In recent days, we have already reported on several deals from Cairo. The reason for this was the rapid devaluation of the Egyptian pound. With airlines struggling to keep up with the price adjustments, many already affordable tickets became even more significantly cheaper.
This is also the case for the Round-the-World fare from the Star Alliance. From about €3,050, you can fly around the world in business class from Cairo. The best part: up to 15 stops are possible, and substantial detours can also be taken. Additionally, you have the freedom to choose between all 26 airlines within the Star Alliance.
Update March 14: Cairo can no longer be selected as the departure airport in the online tool. The fare can no longer be found in the booking system.
Theoretically, there is a similar offer from the Oneworld alliance starting at around €3,500, which could be considered as an alternative. You can find it using the Oneworld Round the World tool. The routing Cairo – Casablanca – New York – Los Angeles – Sydney – Hong Kong – Kuala Lumpur – Cairo would be available there for around €3,900 (example routing).
You could visit, e.g., 6 destinations in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, 3 destinations in the USA, as well as Manchester & Athens for the price of €3,614. In this example, you would then spend a total of 70 hours in business class. You can stay at each individual stopover for as long as you like, and the total duration of the trip can be a maximum of one year.
The booking can be modified at any time before departure for a fee of $150 (~€137). Even after the trip has commenced, changes and rebookings are possible, sometimes even without a fee. More details on this are provided below.
Examples starting at €3,049
Below are seven examples of what is possible with this fare. You can book all of these directly through the Star Alliance booking tool.
Here are seven examples of what’s possible with this fare:
- 7 destinations for €3,049:
Cairo – Beijing – Bangkok – Jakarta – Singapore – Taipei – San Francisco – New York – Cairo (Example) - 10 destinations including Hawaii for €3,428:
Cairo – Singapore – Shanghai – Bangkok – Perth – Auckland – Honolulu – San Francisco – New York – Lisbon – Zurich – Cairo (Example) - 9 destinations excluding the USA for €3,457:
Cairo – Lisbon – Toronto – Panama – Mexico City – Vancouver – Auckland – Sydney – Singapore – Bangkok (Example) - 7 destinations including Tahiti for €3,466:
Cairo – Taipei – Brisbane – Auckland – Tahiti – (Auckland – ) San Francisco – New York – Cairo (Example) - 13 destinations for €3,609:
Cairo – Copenhagen – New York – Nashville – San Francisco – Los Angeles – Honolulu – Auckland – Melbourne – Singapore – Kuala Lumpur – Bangkok – Taipei – Munich – Cairo (Example) - 12 destinations for €3,614:
Cairo – Beijing – Tokyo – Hong Kong – Taipei – Bali – Bangkok – Sydney – Auckland – Los Angeles – Houston – Manchester – Athens – Cairo (Example) - 10 destinations from Africa to Australia for €3,846:
Cairo – Victoria Falls – Johannesburg – (Perth – ) Auckland – Brisbane – Taipei – Vancouver – Calgary – Denver – New York – Zurich – Cairo (Example)
The airports in parentheses indicate only transfer points where no additional stopover occurs.
Example: 70 hours business class with 12 destinations
It’s not so easy to find a cheap routing. The price depends on the flight distance and also on the airlines you fly with. Here is an example of an option for €3,614. The price may seem expensive at first, but you get a lot for it:
- October 2, 2024: 9h Egyptair business class Cairo → Beijing (lie-flat)
- October 4, 2024: 3h ANA business class Beijing → Tokyo (partly lie-flat, partly recliner)
- October 8, 2024: 5h ANA business class Tokyo → Hong Kong (partly lie-flat, partly recliner)
- October 12, 2024: 2h EVA Air business class Hong Kong → Taipei (partly lie-flat, partly recliner)
- October 16, 2024: 5h EVA Air business class Taipei → Bali (lie-flat)
- October 23, 2024: 4h Thai Airways business class Bali → Bangkok (lie-flat)
- October 30, 2024: 9h Thai Airways business class Bangkok → Sydney (lie-flat)
- November 7, 2024: 3h Air New Zealand business class Sydney → Auckland (lie-flat)
- November 13, 2024: 12h Air New Zealand business class Auckland → Los Angeles (lie-flat)
- November 20, 2024: 3h United Domestic first class Los Angeles → Houston (recliner)
- November 26, 2024: 9h Singapore Airlines business class Houston → Manchester (lie-flat)
- December 3, 2024: 4h Aegean business class Manchester → Athens (only free middle seat)
- December 7, 2024: 2h Aegean business class Athens → Cairo (only free middle seat)
With this deal you can travel up to 16 flight segments and 15 stopovers are allowed. It would therefore be possible to add three more stops here, e.g. within North America:
The freedom to choose airlines is a major advantage of this fare. Comparable offers were mostly limited to the Lufthansa Group, as well as Thai, Singapore Airlines, Air China, Air New Zealand, United & Air Canada. Here you also have the option of choosing EVA Air, South African, Copa, Avianca, Ethiopian, Air India, and more. The screenshot of this example connection is quite long, so you can expand it below.
Screenshot
Search & Book
At first glance, the price seems similar to the offers from France or Italy in recent years. In fact, this offer is something completely different. At that time, the basis was always a cheap fare to Auckland or Sydney, which allowed free stopovers along the route.
This is a real Round-the-World fare of the Star Alliance. From most European countries, something like this would cost around €7,000 to €8,000.
Fare Conditions
Since this is a real RTW fare, the rebooking rules are comparatively generous:
- Cancellations before departure are possible for a fee of $150
- Rebookings are free of charge if only the date changes, but not the route
- Rebookings cost $125 if the routing changes
- In case of a rebooking, taxes & fuel surcharges will be recalculated if necessary
You will have at least 40 kg of checked baggage, depending on the airline, often also 2x 32 kg.
Booking Flights
In principle, you can book the offer with (almost?) any Star Alliance airline and also at the travel agency of your choice.
However, booking online using the Star Alliance Round the World Tool is likely to be much more convenient. This does add a €45 booking fee, but it is easy to use:
After selecting your departure airport, travel class, etc., you can then gradually add the individual stopovers. An estimated total price will be displayed for each one. However, you should not rely too much on this. It is only intended as a rough guide. In many cases, the ticket will then cost significantly more, and in exceptional cases, it will be cheaper:
The actual total price will only be displayed after you have selected the individual flight segments. This is an important process that requires some attention. Make sure that all flights are really in business class. The best flights are not always selected by default.
The following airlines issue high fuel surcharges and should therefore be avoided if possible:
- Lufthansa
- Swiss
- Austrian
- Brussels
- United (especially transpacific)
- Turkish Airlines (moderate)
- ANA
- Asiana
The best way to find the cheapest option is to simply try different things. Always keep an eye on the total price.
Two tools can help you with your search: FlightConnections for the Star Alliance route network and Google Flights to check if a route is not flown daily.
According to experience on Flyertalk, the payment via the online tool does not always work. In this case, you can send an email to staralliance.bookandfly@dlh.de and then make the payment by phone. It should be easier if a booking has already been created by the payment attempt.
Flights to Cairo
To take advantage of this deal, you’ll need to fly to Cairo on your own to begin your round-the-world trip. Check the options available from your departure airport. Some of the cheapest options are Vueling from Barcelona, Transavia from Paris, or Aegean from Athens.
Alternatively, you can fly with WizzAir from Rome, Milan or Budapest to Giza Airport. However, keep in mind that you’ll then need to arrange transportation from Giza Airport to Cairo (approximately a 1-hour taxi ride).
You may also be able to purchase a one-way ticket. This is because you can end your trip early in any European airport with a direct flight to Cairo on a Star Alliance airline. Since Egyptair is a member of the alliance won’t be a problem to find a flight near your home airport if you live in Europe.
Mileage
The mileage credit depends on which airline you are flying with. However, the booking class is always D or Z, so the mileage credit is very generous.
For our example routing “12 stopovers for €3,614” you can expect:
- 45,148 Miles on TAP Miles&Go
- 43,755 Points on SAS EuroBonus
- 42,896 Miles on Aegean Miles+Bonus
- 38,491 Miles on Ethiopian ShebaMiles
- 38,116 Miles on Egyptair Plus
- 35,776 Miles on Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- 33,365 Award Miles + 25,572 Tier Miles on Avianca LifeMiles
- 33,248 Miles on Thai Royal Orchid Plus
- 32,309 Miles on Air Canada Aeroplan
- 32,080 Miles on EVA Infinity MileageLands
- 31,965 Award Miles + 32,778 Premium Points on ANA Mileage Club
- 31,621 Miles on Asiana Club
- 31,621 Miles on Singapore KrisFlyer
- 31,026 Miles on Copa ConnectMiles
- 29,850 Award Miles + 5,131 PQP on United MileagePlus
- 12,400 Award Miles + 920 Points on Miles&More
- 9,408 Award Miles + 4,704 Elite Qualifying Miles on Alaska Mileage Plan
- 7,600 CV Points on Vistara Club Vistara
- 4,704 Points on JetBlue TrueBlue
- 4,652 Miles on Air India Flying Returns
- 3,880 Award Miles on Etihad Guest
- 3,880 Award Miles on Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles
- 3,880 Miles on Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles
- 3,489 Miles on Air China PhoenixMiles
- 2,064 Award Miles + 275 Tier Miles on Azul TodoAzul
- 1,720 Award Miles on Emirates Skywards
- 1,376 Avios on Aer Lingus AerClub
It looks even better for our example “7 Stopovers with Tahiti” from above. For this, there would be
- 58,801 Miles on TAP Miles&Go
- 54,305 Points on SAS EuroBonus
- 52,909 Award Miles + 37,416 Tier Miles on Avianca LifeMiles
- 51,307 Miles on Ethiopian ShebaMiles
- 47,588 Miles on Egyptair Plus
- 45,111 Miles on Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- 44,787 Miles on Aegean Miles+Bonus
- 43,386 Miles on Copa ConnectMiles
- 41,417 Miles on EVA Infinity MileageLands
- 39,905 Miles on Air Canada Aeroplan
- 39,265 Miles on ANA Mileage Club
- 38,625 Miles on Asiana Club
- 38,625 Miles on Singapore KrisFlyer
- 38,625 Miles on Thai Royal Orchid Plus
- 36,072 Award Miles + 6,168 PQP on United MileagePlus
- 26,084 Award Miles + 175 Tier Points on Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- 12,400 Award Miles + 1,040 Points on Miles&More
- 9,009 Miles on GOL Aéreos Smiles
- 3,199 Award Miles on Emirates Skywards
- 3,199 CV Points on Vistara Club Vistara
- 2,559 Avios on Aer Lingus AerClub
We assumed for our examples that the ticket is issued by Lufthansa. This is apparently the case when booking through the online tool. In this case, the Miles & More credit is unfortunately revenue-based and only 4 to 5 miles per euro ticket price will be awarded.
However, if you manage to get a ticket issued by another Star Alliance airline, you can expect up to 60,000 Miles & More award miles depending on the routing.
For all other examples, you can use the following mileage calculator. Please note that the credit for Miles & More is based on the ticket price.
Get Star Alliance Gold Status with this deal
Depending on the routing, it’s possible to achieve Star Alliance Gold status with just one trip. For this, you’re welcome to use our status calculator. It will directly show you which routes qualify for frequent flyer status and which don’t:
While there is no official exit date yet, SAS and Asiana are expected to leave Star Alliance soon. This means:
• You should avoid flying with SAS and Asiana if you want to earn miles.
• It may no longer be possible to earn miles with SAS EuroBonus and Asiana Club, depending on the flight date. Even if you do earn miles, your Star Alliance Gold status may soon be converted to a SkyTeam status.
Source: Flyertalk
Cover Picture: NASA
Comments (19)
anyone can recommend some other ways to book it? like a travel agent?
The Star Alliance deal is no longer available. Only Oneworld remains
For some reason I can not choose Caïro as origin. I can choose cities like Frankfurt and Brussels but those are quite expensive. Am I doing something wrong?
Deal is dead, unfortunately.
It seems that Cairo has been removed from the list of possible destinations.
Looks like it cant be booked from Cairo anymore and thereby the deal is dead, unfortunatly.
Would have booked today, but no longer possible.
Yesterday it was working well… today I can’t select cairo anymore as a departing place 🙂
Looks like the deal has been closed, its no longer possible to book a trip which start in Cairo
I would like to travel in summer 2025. Do you think that it is feasible to book now for Jan 2025 departure and later this year move the flights to July/August 2025? Any risks involved in this?
It should work as described, but there are certainly a few risks. You can’t know the summer schedule for 2025 yet, as it’s not loaded in any database. Also any modification to the stopover points will incur a $125 change fee. You may have to pay more due to increasing taxes / fuel surcharges depending on the airline.
But altogether, the risks should be pretty slim. In the worst case, you can still cancel everything for a $150 fee before the first flight takes place.
Hello Peer,
first of all: thank you for all the time and effort you put in this article.
But just to sum things up (and therefore hope I understand the deal properly): someone gets to make an “around the world trip”, continuously flying business class, starting in Cairo, and has the ability to visit up to 12/15 cities, during one year, without mandatory duration times per destination, for only (a total price of) €3100 – €4000?
Because I’m also reading the following:
After selecting your departure airport, travel class, etc., you can then gradually add the individual stopovers. An estimated total price will be displayed for each one.
The latter is not quite clear to me. Also: when someone books the first leg of the trip, does that person have to straight away decide where else to go and book that at the same time? Or can someone make bookings for next flights, once he/she has figured out where he/she wants to go, after visiting each destination, as long as everything takes place within one year?
Is there a minimum of flights someone has to book? And does someone have to end their trip in Cairo as well, or can it be another city? What do you mean with substantial detours? Do you mean inland flights to smaller cities/airports? Would those then also be business class? And does someone pay extra for those? Or could they be part of the 16 flight segments?
I know that these are a lot of questions, but this deal seems too good to be true, and I for one, don’t like any unexpected surprises. And because the joining airlines will all miss out on a lot of money, I want to know whether I understand it all correctly.
It would be much appreciated if you could make things more clear. Thank you.
Kind regards… Suzanne
Let me try to answer these questions one by one.
Correct. Depending on the airlines you choose, it may go higher than €4,000, but it’s certainly possible for less
You will need to book the whole circle at once. The stopovers can be added later, but:
1. There are 4 distance bands and you should try to stay within the one you booked. I.e. if your original trip is 24,000 to 29,000 miles, going up to more than 29,000 may be costly
2. If you add / amend any stopovers after the initial booking, a rebooking fee of USD 125 will apply
You have to include at least one transpacific flight and one across the atlantic. They also have to be on the same direction of travel. Other than that, you’re free to choose
Has to end in Cairo (other cities in Egypt may work). But no one can stop you from adding a stopover in e.g. London and just skip the last London to Cairo segment
One that worked is Auckland – Tahiti – Auckland – San Francisco. Everything in Business Class, as seen in example #4. Price will be tied to the total distance flown, so it may increase slightly. But AKL-PPT-AKL-SFO was still cheaper than doing AKL-SFO-PPT.
It’s honestly easiest to just play around with the round the world tool, instead of trying to understand every single rule in advance. Once you found a feasible solution, you can try to get the total price by choosing the exact flights. E.g. flying Air New Zealand instead of United will significantly reduce the total price.
Note that the “estimated total” in the booking tool is only a very rough indicator. Depending on your routing, the price may be $1000 more than that. That’s why we included so manye examples and their screenshot of exact flights chosen.
Follow-up on my question regarding the duration of the trip: Please disregard my previous question. I missed the info indeed and just saw it’s a one year ticket. Thank you! Frank
Well done, Peer. I may have missed it in your detailed explanation but is there a time restriction between first and last flight? I.e. 28 days/3 or 6 months/330 days….Thank you! Frank
Indeed, this is an EXCELLENT job!
Thanks a lot!
Unfortunately, it is perhaps not possible to make such a “performance” in a short time – one week maximum 🙁
Am I correct, around the world flying in business class and stopping off at 12 countries.
Which site do I go to to take this offer?
I’m not good at this and am a newbie.
Easiest to try around on https://roundtheworld.staralliance.com/staralliance/en/round-the-world until you find something cheap.
Once you’ve found a bookable solution, you can start adjusting all the flights individually to see which one is cheapest. E.g. avoid Lufthansa and choose Egyptair / Singapore Airlines instead
Wow, this is an excellent job Peer! I was wondering: do you know if a similar deal is available for travel in First Class? Thank you!
Hi John,
yes it is, and it costs around €6000. However, keep in mind that many routes don’t offer a first class.