As the saying goes, “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” And while newly minted Guinness World Record holder Mike Robinson would agree that luck was on his side during his journey around the world, you can’t discount the amount of preparation he put into orchestrating the perfect trip. Clocking in at 58 hours and eight minutes, Mike now holds the record for the fastest circumnavigation by scheduled flights through exact antipodal points.
As for the opportunity, luck might have played a role there, too.
“After 25 years, my wife and I moved to a new house—just 300 meters down the road,” Mike said with a laugh. “During the process of packing and unpacking, I found an old copy of Guinness World Records. Flipping through, I saw the previous record—62 hours and 15 minutes—hadn’t been broken in about 25 years, and I just thought, ‘well, that seems feasible.’”
Based in Melbourne, Australia, Mike has racked up a hearty supply of frequent flyer miles over the years—traveling for both business and leisure.
“Before COVID, I would travel weekly for work, mostly to domestic locations,” he said. “In my role now for SAP, I manage business partnerships across Asia-Pacific. With international business travel, I like to break up the journey—adding on a stop before or after the trip to see something more than the inside of another office.”
In addition to business and blended trips, Mike takes at least one international vacation per year. Last year, he and his wife spent a couple of weeks in Europe, revisiting beloved towns in Italy and seeing their daughter who lives in London.
From frequent flyer to fastest flyer
All those frequent flyer miles served him when it came time to plan his world-record journey.
“Once I verified with Guinness World Records that the previous record was still intact, I mapped out how I could break it. Thanks to my loyalty to Oneworld alliance, I booked the entire journey on reward points.”
That journey would start on January 25, 2025, at Auckland Airport in New Zealand—with stops at New York’s JFK Airport, Madrid-Barajas Airport and Málaga Airport in Spain, and Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar—before returning to Auckland just two days later on January 27.
“I reached out to the airlines I’d be flying—Qantas Airways, Iberia, and Qatar Airways—ahead of time, because I needed them to be on board,” Mike explained. “I couldn’t risk just showing up that day and asking the crews for photos and witness statements.”
Gathering witness statements wasn’t the only variable Mike was wary of ahead of his round-the-world trek.
“The week before my trip, I was traveling for work—and my flight up to Singapore was delayed five hours! I thought, ‘if this happens next week, I won’t break the record.’”
Navigating gate to gate—and across the finish line
In the end, Mike had no reason to worry: every flight he took landed early. Luck was indeed on his side.
“Once I was in the air on that first flight, the execution of this journey was out of my control,” Mike recalled. “But everything went to plan: I breezed through customs at JFK with the Mobile Passport Control app. And thanks to TripIt Pro, I kept track of this multi-day, multi-stop itinerary—receiving updates throughout the entire journey. The gate-to-gate directions and interactive airport maps were especially helpful for knowing where to go when I landed so I’d make my next flight on time.”
“Thanks to TripIt Pro, I kept track of this multi-day, multi-stop itinerary—receiving updates throughout the entire journey. The gate-to-gate directions and interactive airport maps were especially helpful for knowing where to go when I landed so I’d make my next flight on time.”
A TripIt user for over 10 years, Mike used the app to keep himself organized throughout his journey, including documenting what lounges he could get into at each airport.
“I also shared my TripIt itinerary with my wife so she could keep tabs,” said Mike. “She knew exactly where I was—which was especially helpful when I was crossing 24 time zones—as well as when I was scheduled to land or take off next.”
But not all of Mike’s stops involved an airport. A key component of breaking this world record was traveling through exact antipodal points—that is, two points that are diametrically opposite; a straight line passing through a sphere (like Earth) would connect them. From Mike’s starting point in Auckland, New Zealand, he had to travel to its antipodal point in the countryside of Andalusia, Spain—hiring a driver to not only reach the point, but to also bear witness.
“After arriving at the antipodal point—kind of in the middle of nowhere in Spain—I felt this immense sense of relief,” said Mike. “I still had two more flights to go, but I knew then that it was going to work out.”
Mike and his driver even had time to stop for a coffee and to sample some local Manchego cheese (when in Spain!). But then Mike was off again. First, Málaga to Doha, where he actually slept for once—”I’m a notoriously bad sleeper on planes, so getting six hours sleep was incredible”—and received a golf cart escort through the Doha airport to catch his final flight back to Auckland.
”That was quite the VIP experience!” he remarked. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
Planning, preparation, and the people you meet along the way
So, what had Mike expected from his record-breaking 58-hour journey?
“Like most things in life, it was more about the preparation than the execution,” he said. “Since I knew sleep probably wasn’t in the cards, I planned ahead by booking showers at airport lounges to help me feel refreshed. I also brought four identical shirts, so all my photos and videos would align. I borrowed that idea from David Attenborough.”
Logistics aside, Mike was grateful for his fellow passengers’ curiosity and excitement about his journey, as well as the many crew members’ engagement and support. Whether it was a surprise glass of champagne to mark the start of his endeavor, or a warm welcome on the final leg home, Mike felt the love from all those he met along the way.
“I love travel planning and working out interesting itineraries, so there was no hardship in this journey,” he said. “It was all a bit of fun."
