Five Continents $1,577 RTW in 5 weeks

A post on SecretFlying.com about a Round the World (RTW) itinerary for $1,373 New York – London – Dubai – Singapore – Sydney – Hawaii – New York got me thinking about all the cheap airline tickets available on low cost carriers across the world and possibilities from California.

With little effort I put together an itinerary for Oakland – London – Dublin – Cape Town – Durban – Doha – Mumbai – Hyderabad – Kuala Lumpur – Perth – Sydney – Honolulu – Oakland for about $1,600 with 38 days for travel in February and March 2017. I set 30 days as a time frame since I am not one to travel in economy class long distances simply for the sake of flying. I want time to see places.

Picking out low fare dates and more destinations added an extra 9 days to the itinerary. Since this is all an exercise for fun to look at the possibilities, the time frame was not set in stone. Even the airline fares I chose were not always the lowest priced tickets. I favored some nonstop flights over one stop flights. 

With a little effort I am sure I could shave a couple hundred dollars off the itinerary price. I also looked at many other destination cities like Moscow, a one day layover in Doha or Dubai, Goa and Hanoi. 

There are a large number of itinerary permutations, dependent more on where you want to travel rather than where there are cheap ticket destinations. There are all sorts of cheap ticket destinations for point-to-point one way flights. Many of these tickets will have bag fees and that probably adds another $100 to $200 to overall price. I did not look at bag fees for these tickets.

Here is a sample Round the World Oakland, California to Oakland, California via Europe, Africa, India, Asia, Australia and Hawaii. The point of this post is to show how inexpensive flights are all around the world these days. I know one year ago when I looked at flight options from Kuala Lumpur in November 2015 that flights to Perth, Australia were not available for $43 one-way.

Round the World itineraries are incredibly cheap to construct in the current airfare environment. The limiting factor to a round the world trip is not really the cost of airline travel, but more a matter of how much time you have to travel and how you will afford lodging for a month or more of travel.

 

Norwegian Airlines  Oakland OAK – London LGW nonstop

$179.00 one-way  Sat Feb 4

4 nights in London.

RyanAir  London LGW – Dublin, Ireland DUB

$18.60 one-way  Thu Feb 9

2 nights in Dublin, Ireland

Cumulative ticket price = $198 USD Oakland – London Gatwick – Dublin, Ireland.

 

Ethiopian Airlines  Dublin, Ireland – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Cape Town, South Africa

$306.92 one-way (289.71 EUR) Expedia.ie OTA   Sat Feb 11

3 nights in Cape Town, South Africa.

Cumulative ticket price = $505 USD Oakland – London Gatwick – Dublin, Ireland – Cape Town, South Africa.

 

British Airways  Cape Town, South Africa – Durban, South Africa

$78.67 one way   Wed Feb 15

5 nights in Durban, South Africa.

Cumulative ticket price = $584 USD Oakland – London Gatwick – Dublin, Ireland – Cape Town, South Africa – Durban, South Africa.

 

Qatar Airways  Durban DUR – Doha, Qatar (15 hour daytime transit stop) – Mumbai, India BOM

$254.40 one way (3,590.23 ZAR)  Mon Feb 20

2 nights in Mumbai.

Cumulative ticket price = $838 USD Oakland – London Gatwick – Dublin, Ireland – Cape Town, South Africa – Durban, South Africa – Doha, Qatar (15 hour daytime transit layover) – Mumbai, India.

Mumbai is a cheap ticket location. You can travel by plane to most anywhere in India for $20 to $50. Travel from many places in India one way to several locations in Southeast Asia around Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore costs around $100 to $130. Travel between Southeast Asia and Perth, Sydney and other locations in Australia is $100 to $200 one way.

There are many choices for an itinerary. Here is an itinerary to see a few different places along the way to Sydney, Australia.

 

Jet Airways Mumbai, India – Hyderabad, India HYD

$22.91 (1,566 INR) one-way  Friday Feb 24

1 night in Hyderabad, India.

Cumulative ticket price = $861 USD Oakland – London Gatwick – Dublin, Ireland – Cape Town, South Africa – Durban, South Africa – Doha, Qatar (15 hour daytime transit layover) – Mumbai, India Hyderabad, India.

 

Air Asia  Hyderabad HYD – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia KUL

$83.39 one way   Sat Feb 25

3 nights in Kuala Lumpur.

Cumulative ticket price = $944 USD Oakland – London Gatwick – Dublin, Ireland – Cape Town, South Africa – Durban, South Africa – Doha, Qatar (15 hour daytime transit layover) – Mumbai, India Hyderabad, India – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

 

AirAsiaX    Kuala Lumpur KUL – Perth, Australia

$42.33 USD  (189 MYR) one-way  Tue Feb 28

4 nights in Perth.

Cumulative ticket price = $986 USD Oakland – London Gatwick – Dublin, Ireland – Cape Town, South Africa – Durban, South Africa – Doha, Qatar (15 hour daytime transit layover) – Mumbai, India Hyderabad, India – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Perth, Australia.

 

JetStar   Perth – Sydney, Australia 

$146.88 USD (199 AUD) one-way  Sat Mar 4

5 nights in Sydney.

Cumulative ticket price = $1,133 USD Oakland – London Gatwick – Dublin, Ireland – Cape Town, South Africa – Durban, South Africa – Doha, Qatar (15 hour daytime transit layover) – Mumbai, India Hyderabad, India – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Perth, Australia – Sydney, Australia.

 

JetStar   Sydney – Honolulu, Hawaii HNL

$250.36 USD one way (339 AUD)   Friday March 10

3 nights in Honolulu.

Cumulative ticket price = $1,383 USD Oakland – London Gatwick – Dublin, Ireland – Cape Town, South Africa – Durban, South Africa – Doha, Qatar (15 hour daytime transit layover) – Mumbai, India Hyderabad, India – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Perth, Australia – Sydney, Australia – Honolulu, Hawaii.

 

Alaska Airlines   Honolulu, Hawaii – Oakland, California

$194.00 one way   Mon March 13

Arrive  in Oakland, California 38 days after start of trip on Saturday February 4 with visits to 11 cities in 7 countries on five continents.

Cumulative ticket price = $1,577 USD Oakland – London Gatwick – Dublin, Ireland – Cape Town, South Africa – Durban, South Africa – Doha, Qatar (15 hour daytime transit layover) – Mumbai, India – Hyderabad, India – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Perth, Australia – Sydney, Australia – Honolulu, Hawaii – Oakland, California.