Originally Posted by
phillipas
The really important consideration should be what you want! Few people do a xONEx as a pure mileage run where cost per mile is king, so for me at least the fact that I've got bugger all interest in visiting Africa makes an xONEx a bit of a stupid proposition.
On FT at least, people look to stretch the miles - but it still tends to tie in with wanting to go to certain places/regions. If you are trying to tie in an xONEx with maximum miles the problem is that options become rather more limited - start going where you want and the miles drop considerably.
I certainly agree with the consideration of going where you want to be, with a couple of qualifications.
First, it seems a waste using one of your 20 segments on short trips-- or more precisely, on flights that can be purchased separately cheaply. So definitely go to the places you want to visit but even with a xONEx ticket in hand, keep in mind other options for getting there.
Second, I find that considering long segments initially for miles leads me to consider places that I might not have considered otherwise but upon anticipating or visiting, I find that I enjoy. An example, is that I am currently in Mumbai prompted initially by the distance from Hong Kong but got enthusiastic about as I considered the possibilities. Similarly, flying DFW-ANC-DFW in June was triggered by credit for the almost 7000 mile distance. I had not previously thought about going to Alaska but going to ANC led to adding a flight to Barrow which was a great experience (the whole trip being mitigated somewhat by the uncomfortable AA flights from DFW to ANC and back). And at the end of my current AONE5 Mauritius ticket, I'm looking forward to having to pass through JNB because I am now planning to visit Kruger Natl Park.
So taking these factors into account, I find that it is easy to go to places that I will enjoy (especially if you are open to new possibilities) as well as accumulating a lot of miles (ie, usually over 60,000).