Article: Great Value Round-the-World Tickets with Finnair & Lufthansa

[I love to travel]

Get thee to the naughty corner for expressing such blasphemy here

Yes, hopefully not the first of many!

But isn’t that just AAdvantage members? (at least for now)

It is not clear whether it is for AAdvantage or everyone. Their list of prefered travel agents has yet to be released.

 

[Princess Fiona]

It is not clear whether it is for AAdvantage or everyone. Their list of prefered travel agents has yet to be released.

I have not read anywhere that this will affect AA earnings to other OW partner FF programs. AA elites will continue to earn miles and loyalty points when earned through partner airlines.

 

[hwy]

But the Finnair deal is killing two birds with one stone. I ended up paying $7700 SYD-NYC-LAX-TYO-SYD in December on ANA. I even asked my travel agent I would rather the Finnair deal but they did not come back with that as an option. I would gladly head to Helsinki for a little extra. Always next time.... I hope.

 

[Kerrodt]

But the Finnair deal is killing two birds with one stone. I ended up paying $7700 SYD-NYC-LAX-TYO-SYD in December on ANA. I even asked my travel agent I would rather the Finnair deal but they did not come back with that as an option. I would gladly head to Helsinki for a little extra. Always next time.... I hope.

I'd change travel agents if they ignored your question and came back with a response that you considered sub-optimal in light of what else you know is on offer.....poor service. Probably more interested in looking after their commissions rather than looking after the customer.

 

[hwy]

They offered SQ RTW for around $10,800. 2 stops in Europe, 2 USA, and Tokyo.

 

[madrooster]

I'd change travel agents if they ignored your question and came back with a response that you considered sub-optimal in light of what else you know is on offer.....poor service. Probably more interested in looking after their commissions rather than looking after the customer.

If a pax asks for USA as the destination and mentions Finnair, a typical travel agent would probably ignore it since there's no Finnair Australia-USA fare via the Pacific.

In relation to commission, NH pays no commission ex-Australia to USA anyway. AY would've actually paid a lot more.

You are correct, but just to note any American Airlines airfares not booked through AA website will no longer accure points. I think this starts in about 2 months.

Not quite correct. Only if you were to credit to AA's program. To partner programs they'll still credit which in a way is ironic.

 

[hwy]

I actually did mention that I was flexible how to get to NYC. Did not mind via Pacific or Europe. But it's all good.... was only thinking status points and a few more lounges in Europe as a nice way to spend December after a year of diligently reading australianfrequentflyer.com.au to find the bestest deals.

 

[Mattg]

Might not be so useful any more if you want to do a RTW trip with lots of stopovers, but if you just want point-to-point flights from Australia to Europe, Lufthansa Group launched a business class sale today. Covers travel dates between February and November 2025, and the sale ends 6 December 2024.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Might not be so useful any more if you want to do a RTW trip with lots of stopovers, but if you just want point-to-point flights from Australia to Europe, Lufthansa Group launched a business class sale today. Covers travel dates between February and November 2025, and the sale ends 6 December 2024.

Can’t seem to find the link… example of pricing?

 

[Sprucegoose]

Can’t seem to find the link… example of pricing?

It may be this?

Lufthansa Business Class Global Fare | RoundAbout Travel

Fly Lufthansa Business Class and travel to multiple continents their global airfare. Speak to our airfare specialists to discuss which round the world airfare is best suited to you.

roundabouttravel.com.au

 

[kangarooflyer88]

It may be this?

Lufthansa Business Class Global Fare | RoundAbout Travel

Fly Lufthansa Business Class and travel to multiple continents their global airfare. Speak to our airfare specialists to discuss which round the world airfare is best suited to you.

roundabouttravel.com.au

I think that's one of the travel agents that can book those fares.

It should be pointed out that there is a separate round the world ticket Star Alliance makes available to the public that you can book direct from Star Alliance. However, those tickets have a number of caveats, as this traveller found out:

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It may be this?

Lufthansa Business Class Global Fare | RoundAbout Travel

Fly Lufthansa Business Class and travel to multiple continents their global airfare. Speak to our airfare specialists to discuss which round the world airfare is best suited to you.

roundabouttravel.com.au

Matt was referring to point to point fares, rather than RTW.

 

[Sprucegoose]

I think that's one of the travel agents that can book those fares.

It should be pointed out that there is a separate round the world ticket Star Alliance makes available to the public that you can book direct from Star Alliance. However, those tickets have a number of caveats, as this traveller found out:

That was a great clip as to why you need a switched on agent!

Post automatically merged: Nov 27, 2024

That was a great clip as to why you need a switched on agent!

Matt was referring to point to point fares, rather than RTW.

The price difference will be interesting.

 

[Mattg]

Can’t seem to find the link… example of pricing?

The sale fares are available to DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and Belgium.

These are the base fares, excluding taxes and fuel surcharges:

• $6674 return from ADL/CNS
• $6946 return from PER/DRW
• $7132 return from MEL/SYD/BNE

You might have better luck booking with a good travel agent than online.

 

[Mikey K]

Great Value Round-the-World Tickets with Finnair & Lufthansa is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Great Value Round-the-World Tickets with Finnair & Lufthansa

Finnair Airbus A350-900. Photo: Finnair. Updated (August 2022): Since this article was published, Finnair and Lufthansa have made some changes to their

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

Hi Guys

Great article. Are any of these options available leaving from Perth using the option of not going through US and therefore not technically around the world? Also, do any include destinations in Africa (I have business in Cameroon potentially?) but could fly on separate ticket within Africa if there were good options that could include a stopover somewhere where I could fly return to Cameroon !!

 

[magste]

What is the best way of booking the Finnair rtw tickets? Through specialised travel agents like roundabout travel? I prefer to book with the airline for easier acces to seat selection and other changes, but multi-city bookings on Finnair or Oneworld does to get near the advertised prices.

 

[Mattg]

What is the best way of booking the Finnair rtw tickets? Through specialised travel agents like roundabout travel? I prefer to book with the airline for easier acces to seat selection and other changes, but multi-city bookings on Finnair or Oneworld does to get near the advertised prices.

I don’t think you can get these fares/prices on the Finnair website. Best to use a (good) travel agent.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

What is the best way of booking the Finnair rtw tickets? Through specialised travel agents like roundabout travel? I prefer to book with the airline for easier acces to seat selection and other changes, but multi-city bookings on Finnair or Oneworld does to get near the advertised prices.

I'm of the same opinion as you, it's almost always better to book direct with the airline since you potentially avoid fees and the airline is responsible for your booking not a travel agent who may or may not be available. With that being said, the challenge in booking these trips is you need to follow all of the fare rules posted by FinnAir. These rules include ensuring each and every fare book into the relevant fare class stated for each airline. There may also be restrictions on where you can fly to, how long the stop overs are and what not. Now this is all something a subscription to ExpertFlyer will reveal (you can look up airline's published fares and then go about constructing the fare to follow those rules). However, if you don't follow all of the rules set out by the fare, the fare simply won't apply.

This is where the value in having a travel agent like RoundAboutTravel comes in. They know how to construct these fares. Two years ago I went to them to get a quote on a round the world ticket and they quickly came back to me with a free quote on some options. This was very helpful and whilst I ultimately did not need to use their services (as my travel plans since changed going from the need for a round the world ticket to a simply North America itinerary), I would recommend working with them. And by the way, this is a decision you have to balance. Do you want to spend hours trying to construct the perfect fare, going back and forth with FinnAir so you have the piece of mind that you booked direct with them, or would you rather save your brain cells and let the experts do all the heavy lifting? As a frequent flyer, I would likely choose the latter.

The other thing I should point out is that Qantas does allow you to book round the world award tickets using your Qantas points. The costs vary depending on class of service from 132,400 in Economy, 249,600 in Premium Economy, 318,000 in Business class and 455,000 in First class. PointHacks has an excellent article covering this.

 

[danige]

Well I'm certainly not the first and probably won't be the last but from personal experience I'd highly recommend you talk to Lee from RoundAbout Travel.

 

[prozac]

We have a member on AFF that is a TA and advises bookings. Now if only I could recall his name. I'll get it ...

Edit: I think it is @madrooster