Originally Posted by
Glycerol
Oh I care! I just don't care yet...
That's my next line of research. I was thinking about getting an Amex Platinum which gives several travel related perks including access to many lounges at airports.
Any advice on where to get started with that would be much appreciated!
The Amex Platinum gives you lounge access with AA, CO, DL and NW. The only airline you will be flying from this list will be AA. So this limits your lounge access.
This is why I was recommending to maybe join the Qantas Club (discounted rates available through Australia Frequent Flyer) because it gives you access for QF, BA and AA flights which will be a significant part of your travel. The alternative would be to join Priority Pass which also gives you lounge access at many airports accross the world.
In terms of credit card, I would actually recommend the SPG Amex card. I don't know whether you have any hotel preferences but the Starwood Amex card is giving you quite some benefits and will cut down you hotel costs quite a bit.
Originally Posted by
Glycerol
I live in Boston, MA
I have a general question about the AA miles, do they expire? If so, then these miles will be expired by the time I would use them again (unless I use them during the trip, which is quite possible).
In fact, I just came up with another idea, let me know if this makes sense: It turns out that we were already planning to be in Mexico around the time that we wanted to start this, and the flight there was $500, then I found a flight from Mexico to Lima for $300. That got me thinking, what if we started this ticket in South America, it's much cheaper!
So, I can pay $800 to get to South America, and get the 6 continent ticket from there for $4,400 (instead of $6,000 from the US). But, even better, I can make it a 5 continent ticket ($3,900) and use the miles I have accumulated to fly back to Boston from South America!
Does that make sense?
This makes a lot of sense. In fact, now you are really in the FT spirit. Many of us fly to other continents just to start their trips there.
Moa999 has complied a list of cheap places to start a business class trip (DONE4) and you can see that it is almost as cheap to fly business from some locations than it is to fly economy from the US.
Code:
South Africa 6,075
Pakistan 6,412
Saudi Arabia 6,824
Sweden 6,925
Poland 6,999
Israel 7,200
Lebanon 7,200
Taiwan 7,264
Egypt 7,349
Also, make sure your trip is ticketed by AA. The ticketing airline will apply their fuel surcharges to each segment (even when the flight is operated by another carrier). So if the ticket is issued by BA for example those charges can easily add another $1000.