Originally Posted by
guv1976
No, I don't think you understand.
You don't get a stopover in Hawaii. You get a stopover at your North American gateway (ORD or JFK) on your way back from CDG. Then, months later, you can fly to Hawaii from your stopover city on a separate trip (perhaps your honeymoon, depending on how long your engagement lasts).
If you want to start your trip to CDG in ORD or DTW, you can fly ORD/DTW-NYC (stopover) - CDG also for 20,000 miles per person.
This kind of got lost in the mix here, but I wanted to bring it up since it's a fantastic idea (two fantastic ideas, actually) which would let you do most of what you wanted.
A pseudo itinerary could look like this:
ORD/DTW -> NYC (stop) -> CDG
CDG -> ORD/DTW (stop) -> HNL/LIH
Since stopovers can be 24+ hours, you could get your dinner in NYC and then surprise her with the second half of the outbound. (Some creativity may be necessary to "hide" the NYC-CDG seg of the itinerary from her but totally worth it IMO. Though you would be saying "I wonder how the French food is in Paris? Why don't we find out RIGHT NOW!") Then, on the way back, count your home base as a "stopover" for weeks, months, whatever, then continue - on the same award! - to Hawaii. You'd then only need to pay for the fare back from Hawaii, perhaps with miles you've accumulated in the meantime.
If you can meet the spend on the two AA cards somewhat easily, I'd also take up the advice provided elsewhere on this thread and look into gaining Hyatt points, either through the Hyatt card or one of the transfer partner cards like the Sapphire Preferred. There are several other threads in MilesBuzz! that will be helpful with this.
Best of luck and early congratulations!