You can actually book Round the World tickets with frequent flyer miles, and while they tend to allow a lot of stops, they often require 200,000+ miles in one program. So I thought that I would do a sort of challenge for myself: Book a “round the world” ticket with miles from 3 credit cards.
A couple of rules for myself, to make sure anyone could recreate this. Not that you would want to, but so the concepts are universal.
- The 3 cards I choose have to be from different banks.
- I can’t book sales. I can’t do Flying Blue’s promo awards as those are last minute sales for specific city pairs.
- I have to be able to start from anywhere in the US. I can’t just pick my start location based on what would be awesome, but make it universal for anyone living in the US.
- The idea is to book 6 months in advance. May? Yea, May.
- No fuel surcharges. This limits the miles I can earn, but I am fundamentally against them.
The Cards I Chose
Just quick looking at the cards available, the first two choices were easy. First, the AA MasterCard is giving 50,000 miles and two club lounge passes (not that the AA club means much at all). But if you’ve never had the Citi AA MC you are probably eligible to sign up for it. Also, AA doesn’t pass on fuel surcharges, which is a huge perk here.
53,000 AA miles – This card gives 50,000 AA miles after spending $3,000. So really you have 53,000 AA miles by the time you get any bonus.
The next card is the Ink Plus, which is the Business version of the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Both cards are probably two of the favorites in the miles and points community and Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers to United, which doesn’t pass on fuel surcharges.
55,000 Chase points. – This card gives 50,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in 3 months, so you’ll have 55,000 Chase points by the time it’s said and done.
30,000 SPG points. – I’m unaware of any good Amex offers at the moment, but SPG allows me to transfer to airlines I wouldn’t be able to normally. Plus, it gives a 5,000 mile bonus for transferring 20,000 points. So it would net me 35,000. Not nearly as good as 55,000 or 53,000… but hopefully it will come in handy. The spending requirement is over 6 months, a lot longer, and it’s $5,000.
Brain Storming good uses
The first thing I did was throw down some ideas of how I’d possibly use these different cards. Maybe some hot routes. The key here is knowing the concepts. To learn more check out these posts:
- The Complete Guide to United Miles
- The New Best Use of AA miles
- The Complete Guide to British Airways Avios
- The Best Use of Flying Blue miles
Knowing these things, I put together some ideas of how I’d use my miles. Here’s some of the ideas I threw around.
- AA: off peak Europe = 20k
- AA: Central Asia to Asia 1 & 2 = 22.5k
- AA: Asia 1 off-peak = 25k
- United: Oceania/Japan to Hawaii = 25k
- United: NA to Oceania = 40k
- United: North Asia to Oceania = 15k
- United: SE Asia to Australia = 17.5k
Starwood transfers:
- Flying Blue: Europe to Tel Aviv = 15k
- Flying Blue: SE Asia to SE Asia = 10k
- Flying Blue: to Europe = 25k
- Flying Blue: Tahiti to the US = 30,000
In many cases I needed AA, and the one time the price would be better for United, award availability is terrible. Anyways, you can do this exact same route one of two ways.
US to Paris with United miles for 30,000 miles
US to Europe is always 30,000 miles oneway with United. Since it’s region based, anyone anywhere in the US can get to Paris for the same, 30,000 miles. So it doesn’t matter where we start, but we’ll just say “Denver”.
However, to get 30,000 United miles, we have to transfer 30,000 from Chase. 55k minus 30k equals 25k. Now we have 25k Chase points left.
Paris to Vienna for 4,500 Avios
Next, we need to hop over to one of my favorite cities on earth, Vienna. Vienna is also a very central location to go see a number of other places. Take a two hour train ride east to one of my other favorite cities, Budapest, or the other direction to Salzburg and the Alps. Spending a lot of time at this stop is highly recommended, just to split with another nearby site.
We’ll do this transfer to British Airways Avios with SPG points. We had 30,000 SPG points to start and we had to transfer in thousands, so now we’re down to 25,000 SPG points.
Vienna to Istanbul for 10,000 AA miles
From Vienna we’ll hop over to Istanbul and segue over to the Middle East. This will require dipping into our 53,000 AA miles, leaving us with 43,000 AA miles.
Istanbul to Amman for 7,500 Avios
I’ve always wanted to go to Petra but have yet to make it over there, so going to Jordan would be quite a treat, and it’s only 7,500 more British Airways Avios.
We had 25,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and technically we’ll only need to transfer 7,000 since there was 500 points left from the SPG transfer of 5k and only using 4.5k. So now we have 18,000 Chase UR points.
Amman to Bali for 22,500 AA miles
AA has the best price for this route, as the Middle East and India are in the same zone so it’s a pretty reasonable price to get to Asia all the way from Jordan. You can take Etihad via Abu Dhabi (layover?) and head over to Bali. The entire flight will cost 22,500 AA miles.
Now we go from 43k AA miles down to 20.5k.
Bali is one of my favorite places on earth, and I’ll have to seriously recommend getting out of the tourist strip/junk. Get out of the south and try seeing some of the authentic culture, mountains/volcanoes, and incredible snorkeling in the other parts of Bali.
Bali to Sydney for 17,500 United miles
From Bali get a ticket down to Sydney using 17.5k United miles on Singapore Airlines. You can probably get a long layover in Singapore and it’s a perfect city for a layover, or to see on a day trip. Or, it’s just the best route and nicest airport to transit through.
Since we’ll have to transfer in thousands, we’ll have to transfer 18,000 Chase UR points. Since we only have 18,000 Chase UR points left, this will completely deplete the Chase UR stash.
Sydney to Tahiti for 20,000 AA miles
One of the best options for Tahiti in general is Air Tahiti Nui with is a partner of AA now. In fact, it specifically says that you can redeem your miles for flights between Tahiti the US, Japan, New Zealand and France. So we’ll have to take a Qantas flight from Sydney to Auckland, and then connect to Air Tahiti Nui. I believe you can check award availability on expert flyer or by calling AA.
From Tahiti take the cheap ferry over to Moorea, or pay the $500 ticket roundtrip to Bora Bora. Either way, both are dream destinations.
We only had 20,500 AA miles left, and this flight will cost 20,000 AA miles. And now AA miles are practically depleted.
Tahiti to the US for 30,000 Flying Blue miles
Air France’s frequent flyer program, Flying Blue, charges only 30,000 miles for Tahiti to the US and also provides one of the best routes for award availability to Tahiti; PPT to LAX. So connect in LA on your way back to where it is you live in the US, or in my example, Denver.
We only have 25,000 SPG points left and if you transfer 20,000 points at a time, SPG gives a 5,000 point bonus. In this case we get the exact 30,000 SPG points we need.
And now we’re home.
Conclusion
In total we used: 56,000 Chase UR points; 52,000 AA miles, and 30,000 SPG points. And the best part is that all the cards used in the example are available today. So with three cards, each at different banks, you could get 138,000 miles.
That 138,000 miles could be used to see:
- Paris, France
- Vienna, Austria
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Amman, Jordan
- Bali, Indonesia
- Sydney, Australia
- Tahiti, French Polynesia
If that doesn’t sound like a dream trip… I don’t know what does. Of course, a lot of the concepts are flexible. Also, wanted to show how it broke down specifically.
- US to Europe = United 30k
- Europe to Europe = 4500 avios
- Europe to IST = 10,000 AA miles
- IST to AMM = 7,500 Avios
- Middle East to Asia = AA 22.5k
- Asia to Australia = United 17.5
- Australia to PPT = 20k AA (akl-ppt air tahiti nui)
- PPT to US = 30k
Technically, you could have done the exact same thing for anything that’s region based. It’s all concepts and I was just picking city names I liked. So it could be:
- Anywhere in Europe
- Anywhere in Europe that’s a short Avios flight away
- Istanbul
- Amman
- Anywhere in North/SE Asia
- Anywhere in Australia
- Tahiti
Anyways… if you like this post, maybe I’ll do another based on the three different transferable bank currencies: Chase UR, Amex MR, and Citi TY. Or any kind of challenge. If you have a fun generic challenge or like the concept in general, please let me know.
WOW, this is amazing. thanks for posting, enjoy your blog very much. keep up the good work!!
Great! So glad, wasn’t too sure about this idea at first. lol
You transferred 5k from SPG to BA to cover 4.5k Paris to Vienna flight. Then transferred 8k from Chase to cover the Istanbul to Amman 7.5k flight, which means at the end you’d have 1k Avios left over.
Instead, if you transferred 7k from Chase, you’d still be able to cover the 7.5k flight since you’d have 500 avios already in the account. This means you wouldn’t have to cheat for the Bali to Sydney flight as you’d have 18k Chase points already.
Good work though!
Bah! Don’t know why I didn’t notice that. However, I’m glad that I didn’t do any cheating! So I changed to show I’m not a cheater and breaking the rules I made up. lol
For the record, I’m LOVING this post and would enjoy seeing a transferable bank currency-based article.
Also, I’d be OK with reading about similar trips that include an open jaw or two. True, they wouldn’t be *entirely* paid for with CC miles, but a couple of 50-ish dollar connections via train or low-cost carrier in Europe or Asia shouldn’t make anyone reject an otherwise awesome around-the-world itinerary.
Was super curious for the feedback and glad to hear positive things right away.
I guess it would be cool to open-jaw if I knew it was a cheap discount airliner route and could prove/screenshot it. i.e. Air Asia and Ryan Air.
This is pretty awesome. Could United to Asia with a stop in Europe have helped reduce the needed miles?
Actually that could have been an interesting way of doing it. Doing a big open-jaw with United miles on the Asia side, and doing a roundtrip within Europe on the stopover… or something like that. Yeah, totally.
Great post! how do I sign up for these credit cards using your link? Keep em coming;
Drew isn’t allowed to say, but I can: in his top navigation bar, click “Best Travel Credit Cards.” He earns commission from each card you sign up for through the Credit Karma site.
AA is #1 in his list, SPG #3 and Ink Plus #7. Just hit “apply now”
Awesome post and detailed step by step process.
I have wondered if there are any combinations you can think of that include free OJ/stopovers to reduce the miles used?
Yea, that’s kind of what TheOtherCarl was saying. And the example I said with UA is to open-jaw across Asia and so you could fill that in with the AA 22.5k from AMM-DPS, then continue with UA. Almost the exact same thing for less, as you could stopover in Europe still.
Perfect (and a bit eerie) timing of this post. Awesome article (as usual)!!! I am trying to figure out some loose routing now for a year or so RTW trip – want to touch 6 continents and this is exactly how I need to approach it. Keep them coming! This is amazing.
Maybe I should do “Challenge: The Cheapest Way to Fly to 6 Continents”. Not sure if others would have interest in that.
Absolutely do a post like that. Now that One World Explorer awards have been wiped out, and the Life Miles tricks are dead, it would be cool to see your opinion about alternative 6-continent round-the-world award redemptions.
You should also take into account that the options for round the world trips will change when the AA and US Airways frequent flyer programs are combined in mid 2015. The crazy Dividend Miles award routings will be sorely missed. I hope AAdvantage’s no stopovers doesn’t set a precedent for the other frequent flyer programs.
Great idea 😉 Not that I am not totally biased, but this would be the most awesome thing ever Drew!!
Awesome post as usual. To me, reading your blog is the equivalent of getting an MBA in Travel…for free! There is so much good info on your site, and not enough time to digest it all! Keep these kinds of posts coming, I’m very interested in all the creative travel possibilities out there (and even if not creative, just knowing and understanding what is possible beyond the “conventional wisdom” helps immensely). Thanks!
Wow, thanks David. Had to show my wife the comment. I’m normally not the first thing that comes to mind when someone says “MBA” lol. But certainly take that as a compliment since travel’s pretty much my life. :-p
Glad the not traditional content is getting some love!
Drew
Love this post! Love your blog! Thx Drew again!!
Awesome. Thanks for reading!
Drew
Very fun post. If you assume there is a 50K AMEX MR offer out there and move your first destination to MAD or BCN, you can use 9K-15K of those extra points to add a side trip to Morocco for 5 continents with 3 cards.
Yea, and similarly you can take those Avios and do stops intra-Asia or out of Amman. In fact, I think Cairo counts as Middle East to AA? So you could tack that on instead of VIE and then do AA CAI to DPS. That way you get 5 Continents for the exact same price. Should have done that! 😉
Bravo Drew!
I was playing around a couple of years ago with the idea of a trip like that, that included a few out of pocket flights, but this is way better!
Keep up the good work!
P.S. were you able to try the “cochinita pibil” in Merida?
Thanks.
Well, I saw your comment by the time we were in Cancun, so we already had left Merida. But we had pollo pibil a couple of times and liked it. Really enjoyed all the food.
As always, great job Drew! Keep the great ideas and concepts coming 🙂
Thanks Bruce, glad this concept seemed to work!
Drew
I think this highlights how selective folks should be with their apps. If those 3 cards were instead the 100k Citi AA, 100k Chase BA and 70k Ink Plus, it would be a biz class trip. PPT-LAX in Y is tough slogging.
That’s a good point. And heck, it could be two apps instead of 3. Although, I wouldn’t call myself selective, but I try to be opportunistic. 🙂
Great post – does Air France not charge YQ on their flight between PPT and LAX?
I know it might be “cheating” a bit, but i think the smarter play from PPT to US is AA miles on Air Tahiti Nui – no fuel surcharges, and much better saver availability domestically from LAX
That’s probably right, I could have switched those around. Could have done FB to Europe for 25k and bumped everything around. Hardly cheating to use AA on Air Tahiti Nui, they have great availability!
Also, I just checked and the fuel surcharges are quite high! I was shocked as they are much higher than any flight out of Europe. 147 Euros.
So I for sure broke my own rule on this one.
Fantastic post! I love the concept and the creativity. Thanks!
Thanks Max
Great post as always! Heading to Budapest next month so would love to hear some of the things you enjoy about the city.
Thanks Jordan.
I have a post that talks about Budapest. Not too much from a tourist perspective, but a little about “ruin pubs” and what not. http://travelisfree.com/2013/11/01/dont-miss-budapest-and-do-it-all-with-points/
There’s some giant market in a warehouse type thing. Don’t know the name but east side. Anyways, I liked the Radisson Blu being 9,000 points and will still like it for 15,000. Also, I BRGed the IC, and hope to BRG the Hilton when I go back as the rates go down to $80. $80 – $50 would be nice.
Wonderful post full of *real* information. Thanks for always posting inspiring trips with practical advice.
Thanks for the encouragement, glad to hear this style of post is helpful.
Awesome post Drew!! Actually starts to make you think of the different possibilities…
The way I gather it:
1) Covering a small distance when going from one region to another, use distance based programs.
2) Going from one end of a region to another end of the same region, use a region based program.
3) Keep in mind that the definition of region varies widely from one program to another.
Really nice post… Your blog is at the top out there in terms of content (only a handful others in that league that I actually follow). It’s so much better than some other blogs like the ones proclaiming delta WILL eliminate stopovers (and then comment that it’s “almost certain” that they’ll do it).
Thanks KP. Those are good points I didn’t articulate but you extracted, and now I hear them… I should have included that. Really glad to hear it was still learned.
Thanks much. Glad I’m near the top of your list, and hope to continue to keep that spot… and earn it!
Love these types of post. I’m pretty good at accumulating the miles. Maximizing them is the hard part for me.
Definitely focus on redemptions at this blog, and glad to hear it’s helpful for some. Thanks for reading!
Drew
Love the post… I would really love to see more similar articles. I always like your creative routing ideas! Thanks, as always!
Thanks Bryan. Well, since the feedback seems positive, perhaps I’ll try another similar post sometime soon.
Love this post, great use of miles & apps. I would like to second the idea if a 6 continent trip along similar lines. Another idea would be to add a couple hotel cards to cover the stays in each place perhaps.
Just chiming in to say I love this post. I don’t know how many hours I have wasted day-dreaming of a trip like this…maybe, one day. Still fun to think about it until then.
Loved your post today. You don’t just rehash a signup bonus like a lot of others are doing these days. Great new inventive posts. Keep up the good work.
Good work Drew. I like that you are prepared to think outside the box and not be a sheeple and follow what other bloggers focus on. Out of interest I wondered if u priced out that itinerary as if you were purchasing the tix outright.
Great post Drew, really dig it.
LOVE LOVE LOVE. Keep ’em coming!
Just to echo everyone else. I really enjoyed this post.
Just appreciate your blog in general. Thanks!
Drew — Fabulous works and genius idea to do this kind of post! this kind of post is what makes you interesting to follow on and different from other bloggers out there that mainly just follow the “mainstream” topics like which airline add new flight, which benefit got discontinued, etc etc….
I want to add my vote along with other, for you to make more post like this in the future…probably the 6 continents one or the other way of doing it like using UA open jaw and then stop over benefits…..this means a lot for me and others who are still new to the game as we can learn and familiarize ourselves, and this makes it interesting to read.
By the way, just wondering what is your e-mail address if I want to send an e-mail directly to you with specific question?
Again, thank you for this post and keep more of this coming!!! Along with the “Ultimate Guide” and “Infographic/Map” …LOVE THEM!
Hi Drew,
Can you help me with the following routing?
I am trying to visit South America using 1 RT ticket with a stop over in Central America.
As a test I the following came up as 27,500 miles (I assume because I don’t get a stop over on a one way):
12/31 NYC – SAP
1/15 SAP – PTY
1/15 PTY – BOG
I then added the following to it and I got an error message
4/1 BOG -NYC
Do you know if this is a legal routing and I’m just getting this because United is too slow or did I make an illegal routing?
Also – Can I fly SAO – NYC on 4/1 instead of doing BOG? I wasn’t sure if United treated SA as two different zones or just one based on your infographics.
Hmm, coincidently I am leaving wed on my own around the world adventure mostly made possible by Avianaca Lifemiles. First tik is IAD-KUWAIT-SAW for 25k in business. Next is a purchased y tik IST-FRU. Then, here’s where it gets interesting, 35k for a business tik FRU- IST-FRA-ICN-SPN. Purchased tik to GUM. Then a y tik GUM-HNL-IAH-LGA-EWR-BUF. Longgg trip…
Good post. For future itineraries could you also include the applicable fees for each leg?
Very nicely put together.
I like the fact that you are minimalistic in your approach: using regular CC bonuses instead of inflated ones. It shows that most people can achieve the same results with some time and energy put to it.
I would also propose to try similar RTW route, but in opposite direction (this way you’re not fighting jet-leg as well).
Also can be interesting to compile “economy” miles route from US east cost to Asia, going several countries in 2-3 weeks (Japan, S.Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia), with optional connection on local discount airlines/ferries/trains.
Keep it real Drew, just as you do!!
It’s not the first class that counts, but possibilities to see interesting places of our Earth without breaking one’s budget.
– Love and peace!
Oh, forgot to mention: for your mile redemption calculations you forgot to include 10% refund on AA miles, so using 53,000 AA you’ll get 5,300 back right away (for another flight? 🙂
Just chiming in. Thanks for the great information. I have been trying to work out something similar for several weeks and haven’t been able to make it work with AA for next July. I have done the go west version, go south via Santiago and Easter Island to Samoa and onto Auckland. Tried going east through Europe. Aaaaggghhhh. I have a lot more miles at my disposal too.
Thanks so much, Drew. Your focus on redemption has made you a truly unique blogger in the travel points arena and one of the few blogs regularly telling me something that isn’t being said on the others. The effort you put into challenge posts like these is very much appreciated.
And led me add a vote for repeating this exercise using each of the 4 broad currencies (UR, MR, SPG, TY). Some of us like to keep our credit card lives simple by focusing on one type of currency in our spending.
Hi Drew
Love your blog. Want to ask about credit cards. I am pretty sure I know the answer but……
I am an irish citizen, living in Australia but have a US Bank of America debit card. I do not have a current social security number or US address, do you know of any way I can sign up for all the great US credit card offers there are so I can take advance of the points, or is that a pipe dream?
Thanks