I have a couple of questions. I am thinking of taking an rtw, in the spring, on either the Star alliance or the OW alliance. (if anyone has opinions on each, I would appreciate it)

1. In the flyertalk archives, I ran across this site on which an itinerary was listed with 112K miles. http://www.fichters.net/rtwcraze.htm I don't know if the guy actually went, or was just goofing around, trying to see how many miles he could come up with. I am looking at it, trying to get some ideas of maximizing return on the cost. I don't really understand, though, how it is set up regarding the Intercontinental stops. It appears he is milking 4 stops out of each continent, but I can't find anything in the rules that allows this.

2. I am looking for about $3000 for economy, $4500 for bus, and $6000 for first (exclusive of tax). The itinerary I am considering would be about 4 months and 80K miles. I realize it is a subjective question, but does anyone have opinions about spending the extra $$ for first or biz?

I appreciate any responses given, even those who say I am nuts... :-) If there are any other recommendatons regarding cities and routes, that would be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks