Originally Posted by
dukerau
At best that's 105K US miles. I view US and AA miles as equivalent (since they will be eventually) unless you have a short-term use that favors one. I also view UA and AA/US miles as equivalent, if not AA a shade better. Doing it all as one-ways would cost 62.5K AA miles + 22.5K UA miles + 20K AA/BA miles = 105K cumulative miles. The only advantage I see to booking as 2 round trips as Kenny laid out would be fewer cancellation fees if cancellation is needed. Booking it all as one-ways requires less flying. Consider US-BNE-CNS-NZ-BNE-NRT-US with 2 RTs vs US-BNE-CNS-NZ-NRT-US with all one-ways. Ok, that's only 1 fewer leg... Slightly better.
You're right, all one-ways on AA is likely better in coach unless OP wants or needs to route through Asia to get to CNS. All of the AA one-ways could even be booked as one big multi-city trip so there would be just one cancellation fee if needed (just don't miss a flight or you're completely screwed). The big potential advantage to the US RT is routing flexibility and/or a much better deal for business class. Total mileage required would likely go from 105K to 137.5K or 145K for 35+ hours of business class seats/beds instead of coach.
Last edited by KennyBSAT; Oct 16, 2014 at 10:16 am