I've been contemplating a trip to Europe in J/D, and being a reader of FT I of course know that for about the same money I can do a DONE4.

After a bit of playing around with some routings I've realised that we'll end the trip with QF Platinum status which surprised me!

We have 2 big issues at present:

We have virtually no interest in the N American continent. After much thought we've been able to come up with the following list of things to do in NA: Niagara Falls, Smithsonian (Zoo, Natural History and Air and Space - 3 days worth there!), Ghiradelli, camera shops in NY, and maybe the space museum in Florida and the Grand Canyon. Of course, this eats up all the sectors (and more) in NA, and after the first sentence of this paragraph I'll feel silly if we end up buying extra flights!

We usually travel for 3 reasons - to visit family, to experience the culture and to see the sights.


We don't really care for long flights, and were thinking that CAI would be a nice stop between Asia and Europe, but we've realised that it's quite hard to get to CAI since I can't find a CX flight there.

Anyway, our current plans look like this:

SYD-HKG-NRT-HKG-?-HKG-FRA,OSL-HEL-BUD,DUS-LHR-SFO-JFK-? for MCO-YYZ-? Washington-JFK-xHKG-MEL-BNE-DRW-PER-MEL

Might have to buy another flight or two in NA, outside the RTW.

The logic behind FRA,OSL-HEL-BUD,DUS-LHR is that we have family in DUS and will have Eurail passes, but OSL-BUD is at least 3 - 4 days train ride. We can drop this for a better option - CAI maybe - and buy this sector. Or hope that Malev have joined OW and can book OSL-BUD as a direct flight.

HKG on the return is just a transit - we'll go for a nice meal at our favourite restaurant and maybe a comfortable bed then fly on.

(MY special thanks to everyone on FT for the hint that I shouldn't start at home so I can get a second holiday out of the trip! Can visit family in BNE and drop in for dinner with a cousin in DRW and an aunt in PER on the way back!)

Anyway, this doesn't include CAI and there's a couple of ? locations in the US 'cos I got confused at all the airports some cities have.

This routing doesn't get us to Plat until after we leave HKG the last time - any hints to get there before HKG so we can get our OW Emerald and do some lounge hopping?

Obviously, I'm happy to drop off PER and DRW if I can find a better use of those sectors elsewhere - but if I've got sectors to spare I'll use them!

We're planning a total travel time of 3 months, with 2 months in continental Europe, a few days in London, at least a week in Asia and maybe a week in NA. We want to be in DUS for Christmas. (2006! Or even 2007.)

Any suggestions for improving the routing for maximum miles and SCs and also suggestions for how to do NA would be appreciated. Other people's itins may also help give me ideas - I haven't found much on FT about DONE4 originating from Australia.

If I go to a TA will they be able to book it with AA for me?

Thanks!

Audrey

PS: Just fed syd-hkg-nrt-hkg-bom-hkg-fra,dus-lhr-CAI-LHR-sfo-jfk-mia-yyz-jfk-hkg-mel-bne-drw-per-mel into Mileage Monkey and it came up OK at 53270 miles and 1840 SCs. CAI definitely adds a lot of miles and SCs! This also gets us to Plat when we return to HKG.