cheapest round the world award?
 

Does anyone know what the lowest "cost" round the world award is? thanks!

Shall I assume you're referring to miles?
Skyteam charge 140k for economy and 220k for biz (or 280 for F for anyone that's got too many miles)

Don't know if it is the lowest, but the ANA Star Alliance Award Chart shows 90K for travel between 14,001 - 20,000 miles. LAX->NRT->FRA->LAX is about 17,000 miles, so you could add a lot of additional stops for that 'price'.

which do you want the official one where you stop or the unofficial one., where you don't -- well I should say you go only to your destination, but can't stop elsewhere (unless you get from there to the start of your return trip on your own).

I can't answer the official one, but the unofficial one --that is you DO fly round the world but don't do stops-- is 60,000 milles.

if you can get on the singapore air star alliance flight from newark to singapore, it's over the atlantic. Come back to JFK on united or singapore, it's over the pacific. end result: round the world for 60,000 miles. But no europe stops, no India stop.

http://www.aa.com/apps/AAdvantage/Vi...artnersContent

The One World Alliance has economy class trips of 14,001 - 20,000 miles for 100K miles.

60,000 mile star award
 

Did this myself last February- SQ exec economy is a bargain at 60K miles. Flew EWR-SIN-TPE on SQ, TPE-NRT-JFK on UA. For US Airways awards, you are allowed one stopover; I spent two days in SIN before a week in Taiwan.

One could get creative and route JFK-FRA-SIN-TPE on SQ using your stopover in FRA, spend however long you need at TPE (or whatever other destination), and then fly TPE-NRT-JFK. This way you could get a Europe and Asia stopover? (Has anyone tried this, I assume the JFK-FRA-SIN-TPE is considered transpacific?)

Note for DL-issued Skyteam awards that June 1st to August 31st is a blackout period for awards using Air France or KLM. That can cause serious difficulties unless Alitalia does the route.

jfk-fra-sin is Not considered trans pacific. it's considered trans atlantic. I tried to to it and was told I needed more miles. they count the ewr-sin flight as trans pacific because it's supposed to be over the pole.

i didn't do the 60,000, but did the business class version. but since i had limited time flew into saigon and out of hanoi. (though I also ended up stopping for like 10 hours in osaka
)

On a RTW award, how far out do you have to book these. Are they as tough (nearly impossible) to book as other RT awards? Is one alliance any simpler to book?

just did a RTW on skyteam for oct. got the dates i wanted on the first try. going zrh to iah, stop, then dfw to seoul to bangkok, stop, then bangkok to seoul to zurich, finish. 140K. continental from europe to the states then korean air for the rest.

Was that economy class?

140K round-the-world Skyteam award is in economy class. 220k is generally business, and 280k first.