Round the world ticket using miles
 

Hi,

I am looking to get a Round the World(RTW) ticket using my frequent flyer miles. I currently have 110k mileageplus points, 50k AA points and 50k in ultimate rewards. I have been trying to understand the process of booking a RTW ticket using miles and haven't found any useful resources. The following are my considerations.

1. I live in Houston(IAH), TX and can start my trip from anywhere in the continental US.
2. I want to travel to Europe - 10 day stay, SE Asia - 10 day stay, Australia - 7 day stay and then return home. Ideally, I want to hit the following destinations - Houston, Frankfurt, Oslo, Istanbul, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Sydney, Christchurch, San Francisco and back to Houston but I am quite flexible.

I want to get a better understanding of the following.

1. Can I book this trip using miles alone?
2. What should I expect to pay in cash (fees, surcharges etc.)?
3. I heard about a segment limit for RTW tickets. If I want to travel to multiple cities in Europe/Asia, can I book tickets to each of those cities as a part of the segment? How long can I stay in each of those cities?
4. Does the "surface travel" limit apply for tickets booked through miles as well?
4. How do I search for the flights - only on *A/OneWorld website or should I search for award bookings for each individual segment on the alliance partners? I understand that I have to call either United/American to book the trip if using miles.
5. Approximately, how many miles would this trip cost?
6. Does the trip cost/miles depend on the time of travel?
7. How do I use my existing miles to construct the trip? Do I need additional miles in any of the programs for this?

I have been trying to find out answers for the above questions online for the last couple of weeks with no avail. It would be great if someone knowledgable can help me regarding this.

Thanks,
Sunn.

Most RTW are booked on one airline alliance. Each has their own specific rules.

You need to see which airline (and it alliance partners) have the RTW that looks like it will work best for you. Then see what their rules are.

I can't speak for the other programs you have, but AA recently eliminated their RTW award and you would now need to price out each individual segment based on distance, at a much higher miles cost.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...pr-2014-a.html

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

AA only offers one-way awards. I'm not sure if UA offers a RTW award, but frankly, the OP might be better off just using his miles for a series of one-way, long-distance flights, and use LCCs for local travel within each region.

There are no surcharges when redeeming UA miles on any carrier. There are no surcharges when redeeming AA miles on any carrier except BA and IB.

United MileagePlus is 200K miles for Y. I'm not sure what the taxes would be

It's up to you, of course, but it might be better to make two separate trips, one to Europe, and one to Asia/Australia/New Zealand. It might also be wise not to try to visit too many different cities in a short period of time.

If you decide to make a European trip, AA's program will allow you to travel in the off-peak period for as low as 20k each way (30k in high season). Stopovers are not permitted, but you can fly into one city and return from a different one. You may be able to stay overnight in Berlin or Dusseldorf on your way back, depending on availability of award seats on Air Berlin. But Frankfurt, Oslo and Istanbul are far apart, and that's a lot of ground to cover in 10 days. And Frankfurt is hardly the most interesting city to visit in Germany.

UA charges 30k each way all year as its lowest rate, but permits one stopover on roundtrip award travel.

Since both AA and UA offer one-way awards at half the mileage for a roundtrip (DL and US do not have this policy, though DL has announced plans to change this in 2015), so you could draw on each airline's FF program for half your trip. No stopover in this case, however.

You need more miles at least if you want to do it in business ( might as well)

Round the world ticket using miles
 

Try and sign up for a few cards to go in business. You will appreciate it after

You'll need a few more miles for J...

I'm UA earner (~500k), but trying to figure out how to book one yr RTW trip (with ~6mo advance notice) when flight schedule only goes out 340 days... (The Premier RTW desk didn't have any clues)

I see on other posts in the forum - "Change flight times later and pay fees".

So... I need to book a bunch of flights shown within the 340 days and change those that need to change dates while I'm traveling?

That will be interesting, not sure if possible, since segments would be required to be flown within 1 yr of booking.

Planning 6 stops. Gone Feb 2015 - Feb-2016. (Ticketing only possible until Aug, and most Feb 2014 Award travel is GONE already.) Southern Hemisphere

Booking Suggestions appreciated. (I can miss SE Asia if it makes sense. I'm currently living in Thailand and have seen about enough of SE for this year...) Have lived and worked in other SE Asia countries, as well as Spain, France, Switzerland, Western Canada and USA.

Rte - (from West Coast USA)
NZ/Au
Asia
Mediterranean (hops within Europe for 4 months)
Portugal> Argentina (hops within Southern SA)
Ecuador (hops within Northern SA)
Central America. (return to West coast USA)