Ok I have a tough question here.

What is the best possible way to upgrade when you're a peon and cannot fly in business or first to speed up your miles count ? Any hints ?

I'm a new AA member, I will take soon an OWE4 for a RTW trip lasting a year, all in coach (aka peon class). This should give me a couple of miles along the way, but I would not mind a little upgrade for JNB-HKG or SYD-HNL to treat myself for example.

Upgrading to World Traveller + is definitely not worth it, it's too expensive ($300 / segment) and if you do this for all your segments in a OWE you end up with a fare way above the business fare. Might do if I'm desparate and can afford it but not sure.

Rough itinerary is:
CDG-LHR-CAI-LHR-SEZ-NBO-LUN//VFA-JNB-HKG-CEB-HKG-BKK//SIN-DPS-PER-CNS-SYD-CHC//AKL-SYD-HNL-SFO-SJD-DFW-CUN-MIA-STT//ANU-GTW-CDG
(I might put some flight like JNB-CPT here or reverse to use all my last Africa segment)

This is about 50,000 ground miles.
The first 10,000 ground miles will be probably be done in 90 days. But that will be hard.

A Gold Challenge is 5,000 Q-Points but I have no idea if a OWE is considered discount (0.5 points/mile) or full fare (1 point / mile). Anyone ?


btw many thanks to all posters where I grabbed a lot of ideas to optimize my itinerary not for miles but for placing almost correctly the places I wanted to stop by.