How Brad is flying around the world for 116,000 airline miles + £285 + $30

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In 2015 reader Brad shared with us how he was going to fly around the world in economy for 112,000 airline miles and just £173 of taxes. One and a half years later he has decided to do a similar trip.

Since there was a lot of interest in the article we wrote on this last trip, we thought you’d be interested in this one. Whilst we don’t spend a lot of time on Head for Points focusing on economy redemptions, they can be good value when you don’t fly BA and don’t incur heavy taxes and charges.

This is what he is doing this time:

Manchester – Madrid
£30 Iberia (cash)

Madrid – Lima
25,000 Avios + £90 tax

Lima – Cusco
4,500 Avios + £8 tax

Cusco – Lima
4,500 Avios + £6 tax

Lima – Buenos Aires – Santiago De Chile
12,500 Delta SkyMiles + $30 tax

Santiago De Chile – Easter Island – Papeete
25,000 Avios + £32 tax

Brad notes that this one is tricky one to get. When you search for 2 separate one-way tickets for the route they are not available. However when you search for SCL – PPT you can easily find availability. The downside is that you only get 10 hours in Easter Island on a stopover.

Papeete – Auckland – Shanghai – Beijing
15,000 United MileagePlus miles + £35 tax

Beijing – Hong Kong
10,000 Avios + £12 tax

Hong Kong – London Heathrow – Manchester
19,500 Avios + £72 tax

He is covering 31,439 miles in total

distance

This comes to a total of : 88,500 Avios + 12,500 Delta SkyMiles + 15,000 United Airlines MileagePlus = 116,000 airline miles + £285 + $30.

If you wanted to emulate this routing, the Delta miles could be obtained from an American Express Membership Rewards transfer. It would also be bookable via other Skyteam airlines. There is no easy way to pick up United miles (there is no bonus on their credit card and the transfer rate from Starwood is 2:1) but, again, you could use another Star Alliance airline – albeit for potentially more miles.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

David Lewis says:

14 Apr14 April 08:43

Great inspiration, Brad. Question (as I have hundreds of thousands of Avios): roughly how many more miles would this route need to fly in Business? Twice as many?
Keep up the good work! David
- Brad says:
  
  14 Apr14 April 09:05
  
  75k + £24 for J SCL-IPC-PPT or 2 x 37.5k for two separate legs. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/awardflights-awardfinder/dkmdpdpnihcmgndoolimdhfmljfpgnif?hl=en – awesome tool to search for award flights availability
  - Sprout7 says:
    
    14 Apr14 April 12:25
    
    Hi Brad, I wasn’t aware of this award finder and thought it sounded great from your description. However, it doesn’t appear to work for me on my BA account. Seems to be a known problem but I was wondering if you have found a workaround?
    thx
    - Brad says:
      
      14 Apr14 April 13:48
      
      Never had problems with it. Works fine with my BA account.
  - Alan says:
    
    15 Apr15 April 20:04
    
    Thanks for the tip re this – looks interesting.
Scott says:

14 Apr14 April 09:45

Awesome work Brad, especially the United routing. Have you any status to make this more comfortable? e.g. exit rows, lounges etc.

Only place I have not been on your list is PPT. Lima is an amazing foodie city and just a shame you don’t have more time on Easter Island. I would seriously consider walking into the town, which is very close to the airport and rent a scooter. Can easily get round the island in 4-5 even with stops I would say.
- Brad says:
  
  14 Apr14 April 10:06
  
  Hi Scott,
  I have indeed. Though I doubt it you get lounge in PPT or IPC. The plan is to hire a car and drive around the island as I was told that 10 hours is enough. UA routing is amazing indeed and I am palanning another RTW trip using UA miles. ULN-TBU is now on my list (15k UA).
  - Scott says:
    
    14 Apr14 April 10:09
    
    That is good to hear. I hope you will get back some of those avios and tier points back on your LAN flights if you know what I am talking about….
    - Brad says:
      
      14 Apr14 April 13:46
      
      I do indeed 🙂
      - Scott says:
        
        14 Apr14 April 15:47
        
        Haha no more has to be said then 🙂
  - Scott says:
    
    14 Apr14 April 10:29
    
    And WOW just looked at reward chart for ULN-TBU. You could have some fun with that one…
    - Brad says:
      
      14 Apr14 April 17:06
      
      Thats the plan and then TBU-NAN-HNL for 27.5k AS with free stopover in NAN.
      - Choons says:
        
        14 Apr14 April 20:53
        
        ha ha, I looked that one up thinking TBU was Timbuktu…doh!
      - Brad says:
        
        14 Apr14 April 21:12
        
        Fua’amotu, Tonga 🙂
Michael W says:

14 Apr14 April 10:47

Hi Brad – I’m curious about the Santiago to Papeete route. Which airlines did you fly with? I’m trying to get from Santiago to Melbourne in December and struggling to find cheap options.

The only thing Im seeing is 90k avios to fly business from Santiago to Auckland in December. Any suggestions please?
- Brad says:
  
  14 Apr14 April 10:58
  
  Hi Michael
  I guess you have to options:
  1. Take a flight for 25k BA to PPT from SCL and then PPT-AKL-PEK-TYO for 12.5k UA and get off in AKL.
  2. NZ is now flying from EZE to SCL. Do you have any *A miles ?
zark says:

14 Apr14 April 11:14

Brad,
I see you managed to redeem Santiago,Chile, SCL to Easter Island,IPC & on to Papeete,PPT, but that it was tricky.
Did you use Avios via Lantam?
I am trying to get from SCL to Rio,GIG using Avios for January. There was plenty of availability one way for travel up to Christmas on 4 flights Lantam have each day, but almost none for January onwards. I called Lantam to ask why, but agents haven’t a clue.
Any ideas – perhaps release more redemption seats closer? A stop-over combination, as you achieved? A Lantam policy change?
Any suggestions welcome.
- Brad says:
  
  14 Apr14 April 11:52
  
  Hi Zark,
  I used avios on my BA account. This one is tricky as sometimes you do not see any seats available and then a few days later you see a lot. For some reason they appear and disappear randomly.
  I suggest flying SCL-MVD and then MVD-SAO/GIG plenty of availability for January.
  - zark says:
    
    14 Apr14 April 14:37
    
    Brad, thank you.
    Wasn’t considering popping in to Montevideo, but who knows.
    Zark
    - Brad says:
      
      14 Apr14 April 17:07
      
      flights are available so you might as well if you have the time.
Dean Dyson says:

14 Apr14 April 11:14

Hi Brad. Awesome journey!
Which Avios clubs did you book each redemption using? Also did you need to call up for any or were all online searchable / bookable?

Cheers
Dean
PS: Enjoy the travels!
- Brad says:
  
  14 Apr14 April 11:55
  
  Hi Dean,
  
  Thank you. I used avios on my BA account if thats what you’re asking. I did not have to call anyone. Everything was searchable and bookable online.
  - Dean Dyson says:
    
    14 Apr14 April 13:18
    
    Thanks
  - MARIA LUCIA GOMES says:
    
    14 Apr14 April 23:37
    
    Hi Brad, I live in South America and I am interested in knowing which airlines exactly did you fly:
    Santiago – Isla de Páscua – Papeete
    Papeete – Auckland
    Auckland – Shangai
    I understand that you must have flown with the same company from Santiago to Papeete with only a stopover in Isla de Páscua – if that´s correct was it with Latan?
    You got these tickets from BA or IB? I am asking because as far as I know when buying with Iberia everything has to be both ways although they allow open jaws. Tks and Happy Easter.
Tony Burns says:

14 Apr14 April 12:41

That is one fantastic trip Brad. You will love Cusco. Enjoy
Talay says:

14 Apr14 April 14:46

A couple of questions ?

To do a similar trip via a cash ticket, what would be the rough cost ? I don’t mean a copy of the itinerary as there is n need to follow Avios availabilit.

What cost a limited round the world trip in business or first ?

Any chance of using Amex 241 ?
- roberto says:
  
  14 Apr14 April 15:10
  
  Amex 241 only works on Ba metal…
  - Genghis says:
    
    14 Apr14 April 16:00
    
    You could do an open jaw with 241 something like LON-TYO, SFO-LON and then fill in the blanks yourself depending on where exactly you want to go
- Scott says:
  
  14 Apr14 April 15:38
  
  The thing about doing this type of trip with cash is that most of the bookings are one way tickets which means airlines price them at the fully flexible return price even though it is just one way. Using Avios is especially useful when you only need a one way ticket. Flying one way with Asia and South America can be very expensive and I have got some of the best value out of my avios doing this.
  
  This is very rough but what I calculated for random dates in August on same airlines paying with cash:
  
  MAN-MAD (Iberia) – £30
  MAD-LIM (Iberia) – £950
  LIM-CUZ-LIM (LAN) -£300 (This is because foreigners are not allowed to buy tickets at local prices and get charged a ridiculous price).
  LIM-EZE-SCL (LAN)- £304 (I realise Brad probably used star alliance carriers but this looks even more expensive using them.)
  SCL-IPC-PPT (LAN) -£1500
  PPT-AKL-PVG-PEK (NZ/CA)- £850
  PEK-HKG (CX)- £430
  HKG-LHR-MAN (BA)- £700
  
  Total (approx) = £5000
  - Brad says:
    
    14 Apr14 April 21:15
    
    not bad at all !
  - Callum says:
    
    15 Apr15 April 08:13
    
    Though that’s an unfair comparison as you’re comparing an optimised award routing to a non-optimised cash routing.
    
    Even keeping the same routing, MAD-LIM is about £400 on Iberia, LIM-CUZ-LIM is around £150 including the gringo tax on other airlines, HKG-MAN is £480 on Singapore etc etc. Not to mention you could buy the special round the world fares.
    
    I’m not saying its not a good value redemption (I’d personally hate spending so much time flying in economy for so little experience on the ground, but that’s a personal thing!), it’s just not worth anywhere near £5000.
ABC says:

14 Apr14 April 18:24

NIce find.
Papeete – Auckland – Shanghai – Beijing
15,000 United MileagePlus miles + £35 tax
- Chris says:
  
  15 Apr15 April 09:51
  
  Yes. indeed. also catched my eye. I am wondering whether stopovers are allowed in AKL, SHA? Some other comment mentions about little time on the ground, but I do not see any flight dates / times mentioned (apart from the easter island stop).