The girlfriend and I are looking at a RTW trip summer 2010 - a long way out but we're in our 20's and need to start saving for it (me = too tall for economy class).

My main "ask" is whether my routes work? I'm a bit wary of MileageMonkey since I think I found at least one error while trying some other iterations (MM allows HNL-ORD which I don't think exists any more). I also originally spent (a LOT of) time planning the trip heading west but east seems to work better. This is mainly due to the lack of service between GIG-EZE, GIG-UIO, or GIG-SYD and the fact that EZE, GIG, and SCL all fly direct to Europe.

Trip #1
Business Class 5-continent (DONE5)
Route: lax-jfk-eze-uio-scl-gig-lhr-dme-mad-lhr-hkg-bom-bkk-sin-syd-hnl-lax (47,900 miles) + 3,486 for ORD-LAX-ORD to start/end the trip

Benefits:
- more South America (Ecuador+Galapagos)
- visit Australia (wine country, surfing, scuba at the Reef)
- about 18,000 more miles (not including any multipliers)

Detractors:
- about 14,000 more miles (though they are mostly on QF)
- less Asia
- no Middle-East
- total cost is about $5,500 per person more
- It looks like HNL-ORD direct was discontinued?? This would likely make me add an ORD-LAX or ORD-LGA round trip to start/end the trip.

Trip #2
Global Explorer 34,000 mile Business Class
Route: ord-mia-gig-scl-eze-mad-dme-lhr-fco-amm-bom-bkk-hkg-icn-nrt-ord (33,986 miles... whew!)

Benefits:
- visit South Korea
- visit Jordan
- visit Japan
- possibility to visit North Korea
- cost would be about $5,500 per person less
- less useless intra-USA flying

Detractors:- no Australia (which also means less surfing, wine country, scuba at Great Barrier Reef)
- no Galapagos (rest of Ecuador is nice but this is the main reason for going to Quito)

Other miscellaneous questions:
- if we take a large traveling backpack are we going to have to pay a baggage fee 16+ times?
- if HNL-ORD does, in fact, still exist that makes Trip #1 a lot more palatable and significantly improves the logistics (no LAX routing needed). It's on the OneWorld interactive online map as well as MileageMonkey but doesn't seem to exist on AA.com
- grief about the combination of "girlfriend" and "RTW trip 18 months from now" will be quite forthcoming form the family. Have fun pouring it on.
- Using 33,984/34,000 was entirely by accidnt but feel free to call me a god
- long time lurker first time poster, be gentle!