Is it possible to travel around the entire globe exclusively on 737s? YES! And I am already working on my next big adventure.
Here’s how it will look–
- Los Angeles to Honolulu – United 737
- Honolulu to Guam on Island Hopper – United 737
- Guam to Hong Kong – United 737
- Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia 737
- Kuala Lumpur to Delhi – Malindo Air 737
- Delhi to Dubai – JET 737
- Dubai to Istanbul – Pegasus 737
- Istanbul to Copenhagen – Pegasus 737
- Copehangen to Boston – SAS 737
- Boston to Los Angeles – United 737
With a combo of points plus cheap tickets, it should be a relatively economical trip as well.
But I must admit–I’d like to make it a little crazier. My proposed routing would be among the most straightforward, but it would not take me to any new places. In no particular order of preference, here’s some places I would love to hit on the trip–
- Busan, South Korean
- Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
- Vientiane, Laos
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Paro, Bhutan
- Kathmandu, Nepal
- Tashkent, Uzbekistan
- Dushanbe, Tajikistan
- Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
Busan is easy enough — I could just fly from Guam to Busan on a 737. Getting to the other places? Well, that becomes more difficult without backtracking or huge costs.
CONCLUSION
This trip is just something I dreamed about last night (yes, I dream about flying 737s around the world) and have just started to more closely examine. It does seem very possible. Nevertheless, I would welcome your suggestions on how I might improve up on it.
dont wanna sound pedantic but you might be missing DXB on your map
Thanks Henry. Good catch. I updated the map.
Are you flying economy, business, or a combination?
I hope to fly business as much as possible, but will not be spending a lot of money (if possible) on this trip.
What do you expect to pay in points and cash?
No budget for this and I have not set down to figure it out yet, but ideally I keep expenses under $2K.
no south america? you could easily fly Copa to almost any destination down south via panama on a 737
I love South America, but I don’t see a way to get to either Africa or Australia via a 737. Even the Santiago – Eater Island – Tahiti – Auckland route is on a widebody.
i have mad respect for anyone who can complete this itinerary all in narrowbody flights … let alone in coach. Heck, i’ll be needing a chiropractor waiting for me at the tarmac even if it were all in lie flats =p
Interesting idea! Not sure I’d actually want to do this, but could be quite the experience. Here’s my additions to add NZ/Oz instead of Guam:
– FJ flies HNL-NAN with fuel stops in either Apia or Kiritimati
– FJ flies NAN-SYD/AKL/WLG/CHC with mix of 737s and A330s
– From any of those destinations you can get to DPS with 737s with QF/VA combinations. I assume you can then connect from there on MH or other carriers.
That would be a great opportunity to check off a new country (Samoa). I’m very tempted!
You ought to try and do one of the DY 737-MAX flights to get back across the pond from Europe. You could fly into BDL, then either two-hop on Southwest, or do Southwest to a larger airport where you can hop on a 737 on a legacy to return to LAX.
Great idea, especially if I can get a fair price on premium economy.
No Premium Class on the 737, unfortunately 🙁
You’d have to fly that segment in coach, though I suppose you could book an exit row. But regardless, you’d be doing it in a 737-MAX!
I’m sure I’ll survive! 😉
As someone who has been to 6 of the 9 places you want to go, I would recommend doing Ashgabat on a Asia-Europe flight. Turkmenistan Airlines is trying to set itself up as the “Istanbul” of Central Asia. They have a brand new airport and they fly 777-200LR from Beijing to Ashgabat with lie-flat seats in a 2-2-2 layout. Surprisingly the hard product was much better than I expected but the soft product as comically bad but no surprise. Tickets in J are sometimes only €100 more than Y.
Great info. I’ll save Turkmenistan for another trip.
Should say that I know this is a 737 round the world trip so obviously meant the Ashgabat/Turkmenistan Airlines would be for another time when you’re trying to get from Asia to Europe
How much is Korean’s 737 between Busan and Hong Kong?
Very expensive. I’d have to use points.
This looks nice! I can’t imagine how I’d feel though if there was a change of equipment in the last leg.
That would surely stink!
In economy? I say YIKES. I’d need a few days to recouperate between segments!
More exciting to take WestJet between Europe and Canada.
Probably need to “get your skates”on as SAS have announced an equip change to A332 for CPH-BOS sector coming October 2017.
Announcement can be found here:
http://www.sasgroup.net/en/sas-to-fly-direct-from-stockholm-to-miami-from-october/
I counter with an all A320 series RTW.
LAX-PIT on Spirit A319
PIT-KEF on WOW A321
KEF-FRA on Lufthansa A320
FRA-BEY on MEA A320
BEY-DXB on MEA A320
DXB-DEL on IndiGo A320
DEL-SIN on Air India A321
SIN-BKK on Scoot or Jetstar A320
BKK-MFM on Air Macau A320
MFM-PUS on Air Busan A321
PUS-CTS on Air Busan A321
Then it gets tough because there’s nobody using A320 in the Pacific except Hawaiian’s new A321neo routes.