Looking to travel the world without spending a fortune? Round-the-World (RTW) award tickets are a solution that is often underutilized. Even though booking a single RTW fare isn’t always easy, we’ve got you covered with this handy guide. We’ll show you how to plan the perfect trip, whether it’s by piecing together individual award segments or grabbing one of those elusive RTW fares. You’ll learn all about RTW awards, get tips for planning, and discover how AwardFares can help you find and book the best flights across multiple programs. Let’s turn your travel dreams into reality!

Important Note

There are only a handful of airlines and frequent flyer programs that allow a special Round-The-World (RTW) fare for award tickets. However, this guide serves beyond that purpose. It is aimed at planning and working out a full round-the-world itinerary and checking availability, even if that means booking individual segments separately. AwardFares lets you find seats across multiple frequent flyer programs, which is perfect for taking advantage of miles sitting across different accounts, too.

Key Highlights

  • Three Main Methods: You can book a trip around the world using a “true” RTW award from a single program, a oneworld multi-carrier distance-based award, or by booking a series of one-way tickets yourself.
  • True RTW Awards are Rare: Only a few programs like Lufthansa Miles & More and Qantas still offer a single, fixed-price “World Award Flight” or equivalent.
  • oneworld Offers Flexibility: Programs like British Airways Avios and Cathay Asia Miles allow you to book a multi-carrier trip with a price based on the total distance flown.
  • Planning is Crucial: Booking any RTW trip requires finding availability across multiple flights, which can be complex. You often need to call the airline to book.
  • AwardFares’ Journey Planner Simplifies Everything: Use our tool to find availability, plan your stops, organize your flights, and have all the details ready before you call to book.

In This Post

What is a Round-The-World Award?

A Round-The-World (RTW) award ticket is a special type of airline ticket that allows you to travel to multiple destinations worldwide for a single price (in points or miles). Even though they are hard to score, these tickets can be great for maximizing the value of your points, given that the price is usually fixed.

In practice, just a handful of airlines and frequent flyer programs remain that still offer true RTW awards. Each program has its own rules and restrictions, but typically allow you to visit a certain number of destinations (usually between 3 and 16) within a set timeframe (e.g., up to one year). You can also choose your itinerary if it follows the rules (e.g., starting and ending in the same country, traveling in one direction only, etc.).

RTW Award Ticket vs. Cash Ticket: What’s the Difference?

Before we dive in, it’s also important to understand the distinction between the two main types of RTW tickets:

  • Cash RTW Tickets: These are sold by airline alliances like Star Alliance and oneworld. You pay with money, and the price is based on factors like the number of continents you visit or the total distance. Tools like the “Star Alliance Book and Fly” are for these cash-based tickets.
  • Award RTW Tickets: This is the focus of our guide. These tickets are “paid” for using points or miles from a frequent flyer program. They are a completely different product with their own set of rules and prices.

This guide is exclusively about using your points and miles to circle the globe.

Airlines/Programs with Round-The-World Awards

Fixed-Price RTW Awards

  • Lufthansa Miles & More: Continues its World Award Flight program at 195,000 miles for economy and 400,000 for business class, and can include up to 7 stopovers.

  • TAP Air Portugal: Offers A trip around the world pricing awards at 300,000 miles for economy and 400,000 for business class. The program allows up to six stopovers and ten flight segments, requiring travel in one continuous direction while crossing both major oceans.

  • Qantas Frequent Flyer: Offers oneworld Classic Flight Rewards allowing you to travel up to 35,000 miles over a period of 12 months. It can include up to 16 segments and five stopovers and requires combining at least two other oneworld airlines besides Qantas. For a maximum distance redemption it would cost 132,400 miles in economy and 318,000 in business.

oneworld Multi-Carrier / Distance-Based Awards

  • British Airways Executive Club: While not a formal RTW ticket, BA offers a powerful multi-carrier award chart for booking itineraries on two or more oneworld partners. The price is based on total distance; a Business Class journey up to 25,000 miles costs 240,000 Avios. Be aware of potentially high taxes and fees. Bookings must be made by phone.

  • Cathay Asia Miles: Cathay’s program features one of the most valuable oneworld Multi-Carrier Awards. Your itinerary must include at least two oneworld partners (if Cathay isn’t one) or three (if Cathay is included). It allows up to five stopovers, making it ideal for true RTW trips. A Business Class journey up to 35,000 miles costs 265,000 Asia Miles. Bookings must be made by phone.

Unofficial

  • Air Canada Aeroplan (UNOFFICIAL): Doesn’t offer “true” RTW awards, however, by piecing together multiple bookings and taking advantage of the relatively lax rules on layovers and stopovers, it is possible to create a so-called “Mini RTW” award.

  • Emirates (UNOFFICIAL): Emirates Skywards does not have a formal RTW program, but it is possible to book a RTW trip using Skywards miles by combining flights with partner airlines like Qantas and JetBlue.

Discontinued

  • ANA MileagePlan (DISCONTINUED): ANA Mileage Club had a special Star Alliance Round-the-World Award, which was bookable online. However, as of June 2025 this has been discontinued, eliminating one of the most popular and valuable RTW options available to travelers.

  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (DISCONTINUED): Discontinued their Star Alliance RTW awards in May 2024, eliminating what was previously considered a premium RTW option. The program had cost 280,000 KrisFlyer miles in business class and allowed up to seven stopovers before its termination as part of “program simplification.”

  • Aeromexico (DISCONTINUED): Previously offered a SkyTeam Go Round the World Award Ticket, that allowed up to 15 stopovers. It seems this was discontinued back in 2022 or 2023.

  • United MileagePlus (DISCONTINUED): Discontinued their Star Alliance RTW awards back in 2021.

  • Delta SkyMiles (DISCONTINUED): Operated one of the most accessible programs, offering RTW awards at 180,000 SkyMiles for economy and 280,000 for business class, bookable exclusively through their dedicated “Around the World award desk” with 3-6 required stopovers. However, these tickets were discontinued in January 2015.

RTW Program Status at a Glance

Program Status Business Class Cost Key Details
Lufthansa Miles & More Active 400,000 miles Fixed-price Star Alliance, up to 7 stopovers.
TAP Air Portugal Active 400,000 miles Fixed-price Star Alliance, up to 6 stopovers.
Qantas Frequent Flyer Active 318,000 points oneworld, distance-based (up to 35k miles).
British Airways Club Active (Multi-carrier) 240,000 Avios (for a ~25k-miles trip) oneworld multi-carrier, distance-based. High fees.
Cathay Asia Miles Active (Multi-carrier) 265,000 miles (for a ~35k miles trip) oneworld multi-carrier, 5 stopovers. Great value.
Air Canada Aeroplan Unofficial Varies DIY via flexible routing & stopover rules.
Emirates Skywards Unofficial Varies DIY by combining flights with partners like Qantas.
ANA Mileage Club Discontinued (June 2025) Was distance-based Formerly a top-tier, high-value option.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Discontinued (May 2024) Was 280,000 miles Previously a premium Star Alliance option.
Aeromexico Club Premier Discontinued Was 352,000 points Offered a SkyTeam RTW award.
United MileagePlus Discontinued (2021) Was Varies Discontinued its Star Alliance RTW award.
Delta SkyMiles Discontinued (Jan 2015) Was 280,000 miles One of the earliest major programs to cut its RTW award.

Note: Costs and rules are subject to change. "Unofficial" RTWs are built by combining one-way awards, not a single ticket.

How to Plan and Book Round-The-World Awards (Step-by-step)

Good news! AwardFares has a simple and powerful tool called Journey Planner. It’s perfect for building Round-The-World itineraries, as it lets you search for available seats in real time, accurately estimate the cost of each leg, and find options even across frequent flyer programs in a fraction of the time compared to using the airlines’ search engine.

1

Go to AwardFares

Creating an account is optional, but it gives you access to many more features. Make sure to sign up for one!

2

Select your favorite Frequent Flyer Program

In this example, we'll choose American AAdvantage in the Loyalty Program picker. Let's build an itinerary on oneworld airlines.

3

Choose a Route

Here's a sample round-the-world itinerary with 6 stops, making the most of American Airlines AAdvantage miles and their partner airlines:

  1. New York to Tokyo: American Airlines or Japan Airlines (JAL)
  2. Tokyo to Bangkok: Japan Airlines (JAL) or Cathay Pacific
  3. Bangkok to Doha: Qatar Airways
  4. Doha to Casablanca: Qatar Airways or Royal Air Maroc
  5. Casablanca to Madrid: Royal Air Maroc
  6. Madrid to London: Iberia or British Airways
  7. London to New York: American Airlines or British Airways

We'll start by picking flights from New York (NYC) to Tokyo (TYO). To make things simpler, we'll use the Stops filter to only search for non-stop flights.

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.

AwardFares will show you the available seats and flights in the list below. One-way Economy Class awards start at 35k points, and 69k points for Business Class tickets.

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.
4

Add a leg to the Journey Planner

Once you've identified a good option, tap on the [+] icon to start planning a new Journey.

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.

You'll see the new Journey created when tapping the Journey pill above the results. Note that this feature allows for creating and saving multiple journeys simultaneously, and you can switch between them from the dropdown menu.

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.
5

Keep adding legs

After adding the first leg, tap on Add Flight to search for the next flight(s). AwardFares will automatically populate your origin city (in our case Tokyo). Select a destination (Bangkok) and a date. Remember that Round-The-World itineraries have different restrictions and rules depending on the alliance, keep that in mind when choosing stops and dates.

The tool will search for available flights after the one added to your journey. To be extra clear, we display this information in the header of the search results. Once more, tap on the [+] icon to add the leg to the Journey Planner.

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.

Then we find options for the third leg from Bangkok to Doha:

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.

From Doha to Casablanca:

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.

Casablanca to Madrid:

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.

Madrid to London:

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.

Finally, from London back to New York:

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.
6

Check your plans and book

After adding all your segments, you can see the entire itinerary in the Journey section and find more helpful options. Our tool displays, among other things, the time gap between flights (in days and hours). You can quickly delete segments or continue adding more before or after.

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.

If you are ready to make your reservation, you can directly contact the airline's call center or, for some programs, search for the routes/dates online on their search portal. Note that AwardFares' Book button will be disabled for this type of itineraries.

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.

More Features

Another handy feature is the option to copy the itinerary to the clipboard. This way you can paste it into your notes in case you have to, for example, contact the call center and book via phone.

Copy to Clipboard Building a round-trip award flight with AwardFares.

Route Flight Date Depart Arrive
JFK-HND AA167 2024-07-11 11:15 14:30 (+1)
HND-BKK JL31 2024-07-26 10:55 15:25
BKK-DOH QR837 2024-08-08 02:30 05:30
DOH-CMN AT217 2024-08-12 01:35 07:30
CMN-MAD AT970 2024-08-20 15:50 18:35
MAD-LHR IB3172 2024-09-03 14:55 16:20
LHR-JFK AA101 2024-09-08 10:30 13:20

Share Journey Moreover, you can share the journey with friends or family members. Use the Share button, and you’ll get a unique URL that you can copy and send over.

Share Journeys with AwardFares.

When opening the URL, you’ll see the full itinerary, plus a map with the route.

Building a round-the-world award flight with AwardFares.

In addition, you can create new trips, delete existing ones, unshare them, and more! Start exploring these features today with a Gold or Diamond account.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What are the general rules for a Round-the-World award ticket?

While rules vary by program, most ‘true’ RTW awards require you to:

  • Start and end your journey in the same country.

  • Travel in one continuous direction (either east or west) without significant backtracking.

  • Cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans once.

  • Adhere to limits on the number of total flights (e.g., 10-16 segments) and stopovers (e.g., 5-7 stops).

  • Complete the entire trip within one year.

Is booking an RTW award ticket difficult?

It can be more complex than a simple round-trip. Finding award availability across multiple flights can be challenging, and most official RTW awards must be booked over the phone with an airline agent. This is why using a tool like AwardFares to find all available flights before you call is so important.

Do I have to book the entire itinerary at once?

For ‘true’ RTW awards and oneworld multi-carrier awards, yes. You must have the entire itinerary planned and confirmed at the time of booking. For the ‘DIY’ method, you have complete flexibility to book flights as you go.

How many miles does a Round-the-World ticket cost?

It varies significantly. For example, the Lufthansa World Award Flight costs 195,000 miles in Economy. The Qantas oneworld award is distance-based and starts at 132,400 points for a long-haul Economy trip. Building your own trip depends entirely on the one-way costs of each segment you choose.

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