Our main flights RTW
We used miles from our United Airlines accounts to purchase a slew of one way tickets to get us to all of our major destinations we chose to visit on this Big Trip. We started actively saving miles about 2 1/2 years before our departure after I read about some families using miles for their entire RTW flights. We never thought we would earn enough miles for the entire trip but figured whatever miles we could collect would help offset the enormous cost of flights. But somehow between a combination of simply saving our normal miles from yearly travel back and forth from the mainland, taking advantage of the big bonuses for signing up to credit cards like Chase United Card and the Chase Sapphire Card, and litterally purchasing everything (except our weekly farmers market purchases) on those cards we ended up accumulating over 600,000 miles. My parents, who travel a bunch, offered us the balance of 200,000 miles we needed. Yeah!
After much playing around on the handy United flight search page I found that using our miles to purchase a series of one-way tickets worked out better for us then the standard 180,000 miles (per person) United Around The World Fare, which has limits on the direction, duration, and number of stops. So in order to take advantage of the cheaper Saver Awards we purchased the main tickets listed below roughly 10-11 months prior to each particular leg of the trip.
Our 4 tickets secured before departure look something like this:
1) Honolulu-Quito-Managua-Aruba (42,500 miles pp)
This gets us 1 month in Ecuador, 1 month in Nicaragua, and 1 month in Venezuela (We flew local flight RT to Kiko's town in Venezuela from Aruba)
2) Aruba-Newark-Heathrow (47,500 miles pp)
Depart Venezuela to Aruba- then on to New Jersey, USA, and then London, our gateway to 2 months in Europe and Morocco
3) Casablanca-(Istanbul)-Nairobi (17,500 miles pp)
We will be crossing overland to Morocco and then will fly out to Kenya (with a 24 hr layover in Turkey!)
4) Nairobi-(Istanbul)-Bangkok (40,000 miles pp)
This flight leaves us in Bangkok, our gateway to S.E. Asia
Total: 147,500 miles per person (7 true stops but many more incorporated by overland travel and small local flights)
We purposely left the end of our trip open to see how we feel. After touring overland through Thainland/Loas/
Cambodia/Vietnam/Burma area we may end up flying into Indonesia with a local carrier and then will use our remaining miles to get us to our last country either some islands in Micronesia or perhaps the South Pacific, still undetermined. And then of course home to Kauai.
After much playing around on the handy United flight search page I found that using our miles to purchase a series of one-way tickets worked out better for us then the standard 180,000 miles (per person) United Around The World Fare, which has limits on the direction, duration, and number of stops. So in order to take advantage of the cheaper Saver Awards we purchased the main tickets listed below roughly 10-11 months prior to each particular leg of the trip.
Our 4 tickets secured before departure look something like this:
1) Honolulu-Quito-Managua-Aruba (42,500 miles pp)
This gets us 1 month in Ecuador, 1 month in Nicaragua, and 1 month in Venezuela (We flew local flight RT to Kiko's town in Venezuela from Aruba)
2) Aruba-Newark-Heathrow (47,500 miles pp)
Depart Venezuela to Aruba- then on to New Jersey, USA, and then London, our gateway to 2 months in Europe and Morocco
3) Casablanca-(Istanbul)-Nairobi (17,500 miles pp)
We will be crossing overland to Morocco and then will fly out to Kenya (with a 24 hr layover in Turkey!)
4) Nairobi-(Istanbul)-Bangkok (40,000 miles pp)
This flight leaves us in Bangkok, our gateway to S.E. Asia
Total: 147,500 miles per person (7 true stops but many more incorporated by overland travel and small local flights)
We purposely left the end of our trip open to see how we feel. After touring overland through Thainland/Loas/
Cambodia/Vietnam/Burma area we may end up flying into Indonesia with a local carrier and then will use our remaining miles to get us to our last country either some islands in Micronesia or perhaps the South Pacific, still undetermined. And then of course home to Kauai.
our pre-departure planned routeKauai, HI, USA
Ecuador 1month Nicaragua 1 month Venezuela 1 month USA 4 nights England 5 nights Italy 3 weeks Spain/Portugal 1 month Morocco 1 month Kenya 1 month Thailand 1 week Cambodia 3 weeks Vietnam 1 month Loas 1 month Indonesia 1 month Yap 1 month Kauai, HI, USA |
View Full Size Travel Map at Travellerspoint |
Our Actual Route:
Kauai, HI, USA
Ecuador 1 month Nicaragua 1 month Venezuela 1 month Aruba 2 nights USA 2 nights England 6 nights Italy 3.5 weeks France 2 nights Spain 1 month |
