Hi there,

I am just about to take a bit of a career break and thought that travelling RTW could be a fruitful exercise.

I am based out of Australia (Melbourne) and am travelling to Sri Lanka (Colombo) in Dec on a one-way ticket. I have to return to Melbourne in Mar 2014 to sort out some affairs here. I also plan to see parts of Australia that I haven't seen till June/July 2014. After this, I want to explore South America and Europe.

I am keen on starting my miles journey and thought the Oneworld Explorer RTW ticket would be a good starting point. I came up with the following itin by playing around with the online tool:
CMB -(CX)- HKG -(QF)- MEL -(QF)- DRW -(QF)- ADL-(surface)- SYD -(LA)- SCL -(LA)- GRU -(LA)- LIM -(LA)- EZE -(IB)- MAD -(AY)- HEL -(AY)- FCO -(AB)- TXL -(surface)- CDG (or LHR) -(RJ/QR)- AMM (or DOH) -(RJ/QR)- CMB

However the price with fees/taxes comes to about AUD5500. Having heard that an AONE4 (from KRT???) can be obtained for less, I am interested in hearing strategies to reduce the final fare and maybe increasing the number of miles. I am open to anything and my main aim is to cover South America and Europe.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks