As the BBC’s popular Race Across The World reaches its final stage this week with the contestants heading to the tip of India, we have taken up a similar challenge - a race across the world in the shortest possible time.

The rules are simple:

• No backhauls permitted
• Unless there are no other options, a change of airline for each sector has to be made

To make it even more interesting, we’re going to take two trips; one flying only low-cost and one with legacy airlines. Which will take us around the world in the shortest time? What will the difference in total airfares be? With the rules in place, we set off on our challenge to find out!

Race Across The World: Legacy Airline Routing

Starting the journey in London Gatwick and travelling in an easterly direction, we initially headed off towards Jeddah, arriving late at night before waiting a few hours to connect to Dubai where a civilised arrival time of 07:55 provided an opportunity for a stretch of the legs and breakfast before switching terminals to continue onwards to Asia, specifically to Delhi.

A lunchtime departure with Air India results in an early evening arrival in Delhi and then a five-hour connection before joining the Thai International overnight service to Bangkok which arrives at 05:05. This just allows enough time for some food and a freshen up before connecting onto the next flight heading to Tokyo Narita. The planned Japan Air Lines service provides a welcome daylight flight with another civilised arrival in Tokyo at 16:15 and a four-hour connection onto the All Nippon Airways service to Honolulu at 20:10. Travelling to Honolulu is an important part of the routing, as we crucially cross the international date line, travelling back in time.

Arriving in Honolulu before we left Tokyo at 08:10 may feel a bit odd, but gaining twenty-four hours in the race makes all the difference, especially when a quick three hour connection puts us on a United Airlines service to Los Angeles where we can have a quick dinner at 19:46. A change of terminals in Los Angeles and a short connection may make dinner a “grab and go” experience as the American Airlines trans-continental service departs at 21:21. On a classic red-eye we arrive in JFK at 05:55 which connects perfectly with the British Airways 07:50 daylight service to London Heathrow scheduled to arrive at 19:45 but regularly early for anyone wanting to catch a late show in London after that trip!

Result: We calculated air fares for this round trip to be around £3,200. This is based on last minute airfares, and of course airfares vary so this is just a rough benchmark to compare with our low-cost journey. Departing mid-afternoon on Tuesday and back in London by Friday evening seems an efficient routing at around 76 hours, but can a low-cost route beat that?

Race Across The World: Low-Cost Carrier Routing

The low-cost round the world routing follows the same journey and airports as the legacy schedule, with the exception of the final destination changing from London Heathrow to London Gatwick on the low-cost route. The low-cost journey starts with a late afternoon departure from London Gatwick to Jeddah on the new daily Wizzair service. After an overnight stay in the airport, a FlyNAS service connects to Dubai where another lengthy layover is required before catching the first of two Indigo services which arrives at 03:10 in the morning. At this point it’s clear that the frequency of low-cost airline services is not as high as their legacy competitors as another seven hour wait in Delhi provides plenty of time to catch up on some food and rest before continuing with IndiGo to Bangkok, arriving in Thailand at 15:55.

The calmness of Bangkok Airport provides an opportunity for another lengthy connection before leaving for Tokyo Narita with ZipAir, an overnight service arriving at 07:30 followed by a near twelve-hour layover before connecting onwards to Honolulu with the same airline - so there is no need to worry about running for your next flight. Again, arriving before you’ve left may seem odd but the 07:45 arrival in Honolulu means another connection of over six hours before jumping on a Southwest Airlines service to Los Angeles.

While the Southwest service may offer the benefits of a daylight flight, it also results in an arrival at 23:25 in Los Angeles and another over-night stop before connecting to JetBlue and their service to New York JFK, which arrives at 16:32. A rapid terminal change and race around JFK should make the onward connection with Norse to London possible, before finally collapsing on another overnight service back to London Gatwick with an arrival time of 06:20am.

Result: In total a journey around the world using low-cost airlines takes closer to 110 hours; 34 hours longer than the legacy option (76 hours) with the main difference being longer connecting times and sleepovers in airport terminals on the LCC option. For this trip, the total fare was £1,800, £1,400 less than the legacy version.

While it may be very possible to travel around the world within one week with either a legacy or low-cost airline, let’s not forget that the point of travel is to experience new sights and sounds. So unless comparing seat 32A on various airlines is of interest perhaps a more leisurely ‘race’ would make sense for most people!