Originally Posted by
leftpinky
AA is the best for RTW, IMHO. I think it's something like 140-170k miles for RTW in business class, depending on how far you go plus you can get upto 16 stops. Ask on the AA forum and they'll be able to help. I havent seen anything that is even close to this.
^ I think this is the best way to redeem for a RTW.
Originally Posted by
HookemHorns
It really depends on your international destinations...you are well on the way to meeting your goals with DL, but those points are challenging to use. I like AA for RTW, but as others have pointed out, MR/UR don't transfer in.
Have you considered the AmEx Starwood card? I think a lot of folks of FT hold that card, as SPG points transfer 1:1 to over 30 airlines, including DL, AC, and AA. Plus, if you transfer 20,000 points to miles at a single time, you get a bonus 5,000 points (so even though the SPG AmEx earns at 1 point/$, judicious transferring gets you a 25% bonus). With your current spending, that would earn you 50,000 points/year on almost any airline you want, plus no excise tax (IIRC, MR still charges excise tax) on the transfer, and you may find it beats the gas/grocery spend bonus on AmEx PRG.
Still, to meet your goals, you may need to hit a few good signup bonuses as they come around.
If I were you, I'd sign up for the Citi Visa/Amex for 50k points each. Ideally you'd do this for you and your wife, and you'd each have 100k points. If you each also signed up for the SPG Amex, you'd be sitting at 130k AA points each. You'd easily accumulate the balance through spending.
Edited to add: the SPG Amex comes with a 25k signup bonus, and if you transfer more than 20k points you get a 5k bonus. So 25k SPG points --> 30k AA. (Just wanted to show my work.)