Originally Posted by
Viktor Valkov
I'm planning a first time RTW - LONE4 starting January and I've come up with this:
MAD-GYE-EZE-SCL-IPC-xSCL-SYD-MEL-AKL-HKG-DEL-NRT-ICN-KUL-LHR-AMM-MAD
It was priced at €3600. Tried the same thing ex AMM and it was more expensive so I guess the price is ok. I'm trying to maximize miles around some of the place I want to see. Mileage Monkey says 49272 miles. I have an AirBerlin FF card but that's useless. AA seems to be best value and I'd love to visit the US next year with those collected miles. I read they don't enforce a rule for 4 AA flights to elite status. Will I get away with 0? Also can I credit miles and earn status on the way or only after I complete the whole trip? Any suggestions or tweaks to the itinerary would be helpful. Thanks.
Generally there is not a big price difference for LONEx fares from different parts of the world, for example base fares for a LONE4 are
Spain: EUR2543
Jordan: JOD2350 (=EUR2458)
Egypt: EGP18800 (=EUR2019)
Bigger savings are to be made with premium cabin fares
With regard to accruing frequent flyer miles, you have some homework to do to decide which program will suit you best.
Your proposed itinerary has IB, LA, QF, CX, JL, MH, BA/RJ flights. You need to ascertain the earnings on each for the various programmes (and also consider how many miles are needed for the redemptions you want).
I know with regard to earning on AA:
QF flights earn only 50%
CX earns 0%
I can confirm that this year at least AA did not enforce is 4 flights rule - I achieved PLT status with no AA flights at all
You earn miles and status on the way, not at the end (subject to the program rules, for example Qantas does enforce its 4 flight rule, so you will achieve no status until you have flown them)