How to Book a First Class Round-the-World Ticket

A First Class ticket around the world would have to be right up there with the most aspirational of travel bookings! It really is the epitome of luxury travel.

There are a few different ways to book a First Class round-the-world (RTW) ticket from Australia, using either money or frequent flyer points. Each method has its pros and cons, and some types of tickets are easier to book than others.

Unfortunately, given the lack of airlines even still offering First Class service in 2023, this can be quite a difficult task. While some types of bookings are great value in theory, they are almost impossible to actually book due to a lack of available flights. And while the Oneworld and Star Alliance round-the-world fares are a bit easier to book, they are more expensive than the alternatives and still come with limitations.

Nonetheless, if you’d like to fly round the world in First Class, here are a few different ways to do it from Australia…

Buy a Oneworld Explorer round-the-world ticket

Qantas, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways and American Airlines are all part of the Oneworld alliance, which offers a round-the-world product called “Oneworld Explorer”. This airfare is available as an Economy, Business or First Class fare. (You can also upgrade individual legs on an Economy ticket to Premium Economy.)

You can book up to 16 flights on a single Oneworld Explorer ticket, and you must cross the Pacific and Atlantic oceans exactly once each. There are a few other rules, including:

• You must end in the country where you started the trip
• Maximum 4 flights within any single continent (except North America, where you are allowed 6 flights)
• Maximum 2 stopovers in the continent of origin

You can book a Oneworld Explorer fare on the Oneworld website or through your travel agent.

Overall, this ticket offers a lot of flexibility and you can visit a lot of places with it. The price is based on the number of “continents” visited, as defined by Oneworld:

The main catch with this option is that it’s expensive.

Sample Oneworld Explorer itinerary

As just one example, we put together the following sample Oneworld Explorer itinerary:

This itinerary includes flights on Qantas, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.

The cost of this ticket would be around $22,000 per passenger. That’s with all flights in First Class except between Hobart-Sydney, Singapore-Hong Kong and London-Edinburgh which are in Business Class. (The Los Angeles-Anchorage flight also books into Business Class, but Alaska Airlines sells this as “First”.)

As is often the case when booking a First Class itinerary, the number of routes with First Class available is quite limited. If you wanted to travel to some more “interesting” places than the likes of Singapore, Doha, London, New York or Los Angeles, you’d probably end up getting downgraded to Business Class for much of the trip. And you’d still be paying the First Class fare.

That said, the lack of available First Class routes is perhaps less of a problem when booking a Oneworld Explorer fare than it is with the Star Alliance equivalent… or when redeeming frequent flyer points!

Buy a Star Alliance round-the-world fare

Star Alliance also offers its own round-the-world fare. This has different rules to the Oneworld Explorer fare and the pricing is based on the number of miles travelled (not continents visited), but the basic concept is the same. You can travel around the world in a continuous east or west direction, taking up to 16 flights in total.

Some of the main Star Alliance round-the-world fare rules include:

• You must end in the country (but not necessarily the same city) where you started your trip
• There is a limit of 3 stopovers (of more than 24 hours) in any single country, except in the USA where 5 stopovers are allowed
• You cannot stopover in the same city twice
• Up to 5 surface sectors are permitted, however these count towards your 16 permitted flight sectors and the mileage is also included

Sample Star Alliance RTW itinerary

Here’s one example of a Star Alliance round-the-world fare in First Class:

The above itinerary includes flights on Singapore Airlines, SWISS, South African Airways, United and ANA. All flights are in First except for London-Zurich, Johannesburg-Cape Town, Cape Town-Washington and Tokyo-Sydney (which means two long-haul flights are downgraded to Business). The cost for this ticket is $25,606 per passenger.

You can plan and book a Star Alliance RTW ticket on the Star Alliance website or through a travel agent.

SkyTeam also used to offer a round-the-world product called a “Go Round The World” fare. However, the alliance has suspended the sale of these fares – and there are currently no SkyTeam airlines offering First Class to or from Australia, anyway.

Buy a Lufthansa Group special round-the-world ticket

While the Oneworld Explorer and Star Alliance round-the-world fares offer the most flexibility, there is another option which is almost half the price.

The Lufthansa Group offers some great value airfares from Australia to Europe which allow you to travel in any direction. By flying to Europe via Asia or South Africa, and returning via North America – or vice versa – you can turn this into a “round-the-world” ticket.

The Lufthansa Group fare offers great value in Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class. You can also use this deal to fly First Class.

The flights to, from and within Europe must be on either Lufthansa or SWISS, and you can use Qantas, Singapore Airlines or British Airways (which operates a Sydney-Singapore service) to fly in and out of Australia in First Class.

Sample Lufthansa Group First Class itinerary

Here is one example of a Lufthansa Group First Class itinerary originating and ending in Sydney:

This sample itinerary includes:

• Singapore Airlines First Class from Sydney to Singapore
• Singapore Airlines Business Class from Singapore to Bengaluru (First Class can’t be booked on intra-Asia connecting flights)
• Lufthansa First Class from Bengaluru to Frankfurt, connecting onwards to London in Business Class (First is not offered within Europe)
• A surface sector from London to Rome
• SWISS Business Class from Rome to Zurich
• SWISS First Class from Zurich to San Francisco
• A surface sector from San Francisco to Los Angeles (you could alternatively fly this leg on United)
• Qantas First Class from Los Angeles to Sydney

Instead of having an extra stop in India, you could theoretically fly Lufthansa or SWISS directly from Singapore to Europe. But Lufthansa and SWISS have very little availability in the required fare class on their Singapore-Frankfurt and Singapore-Zurich routes, making that rather difficult to book in practice.

As a guide, the above itinerary would cost:

• $13,508 for a First Basic fare (non-refundable)
• $13,958 for a First Basic Plus fare (refundable for a fee)
• $14,408 for a First Flex fare (fully refundable at no cost)

Unfortunately, the cheaper airfares now severely limit the number of allowed stopovers.

Mixed-class fares

It’s also possible to book a mixed-class Lufthansa Group fare from Australia to Europe that uses First Class in one direction and Business Class the other way. And you don’t necessarily have to fly around the world – you could choose to travel in one direction via South Africa instead of North America, or even fly via North America both ways.

Here’s one example of a mixed-class fare that we priced:

This itinerary uses First Class outbound from Melbourne to Stockholm, flying with Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa. The return leg is with SWISS in Business Class from Stockholm to Johannesburg, then Qantas Business Class from Johannesburg to Melbourne.

The total fare for this mixed-class itinerary starts from $9,932 for a non-refundable ticket.

These fares can only be booked through travel agents.

Redeem Qantas points for a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward

If you have Qantas Frequent Flyer points, another option is to book a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward.

This isn’t specifically a round-the-world product. But you can use it to fly around the world, travelling up to 35,000 miles in total with up to 5 stopovers.

It costs 455,000 Qantas points, plus taxes & carrier charges (often around $1,500-$2,000 per person), to fly around the world in First Class with a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward.

That would be a great deal if you were able to find award availability on Oneworld airlines in First Class. Unfortunately, that’s a lot easier said than done.

The only Oneworld member airlines that currently offer First Class to or from Australia are Qantas, British Airways, American Airlines and Qatar Airways. Unfortunately, Qatar Airways isn’t really an option though for most people because Qantas Frequent Flyer members can only book Business or First Class reward seats on Qatar up to 3 days before departure.

It’s rare to find American Airlines or British Airways First Class availability to/from Sydney, although it occasionally can be possible. Qantas First Class award availability is also generally limited, although you can sometimes get lucky. (If you have Qantas Platinum or Platinum One status, you can also call Qantas to request a seat release.)

Even outside of Australia, there isn’t a huge number of Oneworld routes where First Class award seats are regularly available.

There are some exceptions where you can often find First Class award seats. For example, you can often find First reward seats on British Airways flights from Bahrain or Kuwait to London, as well as on some trans-Atlantic routes. You may even be lucky enough to find something on Cathay Pacific between Hong Kong and Europe or North America.

But overall, there aren’t a lot of flight choices. This means you’ll probably end up having to plan your whole trip around specific routes that have First Class available, or otherwise accept a downgrade to a lower cabin class for most of the trip.

Sample Oneworld Award itinerary in First Class

Here’s one example of an itinerary you could book for 455,000 Qantas points + taxes. All sectors are in First Class except Sydney-Perth and San Francisco-Los Angeles, which are in Business:

Unfortunately, to make this itinerary work, you’d need to book the Qatar Airways leg from Perth to Doha (and onwards to Kuwait) within 3 days of departure. That’s just not practical for most people.

And, while British Airways has lots of award availability from Kuwait to London in First Class, do you really want to go there for a holiday? (Admittedly, I did actually visit Kuwait while on holiday a few months ago, and found it to be a perfectly safe and pleasant place… but it’s not exactly a tourist hotspot!)

Unless you’re prepared to make a lot of sacrifices to make a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward in First Class work for you, you may be better off just booking Business Class for 318,000 Qantas points.

Redeeming Qantas points for Emirates First Class

If you have Qantas points and you really want to fly First Class, your best bet is probably to redeem your points on Emirates. It is a bit easier to find First Class award availability on Emirates than on most other Qantas partner airlines, including on Emirates routes such as Melbourne-Singapore.

But as Emirates isn’t a Oneworld airline, you can’t benefit from the generous Oneworld Classic Flight Reward pricing. You can also expect to pay many thousands of dollars extra in Emirates carrier charges.

Redeeming Qantas points for Emirates First Class can still be good value though, even if the high surcharges somewhat reduce the value.

Book a KrisFlyer Star Alliance Round-the-World Award

Update: Singapore Airlines discontinued this award in May 2024.

If you have Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, you could book a KrisFlyer Star Alliance Round-the-World Award in First Class for 405,000 KrisFlyer miles + taxes & carrier charges.

Again, this is an excellent deal… if you can actually find award availability in First Class for a majority of the trip.

It can be done. But it’s very difficult because most Star Alliance carriers don’t even offer a First Class cabin.

The only one flying to Australia with First Class is Singapore Airlines, which offers the cabin on selected flights between Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore. This does open up a few options, but in order to use Singapore Airlines flights as part of a Star Alliance award, you need to find KrisFlyer “Saver” award availability. This is much harder to find than “Advantage” availability.

Air India has reasonably good First Class award availability from India to North America, and you can occasionally find ANA First Class between Tokyo and selected destinations in Europe and North America.

Lufthansa also has decent First Class award availability on some routes… but you can generally only book this using KrisFlyer miles within 14 days of departure. And it’s not possible to book SWISS First Class with KrisFlyer miles.

With that in mind, although the options are limited, you might be able to piece together a KrisFlyer round-the-world award booking in First Class on a routing such as the one below. This uses a mix of flights Singapore Airlines, Air India and ANA:

Booking a Singapore Airlines Advantage Award with KrisFlyer miles

Realistically, it’s much easier to redeem KrisFlyer miles for a round-trip Singapore Airlines First Class Advantage award from Australia to North America than it is to book a Star Alliance Round-the-World Award.

With Singapore Airlines, you can fly from Australia to North America by travelling either east or west. That’s because Singapore Airlines flies one-stop routes from Singapore to the United States including Singapore-Frankfurt-New York, Singapore-Tokyo-Los Angeles and Singapore-Manchester-Houston (although the latter doesn’t have First Class).

KrisFlyer offers limited First Saver award availability on these routes, but you can often find Advantage award seats when booking far enough in advance.

KrisFlyer Advantage awards cost more miles than Saver awards. In exchange for paying more miles, you may have a more realistic chance of finding award availability around the dates you actually want to fly.

With a one-way KrisFlyer Advantage award, you are also entitled to a complimentary en-route stopover of up to 30 days. So, you have the option to stopover in places such as Singapore, Frankfurt or Tokyo when booking an Advantage award ticket from Australia to the USA on Singapore Airlines.

With this in mind, as one example, you could fly Singapore Airlines outbound from Sydney to Los Angeles via Singapore and Tokyo, stopping over in Tokyo for up to 30 days along the way. You could then book another one-way ticket from New York-Frankfurt-Singapore-Sydney, flying the other way with an en-route stopover in Frankfurt.

This effectively gives you a First Class round-the-world ticket with stopovers in Tokyo and Frankfurt, and a surface sector from Los Angeles to New York:

This is a rare example of a First Class award for one passenger that you could book relatively easily with KrisFlyer miles, directly on the Singapore Airlines website. For example, you could book these flights for the one-way outbound journey via Tokyo:

And here’s an example of inbound flights available via Frankfurt:

In total, this journey would cost you 600,000 KrisFlyer miles and just $387 in taxes!

Summary

The Oneworld Explorer and Star Alliance round-the-world fares offer the most flexibility, but are relatively expensive.

If you’re looking to buy a First Class round-the-world ticket using money, and don’t need as much flexibility, the value of the Lufthansa Group fares is difficult to beat.

If you want to use frequent flyer points, the Qantas Oneworld Classic Flight Reward and KrisFlyer Star Alliance RTW Award are superb value… but very difficult to actually book.

Because of this, if you have KrisFlyer miles, it might be worth stumping up the extra miles to book Advantage award seats on Singapore Airlines. That’s because you’re much more likely to find award availability around your choice of travel date… and at under $400 in taxes, there’s a very low out-of-pocket cost!