After much planning I have finally bought a 4 continent RTW ticket that enables me to earn the 100,000-mile bonus in 4 plans. Because I have decided to have most long haul segments credited to my AA account the below itinerary will require that I do 1 additional RT on CP or AY. I will probably do a LAX-YVR weekend flight to get that. My goal was to get the segments and spend as little time in the air as possible. The ticket cost 4,196USD with taxes. For the purists on this board you will note I did not use 1 of my segments in each of North America, Australia, and Europe. In addition I have spent a lot of work insuring that (except in 1 case) no PNR will contain segments that I want credited to separate frequent flyer programmes. The itinerary is as follows:


Origin Dest Carrier Date FF
1AMS MAD IB 1-Oct-99 CX
2MAD LON IB 2-Oct-99 QF
3LON BKK BA 7-Oct-99 AA
BKK Westin Hotel on the 8th
4BKK HKG CP 9-Oct-99 BA
5HKG MNL CX 9-Oct-99 BA
6MNL HKG BA 9-Oct-99 QF
HKG Airport Hotel 1st Night
7HKG TPE CX 10-Oct-9 QF
8TPE HKG CX 10-Oct-9 CX
Need to book hotel in HKG Night 2
9HKG SYD CX 11-Oct-9 AA
10SYD MEL QF 11-Oct-9 CX
Need to book hotel in MEL
11MEL SYD QF 14-Oct-9 QF
Stay with friend in Sydney
12SYD BNE QF 17-Oct-9 BA
Rent Car and Drive back to Sydney via Gold Coast
13SYD LAX QF 24-Oct-9 AA
14LAX LAS AA 24-Oct-9 QF
15LAS ORD AA open AA
16ORD DCA AA open CX
17IAD LAX AA open AA
18LAS LAX AA open BA
19LAX LON AA open AA
20LON AMS BA open BA


Some question that other members I hope can help me with are as follows:

1. My plan for the 9th of October is to fly CP from BKK-HKG arriving at noon. Check into the Regal Airport Hotel. I then will do a same day return to MNL later that afternoon followed by a same day return to TPE the next morning. Is there a departure tax paid locally in HKG? If so is there any way to avoid it, since I am simply connecting. Can I gain access to any hotel w/o clearing immigration? This is the only “excess segment” work I will need to do.
2. Any suggestions on a hotel in Melbourne. This is my nickel so I am looking for 100AUD or less.
3. Will I be able to check in for my return flights from MNL to HKG without clearing immigration in MNL?
4. Same question as number 3 for TPE?
5. Is the QF internal flight seating in business class a similar style to many European airlines where they simply use the same seats, but move a curtain up and back?