Introduction: My trip to all 6 continents for 1 million points

Last week, I booked all my flights for my epic 6-continent 3-week trip that starts tomorrow (well, almost; I still have 1 flight to book). This adventure, with over 40,000 miles in the air but thankfully only 2 overnight flights, is to get 1 million points. That’s the same crazy amount I got with my round-the-world trip last fall (which now seems like a walk in the park given this intense new flying challenge).

I’ve always shared daily stories on my personal Instagram account during my many trips. But as you might have noticed after 8+ years of Flytrippers, I’m a big fan of actually enjoying my trips for myself in the moment, and not spending all my time creating a ton of content about it while I’m there.

I already have to work during my trips to get content out, and with limited time, I prefer focusing on content that’s more useful to you (like our tips, news, etc.) than articles narrating my trip! Still, I have a travel website, so I really want to once again try to do better and share my travels with you, to inspire you and help you.

Here’s the introduction to my upcoming 6-continent trip, specifically the context and itinerary. The logistics, reviews, experiences, and all the details will follow soon.

Context of my trip to all 6 continents

It’s a relatively simple explanation: Turkish Airlines is giving 1 million points (value of ≈ $12,000 to UNLIMITED) to everyone who takes a Turkish flight to each of the 6 inhabited continents (sadly, you can’t participate anymore; you had to book at least 1 flight by July 8).

Last fall, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) was the first to do something that crazy, giving 1 million points to 940 travelers who flew 15 airlines (including me). It was the best promotion of the decade!

I had such a blast with that challenge, despite (or maybe because of?) the 22 flights in 24 days. It was so fun to go all around our planet on one single trip for the first time ever, passing through 18 countries. 

I got to enjoy a bit of time in many places! That’s always better than no time.

So while Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles miles are not quite as valuable as SAS EuroBonus points, I didn’t hesitate for a long time: I wanted to do the Turkish Airlines challenge as well.

I was already going to Asia in November, but I modified my plans to take a 6-continent trip instead. And I had to move it up because I already had 7 other trips planned this fall, and the Turkish promotion ends in October.

I usually never travel in the summer, as it’s the only time the weather is actually nice in our shitty climate, and I absolutely hate hordes of tourists and high prices.

But this was the only option to make it work.

I was supposed to have 4 weeks, but unfortunately, I had to condense it into 3 weeks. That’s even less time than my round-the-world trip, which involved a shorter distance. Too bad, but that’s life! I’m going to have plenty of points to go back everywhere, and in business class too!

Plus, I’ve never been particularly attracted to Oceania, and so I’d never been. Still, the prospect of exploring this region for the first time is exciting. 

Not to mention stepping foot on every continent on a single trip. 

How cool is that? That’s why I didn’t choose Sharm El-Sheikh as a destination, even though it counts as Africa for the challenge, and the cheapest flights were to there (it isn’t even in Africa).

If you’re interested, I already shared more details about why I chose these 6 destinations for the challenge, since this is a very peculiar trip, and also why I decided to do the challenge (and the other JetBlue challenge).

Since I’m also doing the JetBlue challenge for 350,000 points (that one you can still do, if you want), I’m flying JetBlue for my transatlantic flight to kill 2 birds with 1 stone; I’ll get the 1^st of my 20 required JetBlue destinations. The rest of those will come later in the fall.

Itinerary of my trip to all 6 continents

It’s obviously very far from being a typical trip. I see it as a business trip, where the business is getting 1 million points.

Here’s my overall itinerary.

(The only thing that will definitely change is the flight from Australia back to Türkiye that is marked as a direct nonstop flight here, which doesn’t exist. That’s the only part I haven’t booked yet; I’m still deciding whether I want to do it in business class with my existing points. I’m also tempted to stopover in Southeast Asia, one of my favorite regions in the world!)

I’m happy that I managed to build this itinerary with only 2 overnight flights!!! I valued that, as I am unable to sleep in a seat (unless it’s a lie-flat seat in business class, obviously).

It’s intense, but I frontloaded it a bit (a lot of flights in the 1^st week), so that I can take it slower after having done many miles in the air and maybe being more sick of it all.

Here are the many cities on that itinerary:

• Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦
  • A few hours
  • To attend a meeting before my actual trip
• New York, US 🇺🇸
  • 1 night
  • To position for my transatlantic flight
• London, UK 🇬🇧 
  • 1 day
  • To get my 1^st JetBlue destination
• Köln (Cologne), Germany 🇩🇪
  • 1 day
  • To save money on my flight to Türkiye 
• İstanbul, Türkiye 🇹🇷
  • 2 days
  • To save money on my flight to Asia
• Muscat, Oman 🇴🇲
  • 1 day
  • To get my 1^st Turkish continent
• Hurghada, Egypt 🇪🇬
  • 2 days
  • To get my 2^nd Turkish continent
• Sydney, Australia 🇦🇺
  • 8 days (TBD, based on my flight)
  • To get my 3^rd Turkish continent
• TBD destination from Australia to Türkiye
  • Might break up the journey to stop in SE Asia
• Ljubljana, Slovenia 🇸🇮
  • 1 day
  • To get my 4^th Turkish continent
• Bogotá, Colombia 🇨🇴
  • 1 day
  • To get my 5^th Turkish continent
• Chicago, US 🇺🇸
  • 1 night
  • To return home without going back across

I’m also passing through İstanbul a few other times due to the nature of this trip, but I didn’t repeat it in the list, even though I sometimes have a bit of time to go back into the city I’ve already been to 4 times (and that is one of my favorite cities in the world).

You might have noticed I’m missing my 6^th Turkish Airlines continent, North America. 

That’s because I had completely inflexible dates: I’m leaving for Toronto with my girlfriend the same day I return from this trip (by the way, as a follow-up to my post about the Air Canada strike, I’ve now booked Porter to avoid the risk).

And, with the hordes of tourists and all, prices on Turkish Airlines to North America were incredibly steep in mid-August. 

Instead, for the same overall price, I can go back to Europe in October and fly back for just 470 CAD to hit my 6^th continent. 

And I’ll have more time in Europe! Win-win! Especially since it will be in the best part of Europe, AKA certainly not the popular countries of Europe where everyone sadly always goes.

And I’ll get another JetBlue destination on my outbound flight, if JetBlue prices go back down to the very decent 299 USD I paid for a peak July flight in the non-Basic Economy fare class required for their promo!

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Summary

I’ve booked my trip to all 6 continents that starts tomorrow. I wanted to share the context and itinerary for the overall trip for those who often ask for more content about our own trips.

What would you like to know about my trip to all 6 continents? Tell us in the comments below.

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Featured image: My planned 6-continent itinerary (image credit: Travellers point)