Circumnavigation
 

Hello,

I want to do a circumnavigation in the fastest possible time (not leaving the airports) on the Star Alliance carriers. A "real" circumnavigation must have a milage of at least 22,858 miles, that is what bothers me when I try to find iteneraries. Do you have any ideas on iteneraries?

The fare isn't an isue

/RasmusDK

I know my father-in-law used to travel frequently on United or Northwest from PIT to Kuala Lumpur. He sometimes circumnavigated, usually going west (I can't think of once where he went east). If I remember correctly, it was something like this:

Pittsburgh - O'Hare - San Francisco - Tokyo or somewhere in Japan - Kuala Lumpur - London - either JFK or Dulles - Pittsburgh

I'm not sure of the mileage, but it's all northern hemisphere, and I would think that you would have to dip down below the equator to get the "Earth's waistline" mileage.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

BTW - He did this every-other-week for 6 years, and was either in Phoenix or Boston on the other week. His United miles were through the roof. I believe he said he got a letter from them saying he was in their top 25 all time accruers.

Yeah, that milage is really bothering me. I've found an itenerary going from Frankfurt to Singapore (SQ), on to Tokyo (UA), on to Los Angeles (UA), on to Frankfurt (LH) with layovers at about 1,5 hours each place, which is perfect since I want to do the circumnavigation really fast.

BUT: It's about 1,000 miles short of the required 22,858 miles. Does anyone have an idea for a 1,000 mile detour on my suggested route - preferably between Los Angeles and Frankfurt (a detour that is 1000 miles longer than the direct flight)?

BTW: Does anyone know if the mileage mentioned undet the flight details at star-alliance.com is correct, or should I look another place for this?

/RasmusDK

This seems pretty simple, and there are actually lots of options for you.

LAX-FRA = 5805 which you said was 1000 miles too short

LAX-SFO = 500
SFO-IAD = 2419
IAD-FRA = 4080

Total = 6999 so that should do it.

You can even substitute IAD-FRA with IAD-JFK-FRA or IAD-MUC-FRA; or LAX-SFO-IAD with LAX-SEA-IAD.

Try going north and south a bit if you're short some mileage, and for long haul segments, try taking the shortest possible segments and stay further south to generate more mileage (if you're above the equator).

Could anyone help me find any specific. E.g. I have an itenerary that goes a follows:

FRA-SIN, SQ25, Dep. 12AM, arr. 7AM+1: 6393 miles

SIN-NRT, UA882, Dep. 7:30AM, arr. 2:55PM: 3332 miles

NRT-LAX, UA890, Dep. 4:25PM, arr. 10:40AM: 5798 miles
or:
NRT-SFO, UA 838, Dep. 5PM, arr. 8:45AM: 5117 miles

Miles needed LAX-FRA: 7336, direct flight: 5798.
Miles needed SFO-FRA: 8017, direct flight: 5690.

As you can see the best place to put in a detour would be between LAX or SFO and FRA, also because the direct flights don't depart until 2:55PM. But I cannot find anyone good inteneraries that give me the required mileage. Can anyone help me?

/RasmusDK.

Is your connection in SIN legal?? 30 minutes on an international flight...between two different carriers...sounds doubtful to me.

I haven't looked at schedules or mileage but perhaps LAX-MIA-JFK-FRA would get you closer to your goal.

Where did you get those numbers from?

/RasmusDK

That was from United's website.

Can you provide the date(s) you'll be travelling, and maybe I can think of some specific flights for you?

You definitely want to look at alternatives to that 30-min connx in SIN.

It could be any day of the week - the others flights I mentioned are all operated 7 days a week, but if you find any other options it doesn't matter which day it is.

/RasmusDK

Got it:

United Airlines 4425
(Operated by Mexicana De Aviacion)
Boeing 757-200
1:15 pm Los Angeles (LAX)
6:45 pm Mexico City (MEX) Non-stop
1553 miles

Lufthansa 499
Boeing 747
8:35 pm Mexico City (MEX)
2:25 pm (Next day) Frankfurt (FRA) Non-stop
5943 miles


This was actually quite a bit of a challenge. If you want to hop around and take a lot of extra time, it's easy. But this seems to do the trick by only adding one stop for you. Good thing Mexicana is part of Star Alliance.

Let me know what you think.


[This message has been edited by channa (edited 10-03-2002).]

Thanks for the effort. But if I want to break any recors the total travel time needs to be under 44 hours. The proposed itenerary is over 28 hours. I can make it FRA-NRT(in stead of going via SIN)-LAX-MEX-FRA, but then I'm still 2000 miles short... ****... I'm open to any ideas, also to starting somewhere else than FRA, but it needs to be over 22,858 miles and max. 44h and 15m or so...

Thanks for helping med out!

/RasmusDK

Record? Is this a challenge among friends or some sort of real world record kind of thing?

It's a real record "Fastest circumnavigation on scheduled flights" - the current one is 44h and 6m.

/RasmusDK

I just read a book by the co-holder of the circumnavigation record (NON-scheduled flights).

The book is actually about adventure racing, but the author had been part of the press corps covering a special charter Concorde flight around the world. They made 4 or 5 stops, I believe, and did it in 23 or so hours. Flight happened in 1995, I think.

In the Concorde, it got cramped after a while. I imagine doing it commercially would be significantly more exhausting and nerve-wracking, though, even if the planes are a little bigger.

Good luck! Let us know if you pull it off. You might even find some company on these boards.

[This message has been edited by Rigmutt (edited 10-04-2002).]

Well, I'll definately not pull it of if I don't find any qualifying iteneraries (min. 22,859 miles, mac. 44h6m)...

/RasmusDK