onfinalapproach

So in 2018 I am going to start chasing one million miles (butt in seat) and try to get there in one year (if I can fund the venture which is ongoing on indiegogo). I plan on documenting flying as well as the locations I fly to with a dose of food, hotel and travel product reviews added in and posting these to my social media accounts as well as my blog and Youtube. So what I would appreciate from the community here is suggestions on destinations, especially if it is a good deal, that will give me maximum miles for the cost and be places that people would be interested in learning about for entertainment or their own travel plans and wishes. Also, suggestions on restaurants, hotels, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

I am based in Houston so I will be trying to do most, if not all, my flying on United (and *A). Looks like Asia will be my biggest bang for the buck but would love to find some good deals to over parts of the globe. Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions the community can provide.

mileageking

What budget have you set aside to achieve your 1m miles goal?

sexykitten7

Are you interested in MM status? Because that would have to be all UA metal (making RTW trips difficult).

COSPILOT

Agree. Clarification is needed from the OP. Flying 1MM BIS on *A is doable if you have a free year and unlimited budget, but keeping it all on UA is going to be impossible without throwing out RTW ideas. I certainly wouldn't want to do it in coach, and given few do it in a year, the few that do, do it up front. All of this is a challenge, as RDM's are based on spend, and Lifetime miles, are solely based on flying UA, including UX, but not codeshare flights operated by other *A carriers.

I take that back, I could probably pull this off in my early 20's, but not in my mid 40's. Regardless, boardingarea.com is saturated with posters trying to make money off of views of their respective activities, is their still a market for this?

trooper

And you're expecting to crowdfund it? Wow.... OK..I have a suggestion,, Fund it yourself.

onfinalapproach

Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it.

onfinalapproach

Would like to do as much as I can on UA for the MM status but *A flights thrown in to get where I want to go is completely fine. Regarding my views, I wanted to share the experience and hopefully provide some good insight for people who love to travel like I do.

GRALISTAIR

Well I would appreciate it - and the documentation - so best of luck and I look forward to hearing from you. RTWs are great - definitely do the HNL - GUM Island hopper at least once - that is UA metal. Then UA- Tokyo NRT - then SAS (*A) NRT-CPH-LHR or similar - then UA back to the USA and then to HNL again etc. UA now also do just announced SFO to Tahiti - sounds really cool to bring in southern hemisphere. Obviously Antartica is off (unless you flew to Argentina and got a cruise ship to there) so in 2018 visit all 7 continents - now that would be really cool.

COSPILOT

Airfare alone for 1 Million Miles BIS is going to be north of $100K, unless you take advantage of some of the cheaper airfares that show up in the Mileage Run Forum. This is based on all coach airfare, which will get old fast. Add in hotels, meals, transit expenses, etc. I can see this approaching $300K if you stay at hotels people will be interested in reading about. That said, people are willing to fund things that never crossed my mind, so have at it, but maybe start a website or blog if you haven't already? I would be interested in following your travels for this.

I appreciate your enthusiasm and wish you luck in sourcing the funds for this! Sounds like fun if I was younger, not married, and unemployed.

onfinalapproach

Thanks so much, I'm looking forward to the challenge and the adventure. Also, thanks for the routing suggestions. I will post updates, etc. as they occur.

onfinalapproach

Thanks for the info and well wishes. It should be an interesting adventure.

jhayes_1780

Meh... its been done before.

onfinalapproach

Thanks for the kind words. Appreciate it

GRALISTAIR

So have mileage runs
so have RTWs
so have RTWs southern hemisphere only
So have Trip Reports
So have DOs
So have club crawls e.g. every Skyclub in Atlanta in a single day
So have RTWs in First/Business
So have Blogs
It is an exciting world my friend - enjoy. And let someone else enjoy too

Have a wonderful Christmas/holidays/pagan festival whatever and a happy and prosperous new year.

swingaling

That's something like 40-50 RTW trips (depending on routing). Basically, you'll need to circle the globe once a week, or do something like IAH-SFO-HKG (rt) ~58 times.

Best bang for your buck is typically long (and ultra long) haul flights between large cities (or hubs), such as NYC-HKG or DOH-AKL. Of course it can be done, but I'd expect there to be a lot of repeat flights. Especially if you're sticking to a single alliance, even more so if you stick to a single carrier.

You could look into booking a RTW trip an alliance. The price won't be great, but it will be flexible. I know oneworld has a RTW fare, but I'm not sure about *A.