Travel hack: How to get cheap Qantas around-the-world tickets

Want to do a trip around the globe without spending too much but also want to do it yourself rather than have to use a travel agent? Try the Qantas multi-stop option on the website – you may be able to go further than you think.

Multi-stop tickets aren’t anything new. They are offered by most airlines and allow you to land in one country and return from another, or stop in a few different places before returning home all on the one booking. But very few will allow you to book a trip right around the globe.

The only airline that actually flies around the globe completely is Air New Zealand, as it flies from Auckland to London both via Hong Kong and Los Angeles. In fact, most airline alliance sites won’t even let you do it, forget about airlines.

But Qantas will, with a little ingenuity. There is an around the world button under the multi-stop button on the Qantas website, but don’t press that. It will take you to the Oneworld alliance site.

The trick with this is to stop in cities that Qantas flies to, or that one of its close alliance partners does.

Cities like Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Frankfurt, London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles (there are plenty more). By doing this you will often find that you can fly from one port to another even if it’s only served by an alliance partner rather than Qantas, without having to pay much extra at all. These partners include Emirates, British Airways, Finnair and American Airlines, but there are more.

American Airlines opens up a whole heap of inter-American and America to Europe options, while Emirates allows you to fly into a stack of European ports from Dubai. British Airways unlocks stacks of European ports as well and connects you to Canada and the US too.

An example trip in October 2013 takes you from Sydney to Dubai on Qantas. Dubai to Paris on Emirates. Paris to New York on Open Skies (owned by British Airways), New York to San Francisco on American Airways and then San Francisco back to Sydney on American Airways and Qantas.

And the price? Depending on your exact dates it could be as low as $2,290. Far cheaper than most around the world tickets. Of course it depends on where you want to go.

You will know when you put in a dud city pretty quickly – you’ll likely be able to book the flight but it will cost you around $13,000.

The advantage of doing it this way is that you are in complete control and there is one point of contact (Qantas) for any questions you might have or changes you want made. When you go to book you have the option of multiple flights usually on a range of carriers, so you’re rarely locked in.

Qantas doesn’t really advertise the fact you can do an around the world ticket on its website, so if you’re planning on traversing the globe, hop on and see if you can’t wing it on your own.

Web: Qantas
Images: Wikimedia Commons