Star Alliance: Fly Around the World in Premium Economy for €1,525 from Paris

Uniteds Airlines Premium Economy Premium Plus

We recently presented you with a deal from the Star Alliance that allows you to fly around the world in business class for around €2,850. If that’s too expensive for you, then we have an alternative offer: The round-the-world trip in premium economy is available starting at €1,525.

Similar to the business deal, you can fly with Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, Swiss and United, among others. You will have one stop in Asia (e.g. Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore), New Zealand (Auckland) and North America (e.g. San Francisco, New York or Toronto). And since these are premium economy tickets, you can also bring 2x 23 kg of luggage on your trip.

You can travel from May 2022 through February 2023. Further down in the article, you will find 10 example connections for less than €1,600. Here are three examples (with departure from Paris):

Info

Except for Japan and Hong Kong, starting May, all destinations listed here can probably be travelled to again without having to quarantine. However, there is of course the risk that the rules will be tightened again, and that the entire ticket becomes obsolete if, for example, New Zealand reintroduces an entry ban.

At least, the tickets can be rebooked at any time without having to pay a rebooking fee. If the rebooking takes place after the departure of the first segment, you won’t even have to pay a price difference in the same booking class. This gives you at least a little flexibility after you start your journey.

Apparently, the tickets cannot be booked directly online on the airlines’ websites. Online booking works best via Expedia, for which you can use the following search form. Note the travel period from May 2022 to February 2023:

Airlines & Service

Simplified representation of the three example connections without transfers

Depending on which destinations you want to travel to, the long-haul routes are usually operated by Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and/or United. Air New Zealand is actually always involved, because on routes like Auckland – San Francisco, United is usually €200 more expensive.

Lufthansa Premium Economy Class Sitze Boeing 747-8i
Lufthansa premium economy in the Boeing 747

The seats of the airlines are relatively similar. This is not least due to the fact that the airlines often use the same seat model. There are usually seven or eight seats per row, with a seat pitch of around 99 to 105 cm. The level of comfort is definitely higher than in economy class, but it can by no means compete with business class. You can find the key data for many products in our Premium Eco comparison:

Example Routings

In the following list, we have found some example connections for you. These give an overview of what is possible with this fare:

  • Eastbound:
    • Paris – Seoul – Auckland – San Francisco – Paris for €1,525
    • Paris – Tokyo – Auckland – San Francisco – Paris for €1,531
    • Paris – Tokyo – Auckland – Houston | Washington – Paris for €1,531
    • Paris – Seoul – Auckland – San Francisco | New York – Paris for €1,559
    • Paris – Singapore – Auckland – Chicago – Paris for €1,581
    • Paris – Hong Kong – Auckland – Toronto – Paris for €1,587
    • Lyon – Tokyo – Auckland – San Francisco – Lyon for €1,592
    • Paris – Tokyo – Sydney | Auckland – Chicago – Paris for €1,712
  • Westbound:
    • Paris – Toronto | Los Angeles – Auckland – Tokyo – Paris for €1,538
    • Paris – Chicago – Auckland – Tokyo – Paris for €1,553
    • Paris – San Francisco – Auckland – Tokyo – Paris for €1,553

The vertical bar | stands for a surface sector. You then have to take care of the transport yourself from e.g. San Francisco to New York. The advantage is that it gives you more flexibility when planning – you can decide freely between e.g. taking a plane, rental car, or Amtrak, adding as many stopovers as you like along the way.

In principle, you can select one destination per continent from the following map and connect them with each other as you wish:

A few of the possible destinations. Other destinations in North America are probably also possible

Theoretically, according to the fare rules, any number of stopovers should be possible in each direction. However, we did not find an example with more than three stops.

It should only be noted that Auckland apparently has to appear in any case. For this reason, open-jaw flights to Sydney, for example, are only possible if the next flight departs from Auckland.

Search & Book

The fare rules do not state how long the tickets can still be booked. In general, there are few restrictions. The stay in Auckland must be at least 10 days long. Otherwise, there are no further restrictions on the minimum or maximum stay. Travel is possible from May 2022 to February 2023.

The most difficult task is to find connections that can be booked (online) at all. Google Flights (instructions) is a good starting point. However, it is often the case that initially cheap prices are displayed and these disappear after selecting the second or third segment.

You can often (but not always) book the connections found online at Expedia. If you’re lucky, Google Flights also offers a direct booking link on United’s website. The multi-stop search on Lufthansa.com usually spits out an error message. The tickets can possibly be booked on the Lufthansa hotline.

Tipp

With our little tool called Go2, you can transfer the search from Google Flights to Expedia with just a few clicks. Just bookmark it to jump straight to Expedia. You can find out how this works (including a short video) in this article.

Mileage

The booking classes are probably:

  • Lufthansa / Swiss / Austrian: N
  • ANA: N
  • Air New Zealand: A
  • Singapore Airlines: R
  • United: R

For the example with Lufthansa, Air New Zealand and United from the screenshot above, you can expect the following mileage credits:

  • 27,540 Miles on Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
  • 24,939 Miles on Singapore KrisFlyer
  • 24,657 Miles on Aegean Miles+Bonus
  • 24,657 Points on SAS EuroBonus
  • 23,907 Miles on Asiana Club
  • 23,826 Award Miles + 23,686 Tier Miles on Avianca LifeMiles
  • 23,826 Miles on Copa ConnectMiles
  • 23,826 Miles on Egyptair Plus
  • 23,714 Miles on Thai Royal Orchid Plus
  • 23,686 Miles on EVA Infinity MileageLands
  • 23,686 Miles on TAP Miles&Go
  • 23,547 Miles on Air Canada Aeroplan
  • 21,761 Award Miles + 2,659 PQP on United MileagePlus
  • 20,423 Miles on ANA Mileage Club
  • 18,795 Award Miles + 50 Tier Points on Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
  • 18,338 Miles on Ethiopian ShebaMiles
  • 13,950 CV Points on Vistara Club Vistara
  • 12,530 Miles on Etihad Guest
  • 5,587 Award Miles on LATAM Pass
  • 5,569 Award Miles + 557 Tier Miles on Azul TodoAzul
  • 5,569 Award Miles on Emirates Skywards
  • 5,000 Award Miles + 340 Points on Miles&More
  • 1,392 Avios on Aer Lingus AerClub
Data provided by miles.travel-dealz.com. Without guarantee on correctness.

There are interesting options, especially with Miles&Smiles, KrisFlyer, Aegean Miles+Bonus, SAS EuroBonus and the Asiana Club. If booking works via United.com, you can bypass the price-based award miles at Miles&More and earn around 30,000 award miles!

Hundreds of combinations of transfer airports and airlines are possible. It is therefore impossible to cover all combinations here. To calculate the mileage credit, you can simply use the following form:

If you fly in the first half of the year, Miles&More would give you double status miles for all flights with the Lufthansa Group. You also get 2,000 bonus status miles per long-haul route.

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Comment (1)

  1. Peter kagelaris says:

    I am looking at travelling from Europe to Sydney Australia jan returning march. Which is the best way of doing this. I am currently in Athens Greece but am prepaid to make my way to a city that offers a great fare. Peter

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