【Traveling the World with Family】Surprisingly, the airfare was paid by credit card

◾️600,000 yen for airfare for the three of us for now

On June 25, 2025,
Star Alliance, which includes ANA,
announced the suspension of issuing
round-the-world award tickets, and

in this day and age where
"traveling the world with miles" has become difficult.

In this era where know-how on utilizing miles
has become a high-priced commodity
(I wonder what kind of techniques they are using...)

I dared to pay by credit card
to buy the airfare
for our round-the-world trip🥹
(You could also say I didn't have enough miles)

Over 600,000 yen for the three of us.

The amount is huge, but
if you think of it as around 200,000 yen per person,
I think we did
relatively well.

By the way, click here for information on accommodation costs↓

◾️The secret to keeping airfare to 600,000 yen

What I purchased this time was a
round-trip ticket from
Singapore Airlines, which boasts
the world's best airport and is renowned as the world's best airline.

"Round-the-world air tickets"
seem to have various restrictions such as the number of stopovers and target regions, but

What I chose this time was to
book the major flights departing from and arriving in Japan
as a multi-city (open-jaw) itinerary
ticket.

And thenuse local trainsor
supplement smaller flights
with miles.that is the plan.

For now, I think I managed to keep the most expensive part
cheaper than a one-way ticket!

You don't have to force yourself to
travel everywhere by plane.

There are scenic views
that you can only enjoy because you are on a train.

Depending on the destination,
this is actually more flexible,
and it increases the freedom of the trip.

As a result,
I think
it might have been better not to
get a round-the-world air ticket.

In fact, for this trip's plan, I chose
a train with a dining car
to travel from Germany to Austria, where I can enjoy the scenery of the Bavarian Forest,
and

for traveling on the US West Coast,
I plan to watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean
from the train window.

Booking smaller flights
with milesis also a subtle but important point.

By avoiding LCCs (low-cost carriers),
we aim to minimize travel to and from airports
and hopefully reduce the fatigue
of our 4-year-old as much as possible.

Just think about how much brainpower
is going into this world tour (lol).

But as I wrote before,
this trip is something I absolutely
want the three of us to enjoy together,

so I intend to make the most of this
and fully utilize
all of my resources.

◾️The ultimate secretary for planning is ChatGPT

By the way, for travel planning,
of course,ChatGPT (Plus)is the one.

It saves me the trouble of endlessly searching for reviews online
or translating things one by one
in an instant,

and it provides clues to solve
any concerns or questions I have
all at once.
(Of course, I do the final check myself.)

Honestly, it is often
smarter than I am,
and while it clearly makes
strange suggestions sometimes,

it is also incredibly helpful
that it offers novel ideas
about worlds that are
far beyond my own knowledge.