The idea

Flying around the world in economy class (in just over a week). Sound crazy...or the beginnings of a great adventure? As a contributing editor for Airways magazine, the original idea was to report on the economy class service of the world's 5-star airlines, as rated by SKYTRAX, a London based company that specializes in research for the air transport industry. Established in 1989, SKYTRAX now operates the world's most comprehensive range of airline, airport and air travel customer surveys. Each year, SKYTRAX releases its world airline star rankings.

In 2008, five international airlines were awarded the 5-star status: Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, and Asiana Airlines (Korea). Kingfisher Airlines (India) was awarded 5-stars in the domestic category. In case you're wondering, Air Koryo (North Korea) is the world's only 1-star airline.

Malaysia, Singapore, and Qatar were keen to support my idea. Asiana and Cathay were not interested in participating; however, the latter offers reasonably priced fares from New York to Vancouver. This meant I could still make the project work by reporting on four of the five airlines and choosing a routing that would take me around the world.

With the all the airlines finally onboard, the next challenge was getting each to coordinate the schedule I had offered up.

Vancouver - Los Angeles (TBD)
Los Angeles - Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia Airlines)
Kuala Lumpur - Singapore (Malaysia Airlines)
Singapore - Dubai (Singapore Airlines)
Dubai - Doha (Qatar Airways)
Doha - New York (Qatar Airways)
New York - Vancouver (Cathay Pacific)

If all goes well, in a little more than two weeks time, I will begin my round the world journey.