Round the World Awards, Multi Program
 

Longtime reader, but this is my first time posting. My girlfriend and I have been talking about a RTW trip for a while now and are tentatively thinking about planning one in 1.5-2 years. I currently have the following points (hers in parenthesis):

American Express: ~300k
Chase UR: ~65k (~50k)
Delta: ~145k (~50k)
AA: ~180k (~50k)

We want to do something along the lines of NYC > CPT > BKK > NAN > SYD > AKL > LAX/SFO. We are hoping to use miles to book the entire trip, and are trying to figure out if it's best to save up and book a RTW ticket on points or book individual flights with points on different airlines.

We are obviously in the embryonic stages of planning, but any help and guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Consider nesting a couple of different trips. For instance, Aeroplan allows you to fly from YYZ-SYD with 21,000mi MPM each way over the Atlantic (position NYC-YYZ) and they allow you 2 stopovers in addition to your point of turnaround (which is SYD).

So try ~something~ like this:
NYC-YYZ (4,500 BA Avios + $5).

YYZ-CPT (stopover)
CPT-BKK (stopover)
BKK-SYD (point of turnaround) as the outbound portion of your Aeroplan award.

SYD-AKL for 10,000 BA Avios + a few dollars on Qantas.

AKL-NAN on Fiji for American miles for 20/30/45K AA, or Money on Fiji or Air New Zealand.

NAN-SYD on Fiji for American miles for 20/30/45K AA, or Money on Fiji or Virgin Australia or Jetstar.
SYD-YYZ as the return portion of your Aeroplan award.

YYZ-SFO/LAX as a domestic award or for money.

Seems pretty doable given what you have. Head over to the Aeroplan forum to learn how to avoid fuel surcharges.

Thanks, that is definitely a great start. I am going to start checking out the Aeroplan, but how long does Aeroplan allow for stopovers? We are looking to spend at 10-14 days in CPT before heading down to SE Asia and Australia.

there is no restriction on stopover, technically you can stay as long as you want, but you have to book your entire trip back to your origin by the time you request. Given that airlines don't release seats too far in advance (11 months?), your stopover per destination can't be longer than that initially, but you can always change your trip later for a fee, I believe it's $90 per change and SEs have 1 free change.

Can I book it one way with two stops like that, or does it have to be roundtrip?

All travel must be completed within 12 months of that date of issue of the ticket. So long as you keep within that, stay as long as you like.

Below is what I tentatively put together for a Business Class RTW trip that my girlfriend and I are planning on taking. We have a lot of miles spread out across all the major airlines that we are going to be using.

NYC > CPT - 75k/person on AA
CPT > BKK - 75k/person on BA
BKK/HAN/SGN > AKL - 30k/person on United
SYD > LAX - 70k/person on United

We will probably use SkyPesos to get from SYD > AKL and the West Coast > NYC, so I'm just focusing on those four major hauls where we want to be traveling in Business Class. I just want to make sure that I am not overlooking anything major and that we will be maximizing our points on each leg. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

These posts are moved from the Round the World Club thread in CommunityBuzz to Information Desk since the OP is planning a Round the World award trip and asking for advice rather than reporting a trip which has been completed.

NewbieRunner
co-mod, CommunityBuzz

Sorry about that and thanks for putting everything together.