Case Study: How I Booked a Round-the-World Trip in Premium Cabins

Many Australians choose to bundle their big holidays into a round-the-world (RTW) trip. This isn’t just a great way to visit multiple destinations, but it can be better value too – especially if you want to fly in premium cabins such as Business Class.

One popular way to book a round-the-world trip is to redeem Qantas points for a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward. The fact that AFF’s Qantas Oneworld Classic Reward planning thread is over 800 pages long is testament to both the popularity of this redemption… but also how difficult it can be to successfully book. The hardest part is often finding Classic Reward availability in the pointy end.

As an alternative, you could get a good deal on a round-the-world ticket using the special cash fares offered by the likes of Finnair and Turkish Airlines. For a bit more money, the Oneworld Explorer ticket offers even more flexibility. But these options aren’t that cheap, with a Finnair round-the-world ticket starting at around $8,000 for Business Class.

My recent round-the-world trip

Earlier this year I completed a round-the-world trip of my own, but I didn’t use any of the above methods to book my flights. Instead, I combined some good cash fares, a cheap “buy miles” promotion and some great award chart sweet spots to book a series of one-way tickets.

I was fairly flexible with my travel dates and routing, and took the time to build a round-the-world itinerary where every long-haul flight was in either Business Class or Premium Economy. I also took six shorter flights as part of this trip, with three in Business and three in Economy.

The final itinerary looked like this:

I will stress that I’m a solo traveller with few responsibilities at home, and was lucky to be notified of a very good airfare thanks to Flyertalk and AFF (hat-tip to cruser1 and Gold Member). I fully understand that not everyone will be able to book a trip like this, and that some people just want to get to their destination as fast as possible!

The point of this article isn’t to tell you how easy it is for me to travel using points. Instead, it’s to provide some insight on how to meld together a trip using multiple different “travel hacks”. The way I plan my travel is probably different to many, but I thought some readers might be interested to read my personal approach to a trip like this.

This case study is also a good demonstration of why you shouldn’t pigeonhole yourself into collecting points with only one frequent flyer currency.

Booking from Australia to North America using a good one-way airfare

The lucky fare I used to book the first part of this trip was a one-way United Airlines “sale” (some might call it an error fare) from Auckland to Dallas in Business Class.

Crucially, I was able to add a stopover in Sydney. I used the first leg from Auckland to Sydney to get home from New Zealand at the end of a separate trip I was taking anyway. I then flew from Sydney to the USA after a “stopover” in Sydney of more than two months.

The United Airlines flights to the USA

With this fare, Auckland-Sydney booked on Qantas while the rest of the flights were on United. This was the itinerary, which cost $1,713.29 for a one-way Business Class fare:

• QF4 Auckland (AKL) – Sydney (SYD) – flown two months earlier than the rest of the flights
• UA100 Sydney (SYD) – Houston (IAH)
• UA1168 Houston (IAH) – Chicago (ORD)
• UA793 Chicago (ORD) – Dallas Fort Worth (DFW)

Geographically astute readers may wonder why I didn’t fly from Houston straight to Dallas, as the cities are only 224 miles apart. It was for the extra Velocity status credits, as I’m trying to get Velocity status locked in before the changes in October 2025.

The United flights earned me 320 Velocity status credits and almost 13,000 Velocity points. Flying on QF4 in Business also earned 80 Qantas status credits and 2,000 Qantas points.

These flights got me to North America, but where I really wanted to go was the Canadian Rockies for some skiing.

American Airlines to Calgary

American Airlines flies direct to Calgary from Dallas, but wanted USD260 (~$AU412) for a Basic Economy ticket. Instead, I used 18,000 Qantas points and a measly USD5.60 (~$AU8) for an Economy Class ticket to Calgary.

I thought using points for Economy Class was good value in this case, in part due to the minimal taxes. American Airlines Economy Class reward tickets within North America don’t include checked baggage, but I got one through my Qantas Platinum status.

This is how I got to my first proper destination: Banff, and the Canadian Rockies. I worked here back in 2019 on a gap year, so it was great to go back!

Again, I was extremely lucky to book this great fare on United. That said, United often releases Business Class reward seats from Australia to San Francisco and Los Angeles up to three months prior to departure – and in some cases even less than a week out.

A one-way Business seat costs 102,000 Velocity points + taxes and fees. So if you have Virgin Australia Velocity points and can book at relatively short notice, the general idea of this itinerary is possible without paying the full cash fare.

Booking from Canada to Europe by buying miles

After Calgary, I was keen to fly to Vienna for the Austrian Alps. Coming from the west coast of the USA or Canada, this gave me a few good options to fly Business Class on points:

• Use Qantas points on American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia or Finnair
• Use Velocity points on United or Virgin Atlantic
• Buy Air Canada Aeroplan points or Avianca LifeMiles to fly on a Star Alliance airline
• Transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic and redeem on a SkyTeam airline

In this case, I decided that buying points from a Star Alliance airline was my best option. Both Aeroplan and LifeMiles redemptions are great value from the west coast of the USA/Canada to Europe.

At the time, LifeMiles was only charging 63,000 miles to fly Business Class on Star Alliance partners from anywhere in the USA to Europe. LifeMiles has increased its award costs since I booked, and the program has quite a few limitations, so buying Aeroplan points might be a better option for most people.

I could have redeemed Qantas points, but there was no Business Class availability on Iberia or Finnair. British Airways would have been an option but it has insanely high carrier surcharges. I would have had to pay around USD1,000 (~AU$1,450) in extra fees to use my points on British Airways.

The WestJet and Turkish Airlines flights to Europe

I bought Avianca LifeMiles at a 175% bonus, which cost only USD756 (~$AU1,096) for the 63,000 miles I needed. Aeroplan was only offering an 80% bonus at the time, so for me, dealing with the terrible LifeMiles website was worth the savings.

Seats.aero is fantastic for searching for seat availability. Even though it doesn’t offer direct support for LifeMiles their support for United MileagePlus allowed me to locate suitable flights on Turkish Airlines.

Award flights that are available to book through United MileagePlus aren’t always available through LifeMiles, so I did double-check availability on the LifeMiles website before buying the miles.

This screenshot was taken recently, but I used the same filters to search for my flights.

So, with the availability found and LifeMiles in my account, I booked Turkish Airlines Business Class from Los Angeles to Vienna via Istanbul.

Avianca LifeMiles doesn’t pass on carrier surcharges. There’s just a USD25 redemption fee on top of other taxes. So the total cost was 63,000 Avianca LifeMiles plus USD61 (~$AU90) for this booking.

I searched on Google Flights for the cheapest option to position from Calgary to Los Angeles. The cheapest flight by far was direct from Calgary to Los Angeles on WestJet for CAD247 (~$AU270), including a checked bag.

I then was able to spend a few weeks in Europe, doing even more skiing and catching up with some friends.

Within Europe, I travelled by train from Vienna to Zurich and just bought a Finnair Economy Class ticket from Zurich to Helsinki.

Booking from Europe to Australia by redeeming points

To complete the round-the-world trip, I needed the final leg from Europe back to Australia. This is often the most challenging part, especially when trying to use Qantas points. But I didn’t really have many other options, as I haven’t been hoarding my points.

At the time of booking, I had only 100,000 Amex Membership Rewards points and 95,000 Qantas points to get me home. Luckily, Amex points transfer to a wealth of great partners!

Qantas’ move to bulk reward seat releases has changed the dynamic of finding reward seats. Availability is now much less predictable. But I was fortunately able to find a Classic Reward seat from Bangkok to Sydney, in Business Class on the wet leased plane operated by Finnair. This flight cost 68,400 Qantas points and $224 in taxes and carrier charges.

On a separate ticket, I booked Finnair Premium Economy from Helsinki to Bangkok using Finnair Plus Avios. To get Finnair Avios, I first converted Amex Membership Rewards points to Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios. I then converted my Qatar Avios to British Airways Avios, and finally from British Airways to Finnair Avios!

Northern Europe to Asia on Finnair is a great sweet spot of the Finnair Plus program. I only needed 43,500 Finnair Avios for Premium Economy, or 62,500 Avios for Business Class. Finnair also doesn’t apply any carrier charges, so the taxes and fees were just EUR82 (~$AU138).

I didn’t have too much trouble finding Finnair Premium Economy availability through Finnair Plus, since the airline reserves a guaranteed number of reward seats on each flight for its own members. Since this airline’s Premium Economy seats also aren’t available to book through most other Oneworld programs, there’s not much competition! (This could change later this year, when Qantas members get access to Finnair Premium Economy availability for the first time.)

I also could have booked Cathay Pacific Premium Economy from Europe to Bangkok for 50,000 Asia Miles, or British Airways Premium Economy for 43,500 British Airways Avios. The Cathay Pacific option is solid, but I wanted to try something new, and British Airways’ carrier charges were too high.

Summary

For all of the flights on this trip, I paid:

• $3,725 (including the cost of purchasing LifeMiles),
• 86,400 Qantas points, and
• 43,500 Finnair Avios.

For this, I got to visit some great places, try some great airline products, and earn a handy stash of Velocity and Qantas status credits.

Planning a big round-the-world trip is challenging. But having multiple point currencies and a bit of flexibility can really help.

Of course, knowing what to look for – such as good reward chart sweet spots and cheap opportunities to purchase points – also helps a lot. Australian Frequent Flyer’s training courses can help with that part!

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Wilson McTaggart

Wilson's love of travel started from a young age, but his love for points developed after figuring out ways to travel on a gap year for less - leading naturally towards Australian Frequent Flyer! Wilson's hobbies include skiing, cricket and planning trips, both with and without points.

Wilson posts on the AFF forum as @WilsonM.