I am planning to do a 10 day RTW using a One World Explorer fare to get EXEC PLAT . I plan on going FIRST. Itinerary ( always fun to do ) is negotiable.

Are you going this year or next?

I'll probably try to do such a thing in Feb or March. I doubt we can match our dates, but we can plan together for separate dates, even if we don't travel together.

Plan to go in late June or early July of 2001 so that EXP status will be good until 2/2003!! ( COnfirmed with AAdvantage )

I'd be interested if you do it in mid june (i.e. latest start by 15 Jun) as I need to requalify for BA Gold by the end of June. I dont really need a whole RTW to requalify but i'd still do a ten day one http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Two important things though - 1) i would start in india (bombay) since that's where i'll be and 2) i'll probably do it in J class since a bunch of flights I would be taking dont have a first cabin.

let me know how your plans progress.

A typical RTW is 20,000 to 30,000 miles (or 30K to 45K in F class), and AA Executive Platinum is 100,000 miles. So does this mean the RTW is only to top up your account, or do you have some trick to "challenge" E/P?

Sarecca - I have a 6 continent RTW which I bought this year and stupidly only used one sector of it which means it will expire by end of June if I don't use it up ! I think I might try for the remaining 5 continents from LAX in early June. Where would you be starting? And my tix's in F too.

Will be working on itinerary this week. Plan on dates being late June including the July 4 holiday.

It is possible to do a 5 continent RTW trip in first and get 100k qualifying miles on AA Advantage. You can go from NA to Asia to Australia to Europe (via Asia, as long as its a connection) to NA to SA and then back to NA. This is permitted in the rules. Flights from SYD to Tahiti count as Austrailia and flights from SCL to CCS and back are valid within SA. You can gain lots of extra miles for flights within a contintent.

A person with no or Gold status on AA should 1st registerer for the Platinum challenge. This will maximize bonus points for flights taken on the RTW trip.

The flights can be taken in January/01. This would give you an immediate qualification for EXP on the conclusion of the trip. It would last til 02/02 and then you would also qualify for EXP for the next year until 02/03 based on the miles flown during 2001. There is no need to start the flights mid year. The bonus is 4 VIP2's when you qualify and another 4 VIP2's when you requalify in March 2002. And EXP status for 2 years.

A OneWorld explorer fare in First is much cheaper out of Canada than the USA.

Once you know your itinerary, I might be interested in going as well.

Cheers.

Unless reinstated, Qantas no longer serves PPT direct. They use a codeshare that isn't valid on OWE. Air Tahiti or something.

QF was flying SYDPPT via AKL in August once per week. Has that changed?

Yeppers. Nov 1st or something. I don't remember the exact date, since it is inconsequential to me. It was more important whether they were flying in Feb, Mar, or Apr, and the answer was no. I asked on the board and someone told me that they had changed the schedule. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif