Thanks for the advice - I'm following it carefully.
I would be just as happy to take two separate trips of a couple of weeks each, as opposed to a single monthlong trip. I understand the concept of a "mini-RTW" but the practice somewhat confuses me. For example, could I fly RDU-FCO(stopover)-SYD(destination)-SEA(stopver)-RDU? RDU-FCO-SYD is certainly the long way to get there.
In general, could I take the above trip but finish in YYZ, i.e. having a short open jaw on the end?
I'm also getting the idea that I might want to combine flights on different networks? For example, fly from A to B on *A, B to C on OW, and C to A on *A? Is that the idea? I have almost always booked my award flights on DL, which doesn't have one-way tickets, so maybe I'm just not familar with this concept, but the impression I'm getting is that if I have a relatively direct trip, a series of one-way tickets might be better?
My only objective right at this moment is to know what kind of miles to accrue. I would probably be just peachy with a combination of *A and OW, because I can effectively get the AA credit card bonuses for free in that scenario. Given that I have several years to do it, I could apply for the Citi cards at least twice for each of my wife and I, without really interfering with the other point-acquisition activities.