Hello all!!

Success at last. I now hold two RTW tickets on Oneworld 100k challenge flying out of Canada on 11/6/99. It was really simple after all. I checked the American Express site and they had Mark Hoyer listed as their RTW expert. Mark is based in Houston, TX and was the corporate contact at Amex for Exxon. He specialized in sending oil people around the world. Anyway, he said, "No problem" and he went to work and I have my tickets.

We will be picking up three 100k bonuses as well as completing the Platinum challenge on AA. The bonuses are on AA, CP and BA. The itinerary follows:

11/6 AA SWF--ORD AA
11/6 AA ORD--YYZ CP
11/6 CP YYZ--YVR AA
11/7 CX YVR--HKG AA
11/11 CX HKG--SIN CP
11/15 CX SIN--BKK BA
11/18 QF BKK--LHR AA
11/18 BA LHR--FCO AA
11/22 IB FCO--MAD BA
11/22 IB MAD--ATH CP
11/25 BA ATH--LHR CP
11/25 BA LHR--EDI BA
11/27 BA EDI--LHR AA
11/27 AA LHR--ORD AA
11/27 CP ORD--YUL CP
11/29 CP YUL--YYZ BA
11/30 AA YYZ--ORD BA
11/30 AA ORD--SWF AA

I hope I typed all this right. God knows I've certainly worked on it enough. I had thought originally to go for four 100k bonuses but this is the start of my retirement and I want to enjoy some of this trip.

There are some extra AA segments in there but what the heck. They were unavoidable and the credit is for a good cause (cause I want to travel first class forever). We also get a 10,000 mile AA bonus on the YVR--HKG flight and I'm looking into the Miles for Me promo from CX for 2000 miles. It's worded very confusingly but it seems to say, pay in US dollars (I did even thought I paid the Canadian price), fly from any North American gateway city (JFK, LAX, SFO,YYZ or YVR). The sticking point is originate in US. I am, but not on the same ticket. I don't know how strictly that will be enforced. I'm going to try. All they can say is no.

So on Friday morning Bill and I are headed RTW in first class for the sum of US$5,213.85 including all taxes and airport fees. The same flight according to the AA RTW desk was $6,400 from the US without taxes and airport fees which could only be figured with a complete itinerary.

I wanted to let everyone know everything worked out but the Webflyer server was down for what seemed like an eternity. Thanks to all for your suggestions and to Shareholder a big thank you for the tip on Amex. It worked out great.

Chris