Pricing data and alliance rules referenced in this article are drawn from the in-depth research by Air Travel Genius - Round The World Tickets: The Essential RTW Guide . The interactive route maps, CSV exports and visual breakdowns of each itinerary are our original contribution.
What is a Round-The-World ticket?
A Round-The-World (RTW) ticket is a unique fare product that lets you circumnavigate the globe across multiple airlines on a single booking. Valid for up to 16 flight segments over 12 months , the ticket must start and finish in the same country and maintain a consistent easterly or westerly direction throughout.
RTW tickets became commercially practical in the late 1970s as airline deregulation and the growth of international alliances made multi-carrier itineraries accessible to everyday travellers. Today only two global alliances offer them: Oneworld and Star Alliance . Skyteam discontinued their RTW product in 2023. Fares typically range from $2,500-$6,000 in economy, $5,000-$14,000 in business class and $8,000-$20,000 in first class.
Compared to piecing together the same journey with individual tickets, a well-structured 16-segment RTW can deliver savings of 25-40%, particularly when the ticket is issued in a country with lower local airfare pricing.
1. Classic RTW route: London around the world
A well-rounded example of the classic RTW template, 12 segments sweeping east from Europe across Asia and Oceania before crossing the Pacific back:
LHR → DXB → DEL → BKK → HKG → SIN → PER → SYD → AKL → HNL → LAX → SFO → LHR
The four-continent eastbound arc takes in the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania before crossing the Pacific back to Europe. Travelling east is aided by the jet stream, making the journey roughly 6 hours faster than the equivalent westbound route. A visual detail worth appreciating: on a standard flat map several of these legs appear to curve significantly, the Auckland-Honolulu flight, for example, seems to bow far northward. This is simply the Great Circle effect; project the same path onto a globe and it traces the true shortest route across the Pacific.
📥 Download route data (CSV) | 🗺️ View this route in the app
The three traffic conference zones
RTW tickets are governed by three geographic zones called Traffic Conferences :
- TC1: Americas (including Greenland, Caribbean, Hawaiian Islands)
- TC2: EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa plus Seychelles)
- TC3: Asia and Oceania
Each zone may only be entered once and each ocean, Atlantic and Pacific, crossed only once. Backtracking within a zone, however, is permitted. This allows a useful planning tactic: surface sectors (overland or independent travel between two cities) let you move freely within a zone without consuming a flight segment. In TC2, for instance, a Eurostar from London to Paris or an overnight train to another European city means you can depart from a different airport without adding a segment to the count.
RTW fares are structured around total mileage, in bands from 26,000 to 39,000 miles . For perspective, the Earth's circumference at the equator is approximately 24,900 miles, meaning most RTW passengers fly further than a complete circumnavigation once stopovers are factored in.
Key RTW ticket rules
- Must start and end in the same country (not necessarily the same city for large countries)
- Maximum 16 flight segments (up to 15 stopovers)
- Minimum 3 stopovers
- Up to 5 surface sectors (overland/independent travel between two cities)
- Flight dates can be changed for free ; routing changes cost ~$125
- Valid for 12 months from first departure
- Children 2-11 generally pay 75% of the RTW fare; infants under 2 without a seat pay ~10%
2. Oneworld RTW tickets
Oneworld sells two RTW products: the Explorer (priced by number of continents visited, no mileage ceiling) and the Global Explorer (mileage-based, 26,000-39,000 miles). Member airlines include American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Malaysia Airlines and others.
The Explorer tends to suit most travellers better, allowing 3-6 continents with up to 16 total segments and as many as 6 stops within North America. Premium cabin passengers gain access to the full Oneworld lounge network throughout the journey, including Cathay Pacific's flagship The Pier and The Wing lounges in Hong Kong, which are consistently ranked among the finest airport lounges in the world.
Oneworld Explorer: best-value routing from Johannesburg
The country where an RTW ticket is issued has an outsized, and widely underestimated, effect on the total price. The same 6-continent business class Explorer, covering identical cities on the same flights, can cost over $5,000 more depending solely on the departure country, due to local currency pricing and airline market segmentation. Issuing the ticket in Johannesburg (JNB) rather than Los Angeles (LAX) can make an identical itinerary dramatically cheaper.
Example route: JNB → LHR → LAX → SYD → BKK → DOH → JNB (6 segments, 6 continents)
📥 Download route data (CSV) | 🗺️ View this route in the app
Oneworld Explorer: business class price comparison route
The same 7-segment business class routing - LHR → LAX → SYD → BKK → HKG → DOH → JNB → LHR - illustrates just how much origin country affects the price. As of 2025, the identical itinerary costs:
- Starting from Los Angeles (LAX) : $13,056
- Starting from Sydney (SYD) : $11,558
- Starting from London (LHR) : $10,403
- Starting from Johannesburg (JNB) : $7,811
📥 Download route data (CSV) | 🗺️ View this route in the app
3. Star Alliance RTW tickets
Star Alliance structures its RTW tickets purely by mileage, with standard tiers at 29,000, 34,000 and 39,000 miles across economy, premium economy, business and first class, up to 15 stops. A special lower-priced tier from 26,000 miles is available for shorter itineraries.
The carrier network spans Lufthansa, United Airlines, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, ANA, Turkish Airlines, Thai Airways, South African Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, TAP Portugal and others, delivering strong coverage across Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.
A notable perk for premium cabin travellers is access to Star Alliance's extensive lounge network at every stopover, including Lufthansa's invitation-only First Class Terminals in Frankfurt and Munich, widely regarded as among the most exclusive airport facilities in the world. Coverage in South America, the Middle East, Australia, Indonesia and Russia is comparatively limited.
Star Alliance RTW: Frankfurt eastbound
Example mileage-based route: FRA → JFK → LAX → NRT → SIN → CPT → FRA (6 segments, ~27,800 miles)
This eastbound loop connects Central Europe, the US East Coast, the Pacific Coast, Japan, Southeast Asia and southern Africa, fitting comfortably within the 29,000-mile tier. Lufthansa, United and Singapore Airlines each cover key legs. The return segment from Cape Town to Frankfurt at roughly 5,850 miles is one of the longer individual hops in the itinerary and generates a strong qualifying miles return for loyalty programme status on most carriers.
📥 Download route data (CSV) | 🗺️ View this route in the app
4. Budget DIY round-the-world
Alliance tickets exclude budget carriers entirely. The expansion of long-haul low-cost aviation has made it genuinely feasible to self-assemble a globe-circling itinerary for under $1,000-$2,000 in base fares, although checked luggage costs and the absence of interline protection between separate bookings add risk and expense that need careful accounting.
Key long-haul budget carriers to know: Scoot (Singapore-Southeast Asia-Australia and routes to Athens and Vienna), Jetstar (Australia-Asia-Honolulu), Air Transat (Toronto-London), Porter Airlines (domestic Canada) and easyJet (intra-Europe). Crucially, each booking is entirely independent, a delay or cancellation on one flight provides no automatic protection for onward connections, making comprehensive travel insurance covering missed connections a necessity, not an optional extra.
Budget RTW example: London via Athens, Singapore, Sydney and Vancouver
A sample budget routing across seven separate bookings and four carriers: LHR → ATH → SIN → SYD → HNL → YVR → YYZ → LHR (7 segments)
- LHR → ATH: easyJet
- ATH → SIN: Scoot
- SIN → SYD: Scoot
- SYD → HNL: Jetstar
- HNL → YVR: WestJet
- YVR → YYZ: Porter Airlines
- YYZ → LHR: Air Transat
📥 Download route data (CSV) | 🗺️ View this route in the app
Budget fares exclude checked baggage, a meaningful cost on a multi-week journey spanning several climates. These tickets also earn no alliance frequent flyer miles. The trade-off is flexibility: unlike an RTW contract where the full route must be locked in at booking, separate tickets can be purchased and adjusted as the trip evolves, making the DIY approach particularly attractive for open-ended and gap year travellers.
All four RTW route examples on one map
All four routing examples from this article plotted on a single interactive map. Viewing them together makes it clear how differently the alliance networks shape the paths available, and where the budget DIY approach reaches destinations that structured RTW routes simply don't cover.
📥 Download all routes (CSV) | 🗺️ View all routes in the app
Expert tips for booking RTW tickets
Start from a cheaper airfare country
The country of ticket issuance is one of the most impactful, and least-known, cost variables in RTW pricing. Consistently low-cost origin markets include Sri Lanka, Egypt, Mozambique and South Africa . Shifting the issue country from Los Angeles to Johannesburg saves over $5,000 on the same routing. Airlines do periodically reprice popular cheap-origin markets as demand from non-resident buyers grows, so rates can shift from year to year.
Maximise frequent flyer miles
A paid business class RTW is one of the fastest routes to top-tier status in an airline loyalty programme. The combination of flight distance, cabin multipliers and segment credits across 80+ hours of travel can generate 30,000-80,000 qualifying miles from a single booking, enough to cross most elite thresholds in one journey. The Oneworld Explorer is particularly effective here given its lack of a mileage ceiling. Align the bulk of the flights with your loyalty programme membership year for maximum benefit.
One firm rule: never no-show a flight on an RTW ticket. Missing a segment without prior notice to the airline can trigger automatic cancellation of all remaining flights in the itinerary. Date changes are free; always call to rebook rather than simply not turning up.
Watch taxes and surcharges
Taxes and fuel surcharges are frequently underestimated on RTW bookings, potentially adding up to $2,200 above the base fare. The surcharge level depends largely on which airline issues the ticket, usually the first carrier flown, so experimenting with the opening leg can sometimes produce meaningful savings. Several Middle Eastern hubs (Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi) carry very low or zero passenger departure duties, making them cost-efficient first ports of call. London, by contrast, levies some of the highest airport departure taxes in the world; starting the journey elsewhere and treating LHR as a mid-route stop can reduce the total tax burden considerably.
Consider using a specialist agent
For itineraries of 5-7 stops, specialist RTW travel agents frequently undercut the prices available directly through alliance booking tools, often by several thousand dollars in business class. They access consolidator fares and can combine alliance and non-member carriers in ways that public-facing booking engines don't support. Well-regarded specialists include Airtreks and Bootsnall (US), Trailfinders and Travel Nation (UK) and Roundabouttravel and Airfare Geeks / MAVE Travel Group (Australia).
Award RTW tickets
Several frequent flyer programmes offer points-based RTW redemptions, though at a considerable miles cost. Qantas Frequent Flyer charges 132,400 points in economy up to 455,000 in first class for a 35,000-mile itinerary with 16 segments. Lufthansa Miles & More prices Star Alliance RTW awards at 180,000-500,000 points depending on cabin. ANA Mileage Club starts at 120,000 miles for an economy RTW. Worth modelling before committing: two or three separate one-way long-haul redemptions with stopovers can sometimes extract better per-mile value from the same points balance, while also avoiding the strict directional and zone rules that govern RTW fares.
Summary
- RTW tickets cover up to 16 segments and 15 stopovers over 12 months, beginning and ending in the same country
- Travel must maintain a single direction (eastward or westward); each ocean can only be crossed once
- Oneworld and Star Alliance are the only current RTW providers, Skyteam discontinued theirs in 2023
- Economy fares range from $2,500-$6,000; business class $5,000-$14,000; first class $8,000-$20,000
- Issuing from a low-cost origin country (South Africa, Sri Lanka, Egypt) can save thousands on an identical routing
- A DIY RTW via long-haul budget carriers is achievable for $1,000-$2,000 base fare, budget for checked baggage and travel insurance covering missed connections
- Business class RTW tickets are among the most efficient tools for accumulating airline elite status qualifying miles
Pricing data and alliance rules sourced from Air Travel Genius - Round The World Tickets: The Essential RTW Guide . Route visualizations created with My Flight Routes.