Lindsay Deutsch

USA TODAY Network

Jordan Axani hasn't even started his round-the-world trip yet, but it's been quite a ride.

The 28-year-old Canadian's story went viral when he posted a plea on Reddit in November for someone — anyone — named Elizabeth Gallagher to take plane tickets he'd initially purchased for his now-ex-girlfriend, since she was no longer going on their multi-continent, 21-day trip and the tickets were non-transferrable.

On Sunday, Axani embarks from John F. Kennedy airport in New York with his new friend, former stranger, avid volunteer and fellow Canadian, Elizabeth Gallagher. They'll go to Milan, Prague, Paris, Bangkok and New Delhi.

And when he gets back, the real estate developer will begin building his new charity, A Ticket Forward. The crowdfunding charity, which has already partnered with Marriott, raises money to gift transformative trips to those who don't have the funds to travel.

"I didn't want this to go viral. I actually tried to kill the story because I'm not a fame-seeking guy," Axani said Thursday morning, after an appearance on Good Morning America. "But I'm really getting to make lemonade with what could have been a bad situation."

It all began when Axani bought the tickets in May during what he thought was "an incredible seat sale on a travel website, but which turned out to be a gross and widely publicized malfunction."

After an amicable break-up in August, the idea to make a post on Reddit and find a replacement Elizabeth Gallagher came up at a dinner party. Why let the ticket go to waste, a friend mentioned.

From there, in the words of Axani, "it started to billow."

He received thousands of e-mails to his personal account, including people willing to change their name to go on the trip, stories about how people wish they could take a trip like this — and 18 viable Canadian Elizabeth Gallagher picks.

"I want to be 100% clear, this was not a romantic gesture. I was simply looking for someone to find the ticket. Fully paid, around the world, why not?" he says. "All I asked was that the person pay it forward."

His new Elizabeth is a 23-year-old student from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. And yes, she has a serious boyfriend.

An unintended result of the Reddit post, Axani says, is that he was genuinely inspired by a barrage of "heartwrenching, moving, sometimes terrifying" messages that prospective travelers sent him about how they wished they'd have this opportunity. It led him to start the charity A Ticket Forward.

"One woman I am corresponding with is terminally ill with lung disease and has young kids, and said her biggest fear is not death, but that her children will not be able to see the world, because she did not have the opportunity herself," he says.

The charity has already helped four people, and he hopes they'll reach hundreds in 2015.

Beyond that, Axani does not know what's next. He's since spent time in Hollywood hearing pitches and, he says, "saying 'no' far more than saying 'yes.'" Among them: a version of a traveling, "international" Bachelor.

But for now, he's focused on the start of the trip — and meeting his 21-day travel partner Elizabeth for the first time Thursday night.

Follow @lindsdee on Twitter.