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Is this the best round-the-world routing using Avios?

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A HfP reader sent in his round-the world itinerary and was wondering if it was the best way to travel around the world using Avios points?

I liked his itinerary but, as the reader was not based in the UK, I thought I could tweak it to start in the UK and add some extra destinations.  This is what I came up with.

My suggested routing trip takes in Berlin, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Doha and Venice. 

The total cost (in Economy) is just 110,500 Avios plus £194 tax.

This is how I did it:

London to Berlin, British Airways (4,000 Avios + £17.50 off-peak)

Berlin to New York JFK, airberlin (20,000 Avios + £60)

New York to Chicago, American (7,500 Avios + £14)

Chicago to Los Angeles, American (10,000 Avios + £3)

Los Angeles to Tokyo (American, 25,000 Avios + £3)

Tokyo to Doha (Qatar, 25,000 Avios + c £40)

Doha to Venice (Qatar, 12,500 Avios + £39)

Venice to London (BA, 6,500 Avios + £17.50 off-peak)

You could chop the cost down sharply by ignoring Doha and Venice and doing this:

Tokyo to London (BA, 19,500 Avios + £61 off-peak)

This would reduce the cost to 86,000 Avios plus £158.50 but you miss out on Doha and Venice.

You could also swap Berlin for Dublin and fly Aer Lingus to New York for roughly £60 of tax.

If you have any ideas for improving on this (whilst keeping a good balance of Avios, taxes and destinations) please post your ideas below.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (116)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mikeact says:
    11 Mar11 March 07:59

    This has just come at the right time for me, as I’ve spent the last couple of weeks on my PC trying to do this very thing. I am trying to take in Australia and SA and flight availability is always a bit dicey although one ways seem to be a little easier than returns.I shall press on with further advice on here as it’s easy to forget something, ie the Boston route.

    • John says:
      11 Mar11 March 08:04

      What does Boston have to do with getting to Australia and South Africa?

      • pauldb says:
        11 Mar11 March 08:21

        I guess he might mean South America, in which case a cheap transatlantic to Boston might make sense (though an Iberia offpeak might be better if you don’t specifically want to call by North America).

        • Mikeact says:
          11 Mar11 March 08:30

          Correct, although as you say Iberia now comes into the equation.

    • James says:
      11 Mar11 March 09:10

      There is loads of availability to Australia, you just have to pony up the Avios to fly CX/JL/QR

      • Scott says:
        11 Mar11 March 11:18

        Availability to Australia is only an issue if you are trying to use a companion voucher which many people are… My wife an I are looking at heading down under and have decided that finding a cheap business class fare from somewhere outside the UK is probably the best way to go as earning enough Avios is more effort than we are prepared to put in

        • Jack says:
          11 Mar11 March 14:39

          I’m looking to do the same thing, Scott. Been looking for a while but haven’t found much!

          • Andy says:
            11 Mar11 March 14:58

            I’m sitting in the lounge at Oslo, on my trip to Australia. Thanks to hfp I’m on a business class trip from LGW-OSL-LHR-HKG-Cairns then back the same way from Melbourne. Loads of tier points. I’ll be 80 tier points away from Gold… The Oslo lounge is small but it has lovely food.

          • Darrel says:
            11 Mar11 March 15:55

            The Oslo lounge does NOT have good food.

          • Andy says:
            11 Mar11 March 16:16

            Well the salmon, egg hollondaise, Meatballs, salad and soup were tasty bit there wasnt proper dinner food. I guess it was good for mid afternoon when I wasn’t hungry.

          • DaveP says:
            11 Mar11 March 20:51

            Mind if I ask how much that routing cost? Did Expedia HK ticket ex-Frankfurt to HK/SIN last year, was a steal at £1100.

  • Alex says:
    11 Mar11 March 08:23

    Awesome results, what’re the individual websites/schemes for using avios for Qatar, Airberlin? And how do you transfer avios to these ff schemes?
    Is a BA companion 241 usable on any of these, like Berlin to jfk, or Dublin to jfk?

    Thanks!

    • Daftboy says:
      11 Mar11 March 08:49

      You should be able to book all OneWorld airlines in the normal way on ba.com, including Air Berlin and Qatar and many others.

      2-4-1 works on BA “metal” only (i.e. you need to be on a BA plane), which restricts you to flights to and from the UK.

    • Brian says:
      11 Mar11 March 10:36

      I’d recommend using:
      KVS – http://www.kvstool.com/
      Award Nexus – https://awardnexus.com/user/login?url=%2F

      You will find that there are lots of routings or combinations that won’t appear on the BA system. You can however book them over the phone, but you will have to provide exact flight details tot he agent.

  • Steve T says:
    11 Mar11 March 08:52

    I was told by Avios this week I can’t use Avios points on American Airlines and this was on a flight with a BA codeshare.

    • Jamie P says:
      11 Mar11 March 08:57

      Was there availability for the flight you were wanting to redeenm for?

    • Brian says:
      11 Mar11 March 09:34

      You can’t book partner awards on avios.com, I believe – you need to go to ba.com. But since it’s easy to move miles from one to the other, that’s not a problem.

  • Mark says:
    11 Mar11 March 08:58

    Can you do this type of trip using virgin air miles?

    • Oh! Matron! says:
      11 Mar11 March 09:16

      Yes…. Easily do:

      LHR – BOS – LAX – AUC – SIN – HKG – LHR

      Getting an actual seat? Good luck!

      • Sandgrounder says:
        11 Mar11 March 12:04

        AUC? Isn’t that Santiago Pérez Quiroz Airport in Arauca, Colombia? Interesting choice! 🙂

  • James says:
    11 Mar11 March 09:08

    Booked CX jfk – hkg for 130k + £4 in first. It’s a 16 hour flight so well worth it IMO.

  • Daniel says:
    11 Mar11 March 09:16

    Nice piece.

    Im in the middle of a round the world trip, i’ve used 97750 avios, 17500 united miles and £700 and my last destination so far is mexico city, add a trip back to london and its an extra 16250 avios and £157 but i’ll probably keep going. I’ve flown with air asia in asia because it’s so cheap.

    my itinerary has been..

    London/paris/colombo/bangkok/jakarta/sydney/auckland/phnom penh/kuala lupmur/borneo/hong kong/shanghai/tokyo/dallas->ausitn/lima/mexico city.

    • Choons says:
      11 Mar11 March 09:42

      That sounds like a great trip. Over what timescale? I wonder what everyone’s ideal trip would be (apart from RTW in F)

      • Daniel says:
        11 Mar11 March 09:57

        I’m 5 months in but by the time i get to mexico it will be 7 months

    • JamesWag says:
      11 Mar11 March 11:01

      That’s more like it. This one suggested in the article is terrible !

      So how many avios & cash will you have used on airfare by the end ?

      This is a very nice itinerary.

  • Lewis says:
    11 Mar11 March 09:53

    Interesting article. Worth pointing out no luggage allowance when redeeming Avios on AA. Found this out the hard way flying LAX to OGG on AA economy. Baggage fee at airport stung!

  • JamesWag says:
    11 Mar11 March 10:58

    Whilst this might keep going only one direction ’round the world’, it is not really what most people would consider a trip around the world.
    Nearly 50℅ of the stops are in one country !!
    One of the stops is a total waste of time (Doha) too !!

    Anyway, interesting in theory to see how ‘cheaply’ one could go around the world with Avios but surely there are far more interesting and varied itineraries than that.

    Maybe I’m just grumpy this morning !!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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