Pimp my flights! First RTW planned on OW.

I'm usually hanging out on Star Alliance, but for this trip it looks like OW is best for me, with multiple flights on LAN.

Tentatively (Jan/Feb):

MUC-AMM (few days in Petra / Dead Sea)-RJ
AMM-HKG (via BKK) - RJ, CX
HKG-MNL (looking for some advice for the Philippines) - CX
MNL-HNL (via NRT) - JL, JL
HNL-DFW (side trip planned out to Arizona) - AA
DFW-EWR - AA
EWR-SCL (via MIA) - AA, LA
SCL-PUQ (two days in Punta Arenas) - LA
PUQ-SCL - LA
SCL-IPC (two days on Easter Island) - LA
IPC-SCL - LA
SCL-FRA (returning to Germany, via MAD) - LA (one flight number)

Looking at doing this in Business, and the OW RTW planner says it is legal, 15/16 segments, and 6750 Euro (4 continents).

1. What extra taxes/fees can I expect, or is the 6750 on the money?
2. I don't have the actual mileage tallied up (not sure if the OW RTW planner does this?)
3. I have base membership in LA and BA. I would like to obviously use this trip to get some kind of status with either. Does BA assess tier points for non-BA flights? I know LA does, but you need to fly a certain number of segments on LAN?
4. I assume RJ would issue the tickets, as they are the first carrier?
5. I've never been to Hawaii, but generally don't like big cities to hang out in. Any ideas for a 'quieter' island? I was looking at arranging a flight to maybe LIH on Hawaiian.

Thanks for any advice or thoughts. As stated, first RTW so I'm not too familiar with this yet.

Milecalc.com will do this for you. Looks like 38,681 base miles.

From the LA website: "As a LANPASS member, you must fly at least 30 segments on LAN flights that allow for the earning of kilometers to qualify for tier status." BA is also known to strictly enforce the 4 segment minimum. AA has the four segment rule but is known to not enforce it.

AA might be your best bet for this itinerary. You'll earn 125% redeemable miles (RDM) and 125% elite qualifying miles (EQM) and 150% elite qualifying points (EQP) for any flight booked in eligible Business fare codes - CX/JL/LA (C/D/I/J), RJ (J/C/D), AA (D/I/J). You'd therefore get AA Platinum status (oneworld Sapphire) based on EQPs (58,021 assuming all segments are in Business).

Thanks. I hadn't honestly looked hard at AA but it does look like their program has it's advantages. Although this RTW trip has only 3 AA segments, my side trip to Arizona would almost certainly be booked on AA as well, only not as part of the RTW itself, and in coach. Attaining Sapphire status in one trip is a big plus.

Or 80K Km for Sapphire with 4 segs; the OP's itinerary would basically get there.

100% EQM, not 125%. 150% RDM when in AA 2-class domestic flights (e.g. HNL-DFW, DFW-EWR etc.) also BA gives first class tier points on these "A" segments on AA flights - see below.

Going for status with Lan would take the whole trip (to get to 80K Km); if it were me I'd go with BA since the threshold for BA Silver (OW Sapphire) is much lower for continental European residents than for UK or N. America residents.

However, as mentioned, BA is strict with the "4-segment" rule on BA metal per FF tier (Blue > Silver, Silver > Gold).

You might consider the following -

First, if you're going in business class, note that the prices are highly variable depending on where the ticket is purchased and the trip begins/ends. At the moment, for a DONE4, you could save around €1600 by starting the trip in Jordan rather than Germany.

So...

Do two one-day mileage runs from Germany to the UK using BA, or one MR to some place like MAN or EDI via LHR, so that your 4 segments are covered.

Then fly on a regular ticket to AMM and start the RTW there, with your RTW route being AMM-BKK-HKG-MNL-HKG-NRT-HNL-DFW-EWR-MIA-SCL-PUQ-SCL-IPC-SCL-FRA-AMM.

By my calcs you'd hit BA Silver around the time you get to Hawaii (400 tier points). Their counter then resets, and you'd need another 800 to get to BA Gold/OW Emerald, which you'd do by the time you get back to FRA; however you'd need another 4 BA segments to have it kick in, so you'd need to do another MR or two. But the €1600 in RTW savings will more than cover those costs, so IMO a good deal.

A couple of other notes - I'd go from HNL either to Kauai or to the Big Island (Hawaii) - or - just get a car and head for the north coast of Oahu (other side of the island from HNL) where things are much more laid back and non-urban.

As for taxes, no, you need to add around 10% - 16% to the total for taxes and fuel surcharges.

EDITED TO ADD - Unless you need to go back to HKG, and/or you wouldn't mind skipping DFW, you could go MNL-NRT-HNL and use the saved segment for more tier point earning, e.g. HNL-LAX-EWR-MIA-JFK-SCL...

RJ flies AMM-HKG (via BKK) as a direct flight. This frees up a segment since it appears you are not stopping over in BKK.

For business class (DONE4) you have some flights with lesser quality product (eg SCL-PUQ-SCL in either premium economy or economy, regional business class product on some intra-asia flights).

Gardyloo: Thanks for the tip on starting in Jordan. It looks like it will be a significant savings. I can catch a flight to/from Amman on Turkish and still come out ahead on price. Actually, the price to fly RTW in first from Jordan is the same as my original RTW in Business from Europe, but too few of my flights appear to have an actual separate first cabin for the long hauls, or at least one significantly better than the Bus. cabins. I went ahead and bumped back to Hong Kong after MNL to add the last segment. I can't skip DFW; I'm flying to AZ to visit some friends (outside of this RTW trip, although probably on AA).

Kiwi: I noticed that on the SCL-PUQ flights it is in economy, but for the relatively short flights, so be it. Hopefully I still get the miles as booked in business. For the intra-Asia flights, what is the business class product like? Is it similar to intra-European business class?

Put your intinerary into http://slfft.allhyper.com/0.95/award.htm. MM is not 100% perfect as routes are inputted manually into the data base, so it not always up to date, but a good starting point.

Route in MM here: http://slfft.allhyper.com/0.95/award...CL-IPC-SCL-FRA

Depends on the issuing carrier. AA is by far the cheapest. BA and QF the most expensive. The difference can be quite substantial...

I would follow the advise above and try for BA. Their membership actually means something. AA is better for redemption though. Depends on what you prefer more.

If you use the online tool: yes. But you can get any airline to be the issuing airline. Simply call them in the country you start from. AA would be my suggestion...

Check the hotel section on Flyertalk for amazing deals at Fairmont hotels on Hawaii...

Have fun!

PS: First class is not really worth the extra money given your itinerary.

PPS: What kind of MNL advice do you need?

PPPS: Do not book stopovers as transits. If - for whatever reason - you decide to stay a day or two your ticket will need to be reissued at $125 cost + taxes. Only make it a transit if you are 100% sure you will never change it.

some thoughts:

it is not 100% clear where you are transiting and where you care to stopover so pardon some assumptions...

for Jordan, a week is better, you can include Jerusalem by taxi which shouldn't be missed if you've never been.

amm-hkg direct is better as pointed out already unless you are visiting BKK

mnl: sorry no experience in Philippines

dfw-ewr-mia-scl: do you have to go to ewr? mia? you could do dfw-jfk-scl on AA/LA

along same lines, for Arizona, LAX is better jumping off point; low fares available or you can even drive. so you could do hnl-lax-scl if you didn't need ewr or mia.

scl-puq-scl: you can buy these flights for about $120 ea. if you want to leave them out of the RTW and save segments, especially since they are only Economy anyway. 2 days down there CAN'T be enough!! (never been but just a hunch; same hunch with Easter Is.)

as far as I know, any OW carrier can book the tickets, people say AA has the best RTW reservations desk. i think now you can even book i all online??

enjoy!!!

The SCL-PUQ flights will only earn according to the cabin you fly in. So in this case it will be discounted economy class even if you are on a first class ticket. So I would definitely buy them separately and not waste precious segments on them.

May I suggest something else? Start from AMM and spend the money saved to do a DONE5 for EUR 5700. Then you could do something like:

amm-hkg-mnl-nrt-del-nrt-syd-hnl-dfw-anc-dfw-jfk-scl-ipc-scl-fra-amm

This is 55125 miles.

In terms of crediting this to a program, you might want to consider QF as well. This itinerary would give you 1940 SCs, so enough to make QF Platinum (=OW Emerald). 7 of those and you will have lifetime Gold on Qantas. QF has a bad earn/burn ration compared to AA but the advantage is the easy lifetime status plus the lounge access for domestic segments in North America which AA will not give you. But QF is also enforcing the 4 segment rule. You will have SYD-HNL on QF and HNL-DFW can be booked as a QF code share. So yo would only need to do 2 small $79 flights from SYD to get to the 4 segments.

Thanks for all the info so far. To address a few questions posted:

While I am interested in accruing as many miles as possible, I'm not really interested in adding a fifth continent to this trip. My stops in the states are to visit family/friends and aren't really flexible. DFW was the logical choice because I can buy a cheap R/T ticket to Tucson, and it only burns up one segment each (HNL-DFW, DFW-EWR). While JFK might be a better option than EWR, it is much easier for my Dad to pick me up/drop me off at EWR than driving into Queens.

I've decided to replace Manila with Singapore. It looks like a nice ride via BKK only using one segment on the inbound flight, and outbound 2 segments via JAL.

Coming back into FRA, then staying overnight and departing for Amman the next day (via LHR- BA, RJ). Then, I would turn around and catch the early TK flight back to Germany via IST (no OW miles, but a few half-hearted miles towards SEN ).

The AMM-HKG direct flight is not showing up via the OW booking tool. I know it continues on to HKG, but for some reason it isn't coming up.

Of course you can change JFK to EWR. Doesn't make a big difference and if it is more convenient, go for it. Your itinerary is fine but it is a not maximizing the mileage and status potential and you are missing out on the best J products within OW.

A DONE4 allows you to get top status within OW which gives you more privileges than Star Alliance Gold as it lets you into the First Class Lounges.

Regarding the TUS side trip, you might consider going HNL-LAX (-TUS-) LAX-EWR. UA serves LAX-TUS nonstop (thus Star miles) plus it's cheaper than DFW-TUS-DFW. If you're interested in BA tier points/elite qualification, the HNL-LAX-EWR routing (all in first class due to no business on those sectors) will yield more tier points than HNL-DFW-EWR.

Regarding OW miles/status, I think a more basic question is, what are your normal travel patterns? It sounds like you're mainly a Star traveler, with Europe as your main focus? If so, then acquiring BA status sounds much more useful than AA or QF, and easier to maintain if you're interested, as getting the 4 BA segments is not that hard, plus as I mentioned as a European resident you're able to (re)qualify for elite status much more easily than others. I'll reiterate that with your current itinerary you have more than enough tier points for BA Gold, and would only be lacking enough BA metal segments, which can easily be obtained outside the RTW, or else by substituting some inexpensive flights within the RTW (e.g. SCL-PUQ) with some European sectors and BA metal at the beginning or end (e.g. AMM-xLHR-BKK..)

For miles accumulation, and if you were willing to skip Hawaii AND pay out of pocket for SCL-PUQ, you could use the "second N. America entry" rule and go, for instance, ...NRT-GRU-SCL-IPC-SCL-LAX (-TUS-LAX-) EWR-LHR-FRA-LHR-FRA-AMM. NRT-GRU stops at JFK but is one flight no./segment, so a great mileage earner. EWR-LHR is on BA metal, so that would help you earn the necessary BA segments to get from Silver to Gold on this itinerary.

One other note along those lines - if you started in TLV rather than AMM (same price or a bit less in Euro terms) you could ride BA metal at both ends, e.g. TLV BA LHR BA BKK... and EWR BA LHR BA FRA BA LHR BA TLV. You could still get back to IST on TK, or to FRA on LH from Ben Gurion. If you want to tour Jordan, it's not hard to get to Amman from Jerusalem, or to Petra from Eilat.

I recall reading that this one's on the chopping block. Can't recall the timing but there is info in the JAL forums.

Angeles city