A 22-year-old Australian has made headlines after revealing a trick that allowed her to fly to six destinations around the world for just $3,134.
With little money and lots of time, university students are known for travelling around the world cheaply.
However, Aussie student Mia Alpy went viral when she shared a video revealing how she flew around the world for the same price as return flights to Europe.
“If you want to travel around the whole world really cheap, then listen to this, I have a really good travel hack,” Alpy said in the TikTok video.
Alpy also claimed most people she talks to are not aware of the trick.
“Every time I’ve ever told someone about it, they’ve never heard of it and they either don’t understand how it works or they don’t even believe me that it’s a real thing,” she said.
@mia_alpy This is how I could afford to fly round the whole world on a uni students budget! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #travel #travelhack #cheapflights #roundtheworldticket
♬ original sound - mia.alpy
The magic ticket for cheap flights
Alpy goes on to explain how she flew to six international destinations using a ‘round-the-world ticket’.
“Basically it’s one plane ticket that takes you around the whole world on a bunch of different flights,” she said, showing viewers the itinerary and seven flights.
The Aussie’s flights went from Brisbane to Singapore, Singapore to Bangkok, Bangkok to Zurich, London to Zurich, and Zurich to New York.
All up, tickets for Alpy and her friend cost AU$5800, which was AU$2900 (NZ$3134) each, through Flight Centre.
She flew economy on a combination of airlines including Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, United Airlines and Qantas.
Savings come with sacrifices
Naturally, there is a bit of a catch, Alpy added; travellers must be “super flexible” with the dates they travel.
“Basically, just say ‘Here are the rough dates I want to go to these continents’ and it will get you between the continents on the cheapest flights possible,” she said.
Plus, to get cheap flights, travellers must “fly out of the same place you fly in, in each continent.”
So, after flying from Brisbane to Singapore, Alpy spent a few months travelling Asia but when it was time to head to Europe, she had to fly out of Singapore.
“Same thing with Europe, I flew into Zurich, and then I spent four or five months travelling around Europe and then when I left Europe, I had to fly out of Zurich and then I flew to America,” she explained.
Additionally, as the name suggests, travellers must go ‘round the world’ in one direction. Flights can only head one way around the globe.
“You do have to keep going around the world (in) one way,” Alpy said.
“So you either need to go clockwise or anti-clockwise around the world and you can’t backtrack ... you have to keep going.”
Ticket hack made the dream trip ‘super affordable’
Despite these requirements, Alpy said the hack was absolutely worth it, as tickets were cheaper than a return fare to Europe from Australia.
“I literally got around the whole world for like AU$2800 when a flight just to Europe and back is like double that,” she said.
Plus, it was easy to organise.
“If you literally Google round the world ticket, a bunch of different providers offer this and it’s just a super, super cheap way to get around the whole world,” she said.
The traveller’s video has been viewed more than 450,000 times and more than 500 viewers have left comments.
One pushed back on Alpy’s claim that the hack was unknown.
“Not talking about it? I bought a “round the world ticket” in 2001,” they wrote.
Another said the flights may have been cheap but that wasn’t the only major cost in a holiday.
“Plane tickets is not the problem. the hotels cost alot off money,” they wrote.
When asked what she did for months in Europe, Alpy said she didn’t get a working visa but just travelled around.
Sarah Pollok is an Auckland-based journalist at the Herald, specialising in covering stories about travel. She has adventured as close as Waiheke and as far as Ecuador for work.