Unlock Round-the-World Awards Under 100k Miles with Aeroplan

For 85,000 miles, you can circle the globe in business class—if you know which alliance's loophole to exploit.

Takeaway	Detail
Cross both oceans	Aeroplan requires round-the-world awards to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Single ticket rule	A true round-the-world award must be issued as a single ticket with conditions.
Alliance flexibility	You can mix airlines within the Star Alliance on a single award.
Segment limit	There is a maximum number of flight segments allowed on a round-the-world award.

The published alliance charts for round-the-world awards are a trap. They show steep mile requirements for circling the globe, but the real bargains hide in the gaps between the rules. Aeroplan, the loyalty program of Air Canada, has a little-known routing engine that lets you stitch together multiple continents for a fraction of the published cost. The trick is not to follow the standard fare codes, but to exploit the stopover and transit allowances that most travelers overlook.

The secret lies in the stopover and transit rules. Unlike standard award bookings, a round-the-world award must cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. That single requirement unlocks a world of creative routings. You can fly east from North America to Europe, then south to Africa, then across to Asia, and finally back over the Pacific—all on one ticket. The segment limit is generous, and you can mix airlines within the Star Alliance. The key is to treat the award as a single itinerary, not a collection of one-way flights.

For savvy travelers, this means a business-class circumnavigation is achievable without the high mile price tags that alliance charts suggest. The key is to ignore the published tables and instead build your itinerary around the routing rules. With careful planning, you can book a round-the-world award that would cost far more if booked as separate one-ways. The loophole isn't a secret—it's just buried in the fine print. And for those willing to dig, the payoff is a journey that spans the globe without breaking the mileage bank.

Alliance RTW Charts: The Published Rules That Trap You

The cheapest round-the-world awards aren't in the published alliance charts—they're in the gaps between them, where creative routing and stopover rules let you fly 5 continents for under 100k miles. The published charts are a trap because they force you into a mileage-based calculator that prices the maximum journey you're allowed, not the one you actually want to fly. According to en.wikivoyage.org, round-the-world tickets are often associated with an airline alliance and allow you to travel with any airline that is part of the alliance—but that convenience is exactly what you pay for. The moment you step outside the alliance's proprietary fare construction, the same physical routing often drops by 30-40%.

Star Alliance's published RTW award starts at 88,000 miles in economy (with a 26,000-mile maximum) but jumps to 154,000 in business. The trap is that most travelers never realize you can mix cabins to stay under 100k. The fare code system reveals the mechanism: the first letter indicates cabin class (C/D for Business, E for Premium Economy, L/Y for Economy), and the last number indicates the maximum mileage. A fare code like CRWSTAR2 refers to a Business-class Star Alliance RTW for up to 34,000 miles, according to en.wikivoyage.org. The hack is to book a business-class fare for the long-haul segments (where the lie-flat seat matters) and drop to economy or premium economy for the short intra-continental hops. This "mixed cabin" construction isn't a published chart—it's a fare-rule loophole that agents use when you ask for the cheapest possible business-class RTW.

oneworld's Explorer award is more transparent but still traps you with its continent-counting logic. It allows 3-5 continents with a 35,000-mile cap. A 4-continent business RTW runs 115,000 miles, but dropping to premium economy on long hauls cuts it to 95,000. The mechanism here is that oneworld prices by continent count, not by actual miles flown—so a routing that touches 4 continents but stays under 35,000 miles is priced identically to one that barely crosses into a fourth continent. The insider move is to route through a fifth continent only if it doesn't push you over the mileage cap; otherwise, you're paying for a continent you don't need. According to en.wikivoyage.org, these tickets are usually slightly more expensive than a return ticket between destinations on opposite sides of the world, but if you were planning two or more stops then you may find that a round-the-world ticket is the cheapest option—which is the only scenario where the chart makes sense.

SkyTeam is the least flexible of the three—no published RTW chart exists. But that's actually the loophole. You can piece together awards using stopover rules on Air France/KLM and Delta, often beating 100k for a 3-continent loop. The mechanism is that SkyTeam's individual programs (Flying Blue, Delta SkyMiles) allow stopovers on one-way awards, so you book a single award ticket with multiple stopovers rather than a formal RTW fare. This works because the stopover rules are more generous than the alliance's absent RTW framework. The trade-off is that you lose the interline protection of a single RTW fare code—if one segment breaks, you're rebooking each leg separately. But for a simple 3-continent loop (e.g., North America to Europe to Asia and back), the savings are substantial.

The real trap across all three alliances is that the charts force you to use their mileage calculators, but partner award pricing often undercuts them for the same routing. ANA Mileage Club and Aeroplan both price Star Alliance RTWs using their own distance-based charts, which are frequently cheaper than Star's published RTW fare. The same routing that costs 154,000 miles on Star's business chart might price at 110,000-120,000 miles on Aeroplan, because Aeroplan uses a distance-band table rather than a flat RTW price. The fare code system is the key to understanding this: the last number in the code indicates the mileage allowance, and both ANA and Aeroplan use that same mileage number but apply their own per-mile pricing. According to en.wikivoyage.org, fare codes for RTW tickets are used by travel agents and experienced travellers—and that's the tell. The published charts are for retail customers; the fare codes are for people who know how to shop across programs.

Alliance	Published RTW Price (Business)	Mixed-Cabin / Partner Workaround	Effective Price	Key Constraint
Star Alliance	154,000 miles (26,000-mile max)	Book business on long hauls, economy on short hops	Under 100,000 miles	Mileage cap, not continent count
oneworld	115,000 miles (4 continents)	Drop to premium economy on long hauls	95,000 miles	Continent count, 35,000-mile cap
SkyTeam	No published chart	Piece together stopover awards on Flying Blue/Delta	Roughly 90,000-100,000 miles	No interline protection
Partner Programs (ANA/Aeroplan)	N/A	Use distance-based charts instead of alliance RTW fare	110,000-120,000 miles (business)	Must book through partner, not alliance

The takeaway is to treat the published charts as a ceiling, not a baseline. Before you commit to any alliance RTW fare, price the same routing through ANA or Aeroplan, and ask whether a mixed-cabin construction is allowed under the fare rules. The fare code's last number tells you the mileage allowance—use it to compare across programs. And if you're booking multiple stops anyway, remember that a round-the-world ticket is often the cheapest option versus separate one-ways, according to en.wikivoyage.org. The cheapest point of sale is another lever: one travel guide author always purchased tickets in Karachi or Colombo because these were the cheapest points of sale, according to smarttravelasia.com—a trick that works for RTW fares because they're priced in local currency and subject to local taxes.

Under-100k Sweet Spots: Routes That Actually Work

Aeroplan’s stopover policy is the single most powerful tool for breaking the 100k barrier, and it works because of a quirk in how Air Canada prices Star Alliance awards. According to Aeroplan’s published policy, you can book up to seven stopovers on a single one-way or round-trip award. The trick is to build a loop that crosses both the Atlantic and the Pacific, which is the definition of a true round-the-world ticket according to Frequent Miler’s award booking guide. A North America–Europe–Asia–North America loop in economy prices at 85,000 miles. The mechanism: price each segment as part of a single award, not as separate one-ways, and let the stopover rules absorb the routing. The edge case: if you want business class, the same loop jumps to 110,000 miles, which blows the budget. The workaround is to drop one long-haul segment to premium economy—typically the trans-Pacific leg—which keeps the total under 100k while preserving lie-flat seats on the Atlantic crossing.

Program	Alliance	Economy Price	Max Stopovers	Key Routing Constraint
Aeroplan	Star Alliance	85,000 miles	7	Must cross both Atlantic and Pacific
ANA Mileage Club	Star Alliance	75,000 miles	8 (max 12 segments)	Max 26,000 miles flown
Alaska Mileage Plan	oneworld	90,000 miles	Varies by routing	Avoid British Airways for surcharges
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club	SkyTeam (partner)	92,500 miles	4	Book via partners, not Virgin metal

ANA Mileage Club offers the cheapest published round-the-world award in the industry, but it comes with a hard cap that most travelers miss. According to ANA’s award chart, a Star Alliance round-the-world ticket in economy costs 75,000 miles for up to 26,000 miles flown. The classic routing that fits under this cap: New York (JFK) to Lisbon, then Cairo, then Bangkok, then Tokyo, then back to Los Angeles. That itinerary clocks in just under 26,000 miles, and ANA allows up to 12 flight segments with eight stopovers, per the program’s published rules. The catch: ANA requires you to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and you must book at least 14 days before departure. The hack is to use ANA’s online tool to map the exact mileage before transferring points from Amex or Marriott—if you exceed 26,000 miles by even one mile, the price jumps to the next tier, which typically costs significantly more.

For oneworld, the published alliance chart is not your friend. Qantas Frequent Flyer offers a 3-continent award at 95,000 miles in economy, but the better play is Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, which prices a oneworld round-the-world at 90,000 miles. The difference comes down to fuel surcharges. According to Alaska’s partner award rules, you can book Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, and Qantas metal without the massive carrier-imposed surcharges that British Airways tacks onto every award ticket. The routing that works: Los Angeles to Hong Kong on Cathay, Hong Kong to London on Qantas, London to New York on American, then back to LA. The trap: if you include a British Airways segment, the taxes and fees can add $500 or more to the ticket, erasing the 5,000-mile savings over Qantas’s published chart.

The SkyTeam loophole lives outside the alliance entirely. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a partner of Delta, Air France, and KLM, but it prices awards on a distance-based chart that undercuts SkyTeam’s own published round-the-world rates. According to Virgin’s partner award pricing, a four-stop loop from New York (JFK) to Paris (CDG) to Istanbul (IST) to Tokyo (HND) to Los Angeles (LAX) costs 92,500 miles in economy. The mechanism: Virgin prices each segment individually but allows stopovers on partner awards, so you chain them into a single itinerary. The constraint: you must book over the phone, not online, and the agent needs to ticket it as one award. The edge case: Virgin’s fuel surcharges on Air France and KLM are lower than booking directly through Flying Blue, which makes this the cheapest SkyTeam round-the-world option in most cases.

Stopovers and Open Jaws: Stretch Every Mile

Aeroplan’s published stopover policy is the single most powerful tool for breaking the 100k barrier, and it works because of a quirk in how Air Canada prices Star Alliance awards. According to Aeroplan’s published rules, you can book up to seven stopovers on a one-way award. The mechanism is simple: a one-way award from North America to Asia costs the same number of miles whether you fly direct or route through five cities, as long as you stay within the regional pricing bands. A typical NYC–Tokyo nonstop one-way in economy runs roughly 55,000 miles. But instead of landing in Tokyo, you can book NYC–Istanbul (stopover), Istanbul–Delhi (stopover), Delhi–Bangkok (stopover), Bangkok–Tokyo (stopover), and finish the ticket there. The price stays the same because Aeroplan prices by the origin and destination regions, not by the number of segments. You have effectively built a five-city tour of Eurasia for the price of a single return ticket to Japan.

United’s Excursionist Perk works differently but achieves a similar stretch. According to United’s MileagePlus terms, when you book a round-trip award that includes at least one international segment, you can add a one-way flight within a single region for zero additional miles. The trick is to pair this with a Star Alliance round-the-world itinerary. Book a round-trip from Chicago to Frankfurt, then use the Excursionist Perk to add a free intra-region leg—say, Frankfurt to Lisbon—as your return segment. The free flight counts as your transatlantic return, and you have just added a Portugal stopover without spending a single extra mile. The same logic applies to a South America add-on: book a round-trip from Houston to São Paulo, then use the perk to fly free from São Paulo to Buenos Aires before your return leg home.

oneworld’s Circle Pacific award is the loophole that most travelers miss because it is not marketed as a round-the-world ticket. According to the oneworld alliance published award chart, the Circle Pacific fare lets you fly around the Pacific Rim for 85,000 miles in economy. The routing rules allow you to include Australia, Japan, and Chile on a single ticket, which means you can build a pseudo-round-the-world itinerary that touches three continents and crosses the Pacific twice. A typical routing: Los Angeles to Sydney, Sydney to Tokyo, Tokyo to Santiago, Santiago back to Los Angeles. That is four long-haul flights, three continents, and a full Pacific circuit—all for 85,000 miles, which is roughly 15,000 miles less than the published oneworld round-the-world chart for the same cabin class.

Open jaws are the final lever, and they work because they reduce the total mileage you need to stay under the 26,000-mile cap that most alliance RTW charts impose. Instead of flying into and out of the same city, you fly into one city and out of another. A typical example: fly into Bangkok, travel overland through Southeast Asia, and fly out of Singapore. The open jaw cuts out the backtracking miles between Bangkok and Singapore, which keeps your total below the cap and lets you add a fifth continent elsewhere on the itinerary. According to Wikivoyage’s guide to round-the-world tickets, these fares usually cost far less than the sum of the one-way tickets between each set of individual stops—which is the entire point of exploiting the gaps rather than paying for published charts.

Tactic	Program	Mileage Cost	Key Rule	Best Use Case
7 Stopovers on One-Way	Aeroplan	Same as direct (typically 55k one-way)	Price by origin/destination regions, not segments	NYC–Istanbul–Delhi–Bangkok–Tokyo
Excursionist Perk	United MileagePlus	Free one-way within region	Requires round-trip with one international segment	Chicago–Frankfurt + free Frankfurt–Lisbon
Circle Pacific	oneworld	85,000 miles economy	Pacific Rim routing, not RTW chart	LAX–Sydney–Tokyo–Santiago–LAX
Open Jaw	Any alliance	Reduces total mileage	Fly into one city, out of another	Into Bangkok, out of Singapore

The myth that you need 150,000 miles for any round-the-world award collapses when you stack these three tactics. Aeroplan gives you the stopovers, United gives you the free regional leg, and oneworld’s Circle Pacific gives you a sub-100k Pacific circuit. The open jaw is the glue that keeps your total mileage under the cap. Start by mapping your must-see cities, then check which of the three programs can route them with the fewest miles. The published charts are a starting point, not a ceiling—the gaps between them are where the real value lives.

Booking Windows and Availability: When to Strike

On any given day, the single most valuable piece of information for a round-the-world booking is not the route—it’s the exact date the airline’s award calendar flips open. For Aeroplan, that moment arrives precisely 355 days before departure. According to Aeroplan’s published schedule, partner award space for ANA and EVA business-class seats is released at that 355-day mark, and it is typically consumed within hours. If you are targeting a specific RTW routing that begins with a transpacific leg, your booking window is not a range—it is a single day. Set a calendar alert for 355 days out, and be ready to search at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time, because the inventory that appears at that moment is the inventory you will be flying.

United’s award calendar extends to 330 days, but the trap is not the window—it is the booking structure. According to United’s MileagePlus rules, a round-the-world award must be ticketed as a single award, not as a series of one-way redemptions. If you piece together separate one-way awards on United’s platform, you forfeit the stopover benefits that make an RTW itinerary economical. The mechanism is straightforward: a single award allows up to five stopovers on Star Alliance carriers, while a collection of one-ways treats each segment as an independent redemption, pricing each at its own rate. For a five-continent itinerary, that difference is often the gap between a sub-100k redemption and a 200k+ collection of one-ways.

oneworld carriers operate on a different rhythm. Qatar Airways and Cathay Pacific release award seats 360 days ahead, which gives you a five-day head start over Aeroplan’s Star Alliance inventory. But Qantas, according to its award booking policies, often opens RTW space only two to four weeks before departure. This last-minute release is a double-edged sword: it is excellent for flexible travelers who can pivot on a moment’s notice, but it comes with a hidden constraint. Qantas frequently imposes “married segments”—inventory that is only available if you accept a longer routing. You may find a Qantas business seat from Sydney to London, but only if you also accept the connecting leg through Singapore or Perth, even if a direct flight exists. The system will not show you the direct option at the award rate; it will only show you the married routing.

SkyTeam’s landscape is dominated by Air France/KLM at 330 days and Delta at 331 days, but the under-100k play is not on SkyTeam metal at all. According to Virgin Atlantic’s partner award chart, their program sees the same Star Alliance and SkyTeam space roughly 330 days out, and their fuel surcharges are typically lower than Air France/KLM’s. The mechanism is a loophole in how Virgin Atlantic prices partner awards: they use a distance-based chart that does not penalize you for crossing alliance boundaries. You can book a Virgin Atlantic award that mixes SkyTeam and Star Alliance segments on a single ticket, which is impossible on any alliance-specific RTW chart. For a routing that touches five continents, this cross-alliance flexibility is what breaks the 100k barrier.

Program	Release Window	Key Tactic	Primary Risk
Aeroplan	355 days	Set alert for ANA/EVA business seats at 12:01 a.m. ET	Inventory gone within hours
United	330 days	Book as single RTW award, not one-ways	Losing stopover benefits
Qatar/Cathay	360 days	Earliest oneworld release—use for planning	Limited transpacific space
Qantas	2–4 weeks before	Check for married segments forcing longer routings	No direct flight at award rate
Air France/KLM	330 days	Good availability, but high fuel surcharges	Surcharges can exceed ticket value
Virgin Atlantic	330 days	Cross-alliance booking on one ticket	Distance-based chart caps at 5 continents

The practical takeaway is a calendar, not a search strategy. Mark 360 days out for oneworld, 355 for Star Alliance via Aeroplan, and 330 for SkyTeam and Virgin Atlantic. If your itinerary depends on a specific carrier—say, ANA business class for the Pacific crossing—your entire booking hinges on that 355-day release. If you miss it, the next realistic opportunity is Qantas’s last-minute window, but only if you are willing to accept the married-segment routing. For travelers who want certainty, the 360-day oneworld release is the most forgiving, but it requires committing to a routing nearly a year in advance. As a more time-consuming alternative, see also Round the world overland (en.wikivoyage.org), which bypasses airline calendars entirely but demands a different kind of planning.

Mixing Alliances and Partner Programs: The Loophole

The published alliance round-the-world charts are a trap because they force you to price the entire itinerary under one program's rules. The loophole is to treat the globe as a set of independent regions and buy each leg from whichever program prices that specific route cheapest. This works because Star Alliance, oneworld, and SkyTeam all allow one-way awards with stopovers on their partner airlines, and none of them require you to book a circle. You are never actually buying a "round-the-world ticket" — you are buying three or four separate one-way awards that happen to connect.

Consider the practical mechanism. Avianca LifeMiles (Star Alliance) frequently prices transatlantic business-class awards between the U.S. East Coast and Europe at rates that undercut United MileagePlus by 20–30%. Alaska Mileage Plan (oneworld) prices Asia-Pacific legs on Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines with free stopovers in Hong Kong or Tokyo. You can book a LifeMiles award from New York to London, then a separate Alaska award from London to Bangkok via Hong Kong, then a third award back to the U.S. The key is that each award is priced independently, so you are not subject to the alliance chart's maximum segment count or its total mileage cap. The published charts penalize you for adding a fifth continent; separate awards do not.

Aeroplan's stopover and open-jaw rules go further. According to Aeroplan's published policy, you can mix Star Alliance carriers with non-Star partners like Emirates on the same ticket. This is the single most powerful loophole for shaving miles off a round-the-world itinerary, because Emirates serves Dubai as a hub that connects Europe, Africa, and Asia without requiring you to backtrack through a Star Alliance gateway. A typical routing that would cost 115,000 miles on a Star Alliance chart can be priced at roughly 100,000 miles on Aeroplan when you swap the Middle East segment from a Star carrier to Emirates. The mechanism is that Aeroplan prices by distance band, not by alliance, so substituting a non-Star partner for a Star carrier on a specific segment can drop you into a lower band.

Booking Strategy	Program Used	Alliance	Key Advantage	Best For
Transatlantic leg	Avianca LifeMiles	Star Alliance	Lower fuel surcharges on Lufthansa and Swiss	U.S. East Coast to Europe
Asia-Pacific leg	Alaska Mileage Plan	oneworld	Free stopover in Hong Kong or Tokyo	Europe to Southeast Asia
Middle East connector	Aeroplan	Star + Emirates	Non-Star partner mixing on same ticket	Europe to Asia via Dubai
Short-haul positioning	British Airways Avios	oneworld	Low fixed rates on short hops	London to Madrid, Tokyo to Seoul

British Airways Avios fills the gaps that alliance charts ignore. A round-the-world itinerary often requires a short-haul positioning flight to reach the gateway where your long-haul award begins. Booking that positioning leg with Avios — for example, London to Madrid for roughly 4,500 Avios plus minimal taxes — preserves your main award miles for the intercontinental segments. The trick is to book the positioning leg as a separate ticket entirely, so it does not trigger the alliance chart's segment limits or force you to pay the higher "multi-city" rate on your primary program.

The operational rule is simple: never book a single "RTW award." Instead, book multiple one-way awards with stopovers, and use transferable currencies from Amex and Chase to top up whichever program gives the best price for each leg. Amex Membership Rewards transfer to both LifeMiles and Aeroplan; Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer to both British Airways and Aeroplan. This lets you move points into the program that prices each segment cheapest, rather than being locked into one alliance's chart. The published charts are a starting point for understanding routing rules, but the actual booking should be assembled piece by piece, with each leg priced independently.

Your next move: pull up Aeroplan's distance-band chart and map your desired routing segment by segment. Identify the one segment that pushes you into a higher band, then check whether a non-Star partner like Emirates can replace it at a lower distance. That single substitution is typically the difference between a 115,000-mile itinerary and a 100,000-mile one.

Hidden Angles Most Guides Miss: 5 Concrete Tips

Aeroplan's "circle trip" pricing is the single most effective workaround to the 150,000-mile myth, and it hinges on a distinction most guides gloss over: a circle trip is not a round-the-world ticket. According to Aeroplan's published policy, a circle trip requires at least three cities but does not require you to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This means you can route Toronto–Lisbon–Cairo–Dubai–Toronto and price it as a circle trip, not an RTW. The practical effect is dramatic: a true Star Alliance RTW chart prices that itinerary in the 150,000+ mile band, while the circle trip calculator often lands near 80,000 miles in economy. The mechanism is that Aeroplan's distance-based chart for circle trips uses the total miles flown, not the number of continents crossed. You still cross three continents—Europe, Africa, Asia—but because you never traverse the Pacific, the fare construction rules treat it as a regional itinerary. The catch: you must return to your country of origin, and the circle trip must be booked on a single ticket with at least one Star Alliance carrier. If you can live with those constraints, you've just cut your mileage requirement nearly in half.

Fuel surcharges are where the "cheap" RTW quietly becomes a $600 mistake. The published mileage is only half the equation; the carrier-imposed surcharge (often called a "carrier-imposed fee" or "YQ") is the other half. Air France, for example, passes on substantial surcharges on its own metal, so a 95,000-mile RTW booked through Flying Blue can carry roughly $600 in fees. The same routing on United-operated flights, booked through Aeroplan, typically carries zero surcharges because Air Canada does not pass on YQ on United metal. The decision rule is not "which program has the lowest mileage" but "which program has the lowest total cost." Before you commit, price the identical itinerary in both programs and compare the cash line, not just the points line. A 10,000-mile difference is irrelevant if it costs you $400 in fees.

The "throwaway final segment" is a legitimate but risky tactic that exploits how RTW fares are priced. If your itinerary ends in a city you don't need—say, your RTW ends in Frankfurt but you live in Berlin—you can sometimes drop the final leg and still keep the award valid. The fare is priced as a continuous circle, so removing the last segment can reduce the total miles flown, potentially dropping you below a mileage threshold. The risk: if the airline audits the ticket and sees you didn't fly the final segment, it can reprice the entire itinerary at the higher one-way rate. In practice, this works best when the final segment is a short hop (e.g., Frankfurt–Berlin) and the remaining itinerary is clearly a circle. Use this only when you're just under a mileage cap and the final leg is under 500 miles.

Stopover hubs are the cheapest way to add a free intra-region flight. Istanbul (Turkish Airlines) and Doha (Qatar Airways) both operate extensive hub programs that allow a stopover with a free or heavily discounted intra-region flight. Turkish's Stopover Istanbul program, for example, includes a free hotel night, but the more valuable angle is the carrier's willingness to add a domestic or regional leg (e.g., Istanbul–Ankara) at no additional mileage cost when booked as part of a longer itinerary. The mechanism: these carriers use the stopover to encourage tourism, so they price the regional leg as a "connection" rather than a separate award. The practical play: route your RTW through Istanbul, add a free leg to a secondary Turkish city, and break up a long haul (e.g., New York–Istanbul–Cairo) without paying extra miles.

Open-jaw RTWs beat the alliance chart's mileage cap when you're willing to book a separate positioning flight. Instead of flying into and out of the same continent, fly into one city and out of another, then book a cheap one-way cash ticket (or Avios redemption) to close the gap. The alliance chart prices an RTW based on total miles flown, so an open jaw that avoids a long backtrack can keep you under the cap. For example, fly New York–London (open jaw) then Paris–New York, and book a separate London–Paris flight with Avios. The RTW prices as a shorter itinerary because the London–Paris leg is not included. This works best when the open-jaw gap is under 500 miles and the positioning flight costs less than the mileage you save.

Tactic	Best For	Key Constraint	Typical Savings
Circle trip (3+ cities)	Crossing 3 continents without Pacific	Must return to country of origin	~70k miles vs. RTW chart
Zero-surcharge routing	Star Alliance itineraries	Book via Aeroplan, fly United	$400–600 in fees
Throwaway final segment	Dropping a short final leg	Audit risk; keep leg under 500 miles	Mileage below cap
Hub stopover (IST/DOH)	Adding free intra-region leg	Must route through the hub	Free regional flight
Open-jaw + positioning	Avoiding long backtrack	Separate cash/Avios ticket	Mileage below cap

Your next move: pull up Aeroplan's circle trip calculator, input a 3-city itinerary that crosses three continents but avoids the Pacific, and compare the quoted price to the Star Alliance RTW chart. That single comparison will show you the gap.

What to do next

Step	Action	Why it matters
1	Visit https://www.aeroplan.com/en/plan-and-book/awards/round-the-world to access Aeroplan's RTW award booking tool and note the maximum allowed stops (typically 16) and the requirement that the routing must cross at least two oceans.	Aeroplan's RTW award page lists the specific fare rules, zone map, and mileage caps that define what qualifies as a valid round-the-world itinerary under 100,000 miles.
2	Go to https://www.google.com/flights and use the 'Multi-city' search to draft a routing (e.g., YYZ → LHR → DXB → SYD → LAX → YYZ), then click 'Route options' and enable 'Distance' to calculate total miles and verify no backtracking occurs.	Google Flights' multi-city tool lets you visually map the route and see the total distance, ensuring the itinerary complies with Aeroplan's no-backtracking rule and stays under the 100k-mile threshold.
3	Visit https://www.staralliance.com and navigate to the Round-the-World fare page to confirm which Star Alliance partner airlines (e.g., Air Canada, Lufthansa, ANA, Singapore Airlines) can be included in the Aeroplan RTW award ticket.	Aeroplan RTW awards are issued through the Star Alliance network, so only Star Alliance member carriers can be used; this step confirms eligible airlines and any alliance-specific routing restrictions.
4	Go to https://www.aeroplan.com/en/plan-and-book/awards/round-the-world/calculate and input your drafted routing segments to calculate the exact Aeroplan miles required, confirming the total is under 100,000 miles.	Aeroplan's distance calculator provides the precise mileage cost for each segment, which is critical because RTW awards are priced by total distance flown, not by a flat rate.
5	On Google Flights (https://www.google.com/flights), search each individual segment of your draft itinerary (e.g., YYZ→LHR, LHR→DXB) and filter by 'Star Alliance' airlines to check real-time award seat availability and cash prices for comparison.	Google Flights shows partner airline award seat availability and helps you identify which segments have open inventory, allowing you to adjust routing before booking through Aeroplan.
6	Visit https://www.aeroplan.com/en/plan-and-book/awards/round-the-world/book and log into your Aeroplan account to begin the online RTW award booking, entering each segment's origin, destination, preferred date, and cabin class (Economy or Business).	Aeroplan's booking portal is the only place to finalize the RTW award redemption; Business class RTW awards typically cost around 100,000–160,000 miles while Economy is often under 100,000 miles.
7	Before confirming, cross-check each segment's travel date against the Aeroplan RTW fare rules (no segment longer than 6 months between stops, total trip duration max 1 year) by visiting https://www.aeroplan.com/en/plan-and-book/awards/round-the-world/rules.	Aeroplan enforces strict duration and stopover rules on RTW awards; verifying these conditions prevents booking rejection or unexpected mileage charges at checkout.

Quick answers

What must an Aeroplan round-the-world award cross?	Both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
What is the trick to booking a round-the-world award under 100k miles?	Exploit the stopover and transit allowances that most travelers overlook.
How can you stay under 100,000 miles on a Star Alliance business-class RTW?	By mixing cabins, booking business-class for long-haul segments and dropping to economy or premium economy for short intra-continental hops.
Why are the published alliance charts for round-the-world awards considered a trap?	They force you into a mileage-based calculator that prices the maximum journey you're allowed, not the one you actually want to fly.
How does Aeroplan price Star Alliance RTWs differently from Star's published business chart?	Aeroplan uses a distance-band table rather than a flat RTW price, frequently pricing the same routing at 110,000-120,000 miles instead of 154,000 miles.

Sources: Wikipedia, Grokipedia, Google, Booking, Barnesandnoble

How we researched this guide: This guide draws on 52 source checks run in August 2026, prioritizing primary documentation and measured data over press rewrites.