Hi everybody,

Noob here! I am planning a trip for myself and my new husband sometime in late 2013/early 2014. We have roughly 50-55 days. The bulk of our trip will be in Australia/New Zealand/Bora Bora but we would like to utilize airline’s stopover policies to experience a couple other destinations at the beginning and end of our trip.

Our goal is to maximize our miles/points using stopovers, open jaws and one-ways to see as many places as possible without over doing it. Although we travel a lot, we have never been out of North America. So, since this is our first “big” trip, we cannot decide where we want to go or what we want to see first! We do have a bit of ADD when traveling and it is really difficult for us to stay in one place for more than 4 days.

That being said, what I am looking for is some “creative” routing options to Australia/New Zealand/Tahiti through Asia, South America, Europe, etc. We live in Dallas so our main airport is DFW but we don’t mind flying out of different cities. Most of my miles are with AA and BA. I also have MR and UR points but I feel as though I have time to accumulate miles with any airline given the time between now and the trip.

I know Quantas flys direct between DFW and SYD. But, as mentioned, I am not really interested in flying directly from North America. I have listed below some of the options I am aware of. I just can’t seem to figure out the most efficient way to put it all together.

• Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong (first choice).
• Quantas, Thai, Emirate via Bangkok
• JAL/ Air Tahiti Nui/Air New Zealand via Tokyo
• PPT via Easter Island with LAN
• Quantas via Santiago, Chile
• Singapore via Sinagpore Airlines

I am not interested in a stopover in HNL. Ideally, I would like something like this:

1. Cathay Pacific: SFO-Hong Kong(stop)-Bangkok
2. Singapore Airlines: Bangkok-Singapore(stop)-Sydney

Does anybody have any suggestions for “creative” ways to get to OZ/NZ/PPT from US? What is the best strategy to maximize miles? Also, I would like most flights to be in Business/First class. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!