TravelBuzz! - *Need HELP!* Most Mileage Value on Round-The-World-Trip

Alright, here is the deal. I have been thinking this over for some time now and would just like to hear what some other people thought :confused: . I am planning an around-the-world trip and have quite the grab bag of carriers in my itinerary. They are as follows:

United (partner miles)

Brisbane to Auckland. Economy on Air New Zealand -- 1,427 miles

Alaska or AA (partner miles)

Bankok to Sydney. Economy on British Airways -- 4,676 miles
Auckland to LA. Economy on Quantas -- 6,522 miles
LA to San Fran. Economy on AA --332 miles
San Fran to PDX. Economy on Horizon --550 miles

Other Carriers

NYC to Athens. Economy on Olympic Airlines --4,935 miles
Athens to Cairo. Economy on Olympic Air -- 688 miles
Cairo to Bankok. Economy on Egypt Air -- 4,509 miles

My home Airport is Portland, Oregon (PDX)

I have a United Plus membership so those miles are fine but I have been wondering of I should collect the other miles on Alaska or through AA. I just started both accounts and they are both empty. I would be using the mileage to purchase international flights mainly, probably to South America and Central America. If you know what carrier this would be best to collect miles on, please let me know.

Also, I was curious if I should attempt a Mileage Challenge either on AA or Alaska. I will probably be flying about 4 more segments within a 3 month period (in addition to the ones above), with a total of about 19,000 miles or 8 segments. I am not sure what the requirements are but would love to hear from someone. Not sure if this pertains but I also have a Free Ticket on Alaska (from getting bumped) that I could use as well for maybe a mileage run , if those would even count towards anything for me.

Last question that I need help with.... I am also flying a large amount of miles on Olympic Airlines (the Greek carrier) and was wondering if anyone knew anything that i could do with these miles. I really don't want to sign up for Icarus (their mileage plan) and would rather collect them through channels of United or AS or AA. I would also like to cash in on those Egypt Air miles! Let me know if they are a partner with anyone because I could not find this out!

I am kinda new to this whole Mileage thing and would like to get started off on the right note, hopefully with some help from you all! Thank you! :D

perhaps you could post the rest of your itin [between brisbane and pdx and other gaps] and show the carriers and the fare basis....many carriers [qf, ba, ib, cx for example] give a small percentage of flight miles [and aa challenge points] when crediting to aa and riding on a discount fare....

ba 25%, ib 30%, cx 0, qf 50%?....you can check on aa.com

if the flights you posted are the only one world legs, you

what is your home airport? i assume pdx..

aa has a lot of route to south and central america...

good luck.

edit to respond to your new info....

qf has 2 discount econ fare categories...both get 50% mi's, but gets 100% ofpts/ff mi, the other 50% pts/ff mi...

so assuming the worst [cheapest] case on aadvantage:

ba 4676 mi @ 25% gives 1169 ff mi and pts

qf 6522 mi @ 50% gives 3261 ff mi and 1631 pts [could be 3261]

aa 3xx mi gives 500 ff mi and 500 pts [minimums]

as 550 mi gives 550 ff mi and 550 pts

so you would have 3950 [or 53xx] pts depending on the qf count...

if you are flying aa [or as] pdx-nyc you would assure the completion of a gold challenge on the trip ..... good luck

If earning miles and/or achieving some sort of status is the goal, then you need to concentrate your flying on one alliance (either OneWorld, for AA, or Star, for UA).

Is this a paid RTW ticket? Some of your routings may be a bit convoluted if you stick to one alliance but they should be do-able. Athens to Cairo for example - can probably be only done on Olympic .... but from what little I know of their reputation, they should be avoided at all costs. You may need to route via London (BA) or Helsinski (AY) for example. Also, why take Air New Zealand BNE-AKL, rather than Qantas?

If you have specific places you want to get to (and a timeframe for doing it), people can probably provide more specific guidance. This may also be better off in the RTW forum, rather than AA.

It looks as though the grab bag of airlines is to get the lowest fares to get you point-to-point to your desided destinations. Have you checked out RTW fares? For example, a 4 continent oneworld RTW costs around $3600 if it begins and ends in the U.S., but around $2,000 if it begins and ends in Cairo. You have a year to complete travel. There are two strategies that can be used to do this:

1. Purchase a cheap R/T to Cairo, outbound at the beginning of your trip, return leg one year out. In Cairo, pick up your ticket, and continue your journey around the world on it. When you get back to Portland, stop and rest. In the future (but within a year), you have another trip to Cairo, eastbound is the rest of your RTW ticket, and westbound is the other half of the R/T you purchased to get there at the beginning.

2. What many people do is purchase a RTW every year, beginning and ending in Cairo (because the tickets are much cheaper when starting and ending there). If they don't want to do all their traveling at once, they will break their RTW ticket at places that have cheap R/Ts home, fly home and do other things, they fly back to resume their RTW. As an example, Sri Lanka often offers very cheap fares to the U.S. You can also use the miles you earn on the RTW to fly home and back from someplace that isn't so cheap. These people always have a RTW in progress, as they begin another whenever one ends.

I am most familiar with the Oneworld RTWs, but the other alliances have them too. You might want to check out the alliance forums. As pointed out before, you will get much more benefits from your miles if you concentrate them on one alliance.

I think the OP should go lurk on the Oneworld, Star, and Skyteam boards (in "Global Alliances") to bone up on various RTW products. Lots of good threads and helpful people there.

Meantime I'm wondering if this isn't better in TravelBuzz rather than AA.

Moved to TravelBuzz as this thread is not AAdvantage specific.

Thanks,

Onedog
AAdvantage Moderator

As others have stated, to maximise mileage value from a RTW it is generally best to stick with an alliance RTW rather than mixed airline one, or worse combining multiple one-ways. An obvious exception would be if you already have worthwhile membership/status on the relevant airlines.

AFAIK Olympic can only be credited to its own FFP, unless you have a codeshare on another airline that is a partner of your FFP (but based on above I doubt you have codeshare as an option).

Since you dont appear to have status, it is best to stick with one alliance if possible so that you can get the benefits of status, which should be possible to earn with a RTW.

One question though, when you refer to partner miles does this mean you have award tickets for BNE-AKL, BKK-SYD, AKL-PDX? If so then you wont earn any miles for these legs. Given how pricey one-way tickets can be, it may be better to make the whole thing a paid RTW, or perhaps ex-BKK (or some other cheap origin) paid with award to get to that point.

Check out the AA forum for it's challenge, and *A/OW forums for lots of information and advice on their RTWs.