitely Australia (+ New Zealand) but even stops in Africa and South America can apparently be integrated
The ticket can only be booked through a local Quantas office or a telephone rep. Limited information is available on online:
- Up to 7 stopovers on the way to Australia
- Destinations that are definitely available (outside Oceania): London, Dubai, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Dallas, Santiago, Singapore, Tokio
- Additional stops in Australia and New Zealand with the Quantas Walkabout Pass
Link: Quantas Website with information
It seems to me that this unnamed ticket is the new version of the World Walkabout Ticket (which apparently does not exist anymore) and the even older (definitely not anymore existing) “World Discovery Ticket” by Quantas + British Airways.
RTW Tickets that DO not exist anymore (but are still described online)
Unfortunately a great amount of articles about round the world tickets is either a) incomplete or b) focused on making you pay an agent or c) outdated. (Or all of it together…)
I have been researching for hours for this articles and even called airlines to get a grip on what is still up to date and which tickets do not exist anymore.
Discontinued tickets:
- World Discovery Ticket (British Airways + Quantas)
- World Walkabout Pass (British Airways + Quantas + Air Pacific)
- Four Corners RTW Ticket (Singapore Airlines)
- Virgin RTW Ticket
My verdict on Round the World tickets
I definitely did not regret booking a round the world ticket and I would probably opt for a Star Alliance round the world ticket again if booking a second ticket.
However, it is always wise to shop around and especially if you have only a few planned stopovers, consider booking with Air New Zealand instead of getting a “full” round the world ticket.
Of course you can also do your world trip using budget airlines and special offers. However I felt safer with a pre-booked tickets as an onward ticket eased immigration and made costs more calculable. It also gave us the option of routes that are otherwise too expensive (Johannesburg – Sao Paolo). And nothing can top the flexibility concerning travel dates – the “India incident” clearly showed the benefits to me!
But in the end it is your trip and what fit most for us must not be your ideal solution!
I know, there is a lot of things to decide on and think about when traveling around the world. I can just tell you: it’s fine! And you will manage to do – and you will love it! Luckily, for many steps, you can find information online: For example, are you wondering what to pack? Don’t worry, there are excellent guides on what to pack for a RTW trip!
Have you been on a trip around the world already? Let me know in the comments below! And be sure to subscribe to my newsletter – I will constantly update this post and add more stuff (like itinerary ideas!)
I’ve read a lot of posts on rtw tickets, yours was by far the most thorough and helpful! Thank you 🙂
Hi Lauren – thanks a lot for your kind words! I really hoped this post would be helpful to my readers and I am glad to hear that it was informative for you! Let me know if you have any further questions!