17 Flights, 21 days, & 26,808 Miles; An ANA Round-The-World Adventure!

My most complex trip yet! In the span of just 21 days, I took 17 flights, 3 trains, 1 boat, and countless taxis to achieve my goal of circumnavigating the world. Here's how it all unfolded...

A detailed flight map showcasing the 17 flights taken during the round-the-world adventure

Some Things to Look Forward to:
EVA Royal Laurel Business Class 787-10 & 777-300ER
LOT Polish Business Class 787-9
Tez Jet’s Avro RJ85 Quad Engine Regional Jet
Uzbekistan Railways Overnight & Highspeed Trains
…and more!

Overview:

This trip is easily the most complicated and ambitious itinerary I have ever put together, and planning began just about a year in advance—as is common with award tickets.

After many hours of searching, I called ANA to book two Round-The-World tickets in business using miles. Over the months leading up to departure a few of my flights got moved around, but the final ANA ticket was as follows:

JFK-WAW LOT Polish Airlines (Business)
2 DAY STOPOVER
WAW-IST LOT Polish Airlines (Business)
12 DAY STOPOVER
IST-SOF Turkish Airlines (Business)
SOF-VIE Austrian Airlines (Business)
VIE-BKK EVA Airlines (Business)
1 DAY STOPOVER
BKK-TPE EVA Airlines (Business)
2 DAY STOPOVER
TPE-ORD EVA Airlines (Business)
125,000NH + $610

Unfortunately, I was only able to find space for two people on the EVA flights and I was planning to travel with my parents, so I ended up booking a slightly different itinerary for the third person who has less of an interest in aviation.

JFK-WAW LOT Polish Airlines (Business)
2 DAY STOPOVER
WAW-IST LOT Polish Airlines (Business)
12 DAY STOPOVER
IST-WAW LOT Polish Airlines (Business)
WAW-MIA LOT Polish Airlines (Business)
88,000NH + $260

As you can see the bulk of the time is scheduled for Istanbul, but I intended to plan very little time in the city and instead use Istanbul as a departure point for additional flights to Central Asia that I booked with cash.

IST-GYD Turkish Airlines (Economy)
GYD-TAS Uzbekistan Airlines (Economy)
UGC-TAS Uzbekistan Airlines (Economy)
TAS-FRU Uzbekistan Airlines (Economy)
FRU-OSS Tez Jet (Economy)
OSS-IKU Tez Jet (Economy)
FRU-ALA Air Astana (Economy)
ALA-IST Air Astana (Economy)

Throw in two positioning flights within the US and we arrive at the very ambitious number of 17 flights total, in… 21 days. I also booked three train tickets for Uzbekistan and two long distance car transfers in Kyrgyzstan.

The final flown itinerary was as follows:

CMH-JFK American Airlines (First)
18hr LAYOVER
JFK-WAW LOT Polish Airlines (Business)
2 DAY STOPOVER
WAW-IST LOT Polish Airlines (Business)
7hr LAYOVER
IST-GYD Turkish Airlines (Economy)
6hr LAYVOER
GYD-TAS Uzbekistan Airlines (Economy)
1 DAY STOPOVER
TAS-SKD Uzbekistan Railways
2 DAY STOPOVER
SKD-BHK Uzbekistan Railways
1 DAY STOPOVER
BHK-Khiva Uzbekistan Railways
1 DAY STOPOVER
UGC-TAS Uzbekistan Airlines (Economy)
2.5hr LAYOVER
TAS-FRU Uzbekistan Airlines (Economy)
2.5 DAY STOPOVER
FRU-OSS Tez Jet (Economy)
7hr LAYOVER
OSS-IKU Tez Jet (Economy)
IKU-Song Kul Lake Car Transfer
1 NIGHT
Song Kul Lake-FRU Car Transfer
FRU-ALA Air Astana (Economy)
1 DAY STOPOVER
ALA-IST Air Astana (Economy)
10hr LAYOVER
IST-SOF Turkish Airlines (Business)
2hr LAYOVER
SOF-VIE Austrian Airlines (Business)
6hr LAYOVER
VIE-BKK EVA Airlines (Business)
1 DAY STOPOVER
BKK-TPE EVA Airlines (Business)
2 DAY STOPOVER
TPE-ORD EVA Airlines (Business)
2hr LAYOVER
ORD-CMH United Airlines (Economy Plus)

Day One:

CMH-JFK American Airlines Flight# 4685
Aircraft: ERJ-175 N122HQ
Class: First
Seat: 3A

The Escape Lounge @ CMH

My parents who have AA status were upgraded to a very empty first class cabin a few minutes prior to departure as American only allows 1 companion to be upgraded. After boarding and going to my initial seat, 9A, I was moved up to 3A, presumably for weight and balance reasons, by a very kind flight attendant.

As we were getting ready to leave lighting struck close by and we were forced to wait for about 30 minutes for it to clear up. After the storm passed the fuelers were unable to get the fuel cap open, but after another 30-minute delay for maintenance to fix the issue, we taxied to depart.

The flight over to Kennedy was extremely uneventful. One drink service coupled with a small Biscoff bar was all we got for the 90-minute flight.

Hyatt Regency JFK Airport

The last time I had an overnight layover at JFK I stayed at the TWA hotel, which while nice routinely costs nearly $400 a night. Due to that I opted to stay at the Hyatt Regency JFK which I booked for 15,000 Hyatt points. The hotel is nice, but I would consider the TWA hotel again in the future—the Hyatt isn’t exactly close to the airport and a taxi to/from JFK costs about $30 each way. I didn’t realize it when booking, but it also is attached to a casino if you want that.

Day Two:

JFK-WAW LOT Polish Airlines Flight# 7
Aircraft: 787-9 SP-LSC (Polish Independence Livery)
Class: Business
Seat: 2A

Check-in at JFK’s terminal 7 went relatively smoothly. There is a dedicated lane for business/premium/HON which was helpful for saving us a bit of time. Although LOT has a 10kg carryon baggage allowance I had no problems getting them to tag my 15kg bags as cabin baggage. Interestingly they also hand write invitations to the lounge here as you cannot enter the Horizons Lounge in T7 with just a boarding pass.

JFK Terminal 7

LOT Check-in @ JFK T7

LOT does not participate in TSA Pre Check, but they do offer expedited TSA screening for business passengers. We took advantage of this benefit and it saved quite a bit of time. Although I wish LOT had PreCheck the priority security line was very short and PreCheck would have made little difference for us in this case.

LOT uses the Horizons Lounge at JFK T7 for their business class passengers. The Horizons Lounge used to be the T7 British Airways lounge before they joined American Airlines in T8. As a result, the lounge is significantly larger than it likely needs to be (they have some sections closed off and even then, it is still oversized in my opinion) and was almost empty for the duration of my visit. I found the food on offer to be excellent when comparing it to other lounges. The curry dish they had was particularly good and stood out from the other options. Unfortunately the bathrooms are quite small and were not in the best shape when I visited, but I am willing to overlook that given the good food and general lack of crowding.

Salad Bar

Hot Options (rice, chicken, pasta, vegetables)

The water is still BA branded

Not a soul to be seen :)

Boarding began at its scheduled time, and we were met onboard with pre departure drinks and canapes.

PDB & Canapés

LOT’s business class on the 787-9 is arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration which on paper is… less than idea for a flagship transatlantic product. Luckily it seems that at least on the JFK-WAW route business almost never sells out. My flight was no exception to this trend with only about 50% of seats being occupied—meaning that all three of us got our own rows (6 seats total). Interestingly many of the seats appeared blocked on the seat map prior to departure and had various INOP markings onboard. I'd be curious to know if LOT sells these seats or if they are always left empty.

The amenity kit provided contained all the basics, but nothing was to write home about. Slippers and headphones were also given out which is always a nice touch.

Headphones (I prefer my Sony's and never opened them)

PDB II--water!

LOT does not offer online meal preordering and instead relies on a paper menu distributed during boarding. My only complaint is that items were marked MIA/LAX only in fine print which was a bit odd to see as our flight had originated from JFK. There's no need to tease your passengers LOT!

It's nice to see a non-alcoholic wine on offer. Unfortunately I didn't notice it until writing this report or I would have tried it.

Some nice engine views out of JFK.

Shortly after takeoff warm towels were brought around—nice to see them returning following the pandemic. Dinner service began promptly with a drink—blackcurrant juice—and warm nuts.

Next up was the first course. After hesitating about which choice would be best, either the prawns or the soup, the flight attendant insisted I try both and who am I to turn down such an offer…

This was my first time having soup in the sky and while it was tasty I found the prawns a bit better--the fennel puree really added to them!

I opted to go with the fried tilapia as my main course and found it to be quite good. The fish was cooked well and tasted decent to me—at least as far as it goes for fish at 30,000ft! Warm bread was also served prior to this course.

There were a different desert options for this flight as indicated on the menu and I decided to follow the flight attendant’s advice to get both cheese and opera cake. She was certainly correct about the opera cake—it was wonderful! The cheese was fine too, but not exactly memorable.

Although LOT’s older seat style lacks privacy it does offer a very large sleeping surface. Unlike reverse herringbone and similar styles of seats your legs are completely unrestricted. As such, assuming you can get a row to yourself it makes for a very good sleeping experience! The beading provided is thick and an optional mattress pad is located at every seat. In contrast to the bedding, I found the pillow quite thin, but I was able to get a second one after asking a flight attendant.

On longer routes such as those to Miami and Los Angeles LOT offers a substantial mid-flight snack. For a quick hop across the Atlantic like this they instead offer a variety of cold, prepackaged, snacks. After asking a flight attendant for one he insisted I tried all of them… and of course, how can you say no to such a proposition! So…

A little bit before landing breakfast was served following yet another warm towel. I decided to go with the continental breakfast and found it pretty good. The fruit seemed fresh and the cheese and cold cuts were good.

The lavatories—the standard Boeing 787 affair—were kept clean throughout the flight and included a fresh rose. It’s also worth noting that the tray tables swivel as to not lock you into your seat during meal service.

And with that we began our descent down into Warsaw Chopin International Airport.

In short, this flight really exceeded my expectations. Going into it I had read about the horrors of the 2-2-2 layout and potential poor service, but those fears turned out to be unfounded. Maybe my view would be a bit different if the cabin was full, but that doesn’t appear to be too common an occurrence. I specifically want to highlight the crew on this flight—they did a wonderful job and left me with a very positive impression of the airline that makes me want to fly them again in the future.

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