€946 Star Alliance Around The World Tickets from Amsterdam (Incl. Checked Bags)

After quite a while, we are finally able to present you with a decent round-the-world fare for economy class. With departure from Amsterdam, you can visit San Francisco, Sydney and Singapore on a single ticket for less than €1,000. You can add more cities to your itinerary, like Los Angeles, Seattle or Vancouver in North America or Beijing and Shanghai in China. Even better, this fare comes with the added bonus of a checked bag of 23 kg or more included in the ticket price.

Flights are operated by Star Alliance carriers like Lufthansa, Air Canada, United Airlines and even Singapore Airlines. On some flights from Australia, you will even sit in a Qantas plane.

Example Routings

You can combine several different cities on this tickets with one stop in Asia, one in Australia and one in North America being part of each itinerary. Here are some examples:

• Westbound:
  • Amsterdam – San Francisco – Sydney – Singapore – Amsterdam at €946
  • Amsterdam – San Francisco – Sydney | Perth – Singapore – Amsterdam at €1,083
  • Amsterdam – Los Angeles – Melbourne – Singapore – Amsterdam at €1,076 (example)
  • Amsterdam – New York – Sydney – Singapore – Amsterdam at €1,147
• Eastbound:
  • Amsterdam – Singapore – Sydney – Vancouver – Amsterdam at €971
  • Amsterdam – Singapore – Melbourne | Sydney – Vancouver – Amsterdam at €988
  • Amsterdam – Beijing – Sydney – San Francisco – Amsterdam at €1,050
  • Amsterdam – Singapore – Sydney – Vancouver | Seattle – Amsterdam at €1,150
  • Amsterdam – Singapore – Sydney – Honolulu – Amsterdam at €1,237

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

You can book these tickets via our flight search or directly at Lufthansa. You can use the Go2 form below to book them directly, but finding availabilities requires quite a bit of research. If you can’t find something quickly, take a closer look at our Search & Book section below:

Carriers and Stopovers

The offer includes numerous airlines. Yet, the board product is remarkably similar: You can expect a seat pitch of roughly 79 cm and (at least) one warm meal on all long-haul segments.

Flight from Europe to North America are operated Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, United Airlines and Air Canada. There are a few non-stop services with United from Amsterdam, all other itineraries require a change of planes at a European Star Alliance hub.

Qantas, United or Air Canada take you from America to Australia or vice versa. Flights between Asia and Europe are Lufthansa, Swiss or even Singapore Airlines services, which might be the most attractive choice.

The example above shows a trip from Amsterdam with a lengthy stop in San Francisco to Sydney (all flights operated by United Airlines). Singapore Airlines takes you from Australia to Singapore while Lufthansa takes care of bringing you back to Europe.

Your stopovers in Asia are not limited to Singapore. Beijing and Shanghai are possible, as well. Theoretically, you should be able to add a stop in Bangkok, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong or Delhi. Sadly, we haven’t been able to find cheap tickets including a stop in these cities.

Fare Rules

There is no sales period for this fare. The best prices show up during the following travel periods:

• September until November 2023 (starting at €1,150)
• February until June 2024 (at €950)

The further you book in advance, the higher are your chances to find the cheapest tickets. Availability is best from late April through June 2024.

The basis for this fare is a roundtrip from Amsterdam to Sydney that allows one stopover in each direction. There is a similar fare basis that allows unlimited stopovers, but we were not able to find any bookable tickets for this fare.

The minimum stay in Australia is eight days. The stopovers are not limited in duration, so you can stay as long (or as short) as you like.

Search & Book

Booking this deal is a little more complicated than usual. Here we present the most crucial details and advice:

Finding Availabilities With Google Flights

Many, but not all options are available in Google Flights’ multipstop search. Make sure to exclude separate tickets and only search for Star Alliance flights:

In many cases, Google shows prices that are a bit higher, but will ultimately fall during the booking process. Searching with Google Flights has the upside of altering dates a little easier than on other sites.

You might run into the problem that after selecting a couple of segments, the cheap price is still available, but it disappears after adding more segments. Just finish assembling your journey. In some cases, the final price will be around €1,200, even if it changed throughout the search process.

Finding Availabilities With the ITA Matrix

You can also use the ITA Matrix (Anleitung) to find flights. Its software laid the very foundation on which Google Flights is built. However, it enables you to add certrain parameters for each segment, like a duration or filters for specific airlines:

You can apply more filters in the consecutive booking steps:

Prices my still rise or drop up to €100. In contrast to Google Flights, the Matrix will not forward you to a booking site.

Booking

If you were able to find suitable itineraries with Google Flights or the Matrix, you need to find a place to buy them.

Via Lufthansa.com

Our main example above is available directly on lufthansa.com. This is not the case for every possible ticket. But if it is, booking with the airline is the best option.

Our Show Deal button above (as well as our Go2 tool) forwards you to Lufthansa’s multistop search. When selecting flights, make sure you use exactly the same flight number that the Matrix or Google Flights displayed. Selecting a different flight will skyrocket prices.

If you did everything right and Lufthansa actually sells your favorite itinerary, you should get a price between €950 and €1,150. If it doesn’t work, there are other ways.

Why is booking with an airline better than with an online travel agency?

More often than not, online travel agencies offer lower fares than airlines do. We still recommend booking with the airlines directly. There are two main reasons for that:

Better Customer Service
In case any problems like delays, cancellations or missed connections arise, you can communicate directly with the airline. The airline has to take care of you because you have a contract with them.

If a travel agency issues your ticket, you may have to reach out to them first. You also depend on your OTA to forward information like flight changes instead of receiving them directly from the airline. In many cases, you may get a prime exhibition of responsibility shifting rather than problem-solving.

This especially applies to premium tickets. You don’t want to spend more than €1,000 to wind up with some budget OTA’s telephone hotline in case anything goes wrong.

Baggage and Other Fees
Economy fares not including hold luggage are industry standard by now. In most cases, travel agencies charge much higher baggage fees than the airlines themselves. If bags are not included in your fare, airlines are often the cheaper alternative.

This also applies to other things like food services, insurances or priority treatment. In almost all cases, you pay less for additional amenities when booking on the airlines’ website.

Via Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)

This is the easiest way, though not free disadvantages. Namely: If there are any changes to your flights (and there probably will be when booking nine months or more in advance), you cannot communicate directly with the airline.

Setting that aside, find flights are rather easy. Just enter the itinerary you found in the multistop search:

It will offer cheap tickets for more routings than lufthansa.com.

Other Options

You still have other options to book the fares:

• Offline Travel Agencies: Theoretically, all travel agencies should be able to book itineraries displayed in the ITA Matrix.
• Airline Hotlines: It is possible to call the airline and book your favorite itinerary over the phone. Sadly, you will need a very proficient operator to get the job done.
• Google Flights: In some cases, Google Flights offers to forward you to booking sites.

Mileage

Involved airlines issue tickets in the following booking classes:

• Lufthansa Group, United or Air Canada: K, L
• Singapore Airlines: K
• Qantas: O

The example on the screenshot above yields the following miles and points:

If you add a Qantas segment, Star Alliance frequent flyers will lose a good chunk of mileage. Since most itineraries will be highly individualized, feel free to use our mileage calculator to see what you can get out of this ticket:

Cover Picture: Photo by NASA on Unsplash