There was a bore at the place I used to work who would always sit at the lunch table in our office restaurant on Monday and say "so what did you do on the weekend?"
It was always my dream to say "I flew round the world, how about you?" but the money never ran to fulfilling that dream.

However, in those days, it was theoretically possible to combine BD, NZ and TG to fly the following itinerary BHX-LHR-LAX-AKL-BKK-LHR-BHX - leaving after 5pm on Friday, arriving back before 9am on Monday, fulfilling all check-in times and minimum connection times. These days, those airlines have timetables that won't let me do it, but is there any similar RTW itinerary available today?

(The reason for the BHX-LHR sectors is that I was living in Birmingham at the time. It's not even possible without that any more.)

Conditions for contest: start checkin after 5pm local on Friday, back to starting point before 9am Monday, fly broadly in the same direction throughout round the world, preferably passing through a point in Europe and a point in Aus/NZ or similarly opposite areas if not starting in Europe.

Anyone want to play? (It's a paper game, not a flying game.)

How about LHR-HKG-AKL (NZ38) for a nice start with a short-as-possible connection in HKG and AKL-LAX continuation on NZ. LAX-LHR on UA should bring you back to LHR early enough to catch a flight to BHX.
Is BHX the starting point for the game?

Doable from LA or ATL

LA-LHR, LHR-SYD OR AKL via SIN, then direct to LAX landing Monday morning just in time for work.

Works from ATL but not through Europe -- have to go ATL-SYD, SYD-JNB, JNB-ATL

Friday:

London - Singapore SQ319 Dep 1830 Arr 1420+1

Saturday:

Singapore - Brisbane EK432 Dep 1520 Arr 0040+1

Sunday:

Brisbane - Sydney QF020 Dep 0510 Arr 0640
Sydney - Los Angeles DL16 Dep 0925 Arr 0610
Los Angeles - New York Kennedy AA034 Dep 0820 Arr 1700
New York - London BA112 Dep 1820 Arr 0625+1

Obviously this would be a bit expensive as it doesn't fit in one alliance


All in *A:

Friday:

London - Singapore SQ321 Dep 2205 Arr 1755+1

Saturday:

Singapore - Sydney SQ221 Dep 2035 Arr 0555+1

Sunday:

Sydney - Los Angeles UA840 Dep 1350 Arr 1021
Los Angeles - London UA934 Dep 1259 Arr 0730+1





Cheers,

Welcome to Flyertalk, DLAtlPdx!

Now... since this is about MRs, what is the lowest cost per mile this can be done for?

Not necessarily. The start can be any airport in Europe (or anywhere else). If it's your closest airport to home, then that's better.

I asked a very similar question in the Around the World in 80 days thread after a challenge from my kids. Kiwi Flyer and tht actually did it in 60 hours (left Friday late afternoon, returned early Monday morning). So yes, it can be done.

sadiqhassan,

Your *A only solution looks better - you start later and have fewer flights (so fewer things to go wrong!) - also, with your first one, what's the checkin limit at LHR?

I added the "extra" flights in just for kicks, LHR-SIN-BNE-LAX-LHR is also possible.

Cheers,

It must be the time for asking this sort of question! It's something I've been wondering about for a long time and I finally got round to posting my version less than 40 hours later.

Also, does anyone remember the old PA FF RTW award. It was called "round the world in 80 days" and was pretty much that. You had to travel with PA (and partners?) round the world in one direction, completing 80 days or less after the first sector. I seem to remember that it didn't require a huge number of points, considering what you got for them.

Friday, 6:20pm: Depart BHX-FRA (LH 4905); FRA-BKK (LH 782)
Saturday, 6:40pm: Depart BKK-HKG (CX 702); HKG-LAX (CX 880)
Sunday, 8:35am: Depart LAX-EWR (CO 1703); EWR-BHX (CO 26)
Monday, 7:10am: Arrive BHX

That's pretty good, and a different choice of airlines and routing than I would have considered, but it doesn't go far enough south. Can you fix that in the time available?

That's a good point, what qualifies as "round the world"?

Clearly just crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, doesn't qualify (otherwise the answer might be something like LHR-NRT-ORD-LHR at just over 16,000 miles).

My definition of RTW, admittedly biased towards the places I have lived, would require passing through a point in Europe and a point in Aus/NZ/Polynesia/Melanesia.

I'd also probably settle for any route with a stopover/transit point north of the Tropic of Cancer and another south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Route must also pass through Greenwich meridian and International Date Line.

RTW tickets have many different conditions, but I'm sure there are many here who can describe them in far more detail than I could do.

Friday 9:45pm JFK-FRA
Saturday FRA-SIN
Sunday SIN-EWR -- arrives same day.

Gets you back into your own bed Sunday night.