It's not crazy at all, and well worth a short experiment using the online tool. Price a DONE4 ex-ARN using the online tool, and be sure to click on the "taxes and fees" item on the pricing screen (and print it) to see the fuel surcharge numbers ("YQ" on the breakout.)

Then price a DONE5 ex-USA with AA as the first, hence ticketing airline, and do the same thing. It might be close to a wash; who knows.

You'd obviously need to vary your itinerary because of the first and last legs (from/to USA) to something like LAX-xLHR-EBB//JNB-WDH//VFA-JNB-SYD-CNS-SYD-SCL-IPC-SCL-LIM-EZE-JFK-SFO or some such.

One benefit of the US origin would be your ability to seriously accelerate your status and mileage earning potential by signing up for the Platinum Challenge (see the AA board) through which you gain Platinum status if you earn 10,000 elite qualifying points on AA-numbered flights within 3 months. Once you get to Plat, miles earned in some (not all) other Oneworld airlines' flights earn an elite bonus of 100% redeemable miles, which really adds up quickly. You don't earn Plat bonuses on BA-numbered flights, or JAL or Malev ones, but you'd get it on all the Qantas and Lan flights in your itinerary, also Iberia.

Business class flights on any Oneworld flight earn 1.5 elite points per mile, so for example LAX-LHR on AA is 5456 miles, hence earns 8100+ points.

Now here's where it gets interesting. If you don't stop over (24h +) in the UK, you can book the LHR-EBB flight using an AA flight number (BA plane) thus the 4000+ miles on LHR-EBB (6000+ points) added to the LAX flight gets you well over the 10,000 point limit right away.

Seat-of-the-pants calculation on the above revised itinerary looks like you'd earn around 90K redeemable miles if you take the Plat Challenge; whereas you'd earn around 54K miles if you don't. And your route is far from optimized for mileage purposes, if that's an interest.

Also if you don't stop over at LHR and use the AA codeshare, you won't be charged for the premium-cabin UK air passenger duty, which for LHR-EBB in business would be �100.

Note I used LAX as your origin point since you'd have to fly on AA transatlantic to get the AA mileage/points, and AA doesn't have a nonstop flight to London from SFO. Starting in SFO would require you to use an additional segment to get out of the USA (e.g. SFO-ORD-LHR) and you want to preserve segments.

Maybe you could fly on your own dime (but use AA metal for the points) to ORD or JFK and have the RTW ticket start there. LAX-LHR on AA appears to arrive at LHR after the EBB flight has left, so you might encounter some resistance to being able to use the AA code on the next day's EBB flight, since you'd be spending the night at LHR. You'd have to have the AA code in order to make the 10K points for the Challenge. Originating at some other AA gateway (ORD, DFW, JFK, BOS...) you can get to Heathrow early enough in the morning to make the EBB flight.

Sorry, it gets more complicated, but do give it a try as an experiment with the online tool.

Haha, this is getting interesting. When you take everything into account, it breaks even almost exactly!

I'm going to try to book LAX-LHR-EBB...EZE-DFW-SFO.
If that doesn't work, I'll try ORD-LHR-EBB...EZE-DFW-SFO.

As for mileage optimization, that really isn't the goal at this point... but I might as well ask I suppose EZE-JFK-SFO would give me more miles. Any other suggestions?

-Nick

And one more question: since my buddy is still flying from Europe, would the fees when booking through QF, LAN or AY be lower than those of BA?

I'm going to try and call TAL about it, but I don't have high hopes given the answer I got from AA's US office.

-Nick

Hi everyone,

I just spent a good long time on the phone with AA, and they confirmed that I could make the platinum challenge by the time I land in EBB. I'm signed up and ready to go!

I've made my booking with EZE-JFK-SFO, rather than EZE-DFW-SFO. Let me know if you have any last minute mileage-improving suggestions. I'll be purchasing it tomorrow.

For future reference, I couldn't convince TAL to book my buddy's ticket through AA since it didn't have a single AA leg. I tried Iberia and Finnair, but didn't get anywhere with their service reps (Iberia said it would take 7-10 days to price?), so I'm booking his with BA after all. So it goes...

Gardyloo and KiwiFlyer, I cannot thank you enough for your advice on this thread. Your suggestions have not only helped us optimize our trip, but also made the itinerary even more exciting than it already was. We're both incredibly grateful for your help.

Thanks again,

-Nick

PS: I'll be back here once I return to figure out if I can make it to Exec Platinum. Uh-oh, seems I'm hooked already...

Congratulations. Your room in the asylum is being prepared...

Ha, perfect!

Ok, so I know you think this thread was settled ... but any tips for how to optimize my buddy's itinerary?

I can't find a way to avoid booking through BA, so we'll have to eat the higher fees. Then the question is how to optimize his mileage/status remains.

Here's the itinerary: ARN(BA)-LHR(BA)-EBB//JNB(BA)-WDH//VFA(BA)-JNB(QF)-SYD(QF)-CNS(QF)-SYD(LA)-SCL(LA)-IPC(LA)-SCL(LA)-LIM(IB)-MAD(IB)-ARN.

I presume he would want to add a 16th segment somewhere to maximize mileage, maybe EZE after LIM like myself.

What would be the best FFP for him to use? AA is useful to him, but he doesn't have any AA flights. BA is good too, but they seem stingy with miles and points (am I wrong?). And then there's QF, LA and IB. Do any of these have a platinum challenge equivalent?

Cheers,

-Nick

I think BA is his best bet, by a mile. Assuming he lives in Sweden (or has a Swedish address) he'll qualify for BA's highly favorable treatment of non-UK (but European) residents.

One attains status with BA through accumulating "tier points" which are awarded as a function of distance x class of service. For your itinerary, for example, business class segments of under 2000 miles earn 40 tier points, while those over 2000 miles earn 120.

As a European resident, he only needs 400 tier points - and four BA-operated segments - to go from Blue status (entry) to Silver, the equivalent of Platinum with AA (both Oneworld Sapphire.) When he hits 400 points - and the 4 segments - his tier point total reverts to zero, and then he would need another 800 TP (and another 4 BA flights) to hit BA Gold, the equivalent of AA Executive Platinum, Oneworld Emerald.

(By comparison, UK/US residents need 600 TP for Silver, then another 1500 for Gold - quite a difference.)

Using his present itinerary (15 segs) it looks to me like he'd hit Silver on arrival at CNS, as he'd have all 4 BA segments (ARN-LHR-EBB, JNB-WDH, VFA-JNB) in the bag. It would re-set to 0 at CNS, then he'd be off toward Gold during the remainder of the trip.

If he ended by going LIM LP GRU BA LHR BA ARN, then by my calcs he'd be at 720 TP and 2 BA segments, so just 80 TP and 2 segments from Gold. A couple of quick BA round trips ARN-LHR-ARN in economy (around US$200 each, 20 TP per segment) or one in business class (40 TP x 2, $550) would net the needed 80 TP and 2+ BA segments for Gold, thus OW Emerald.

Major benefits - "cheap" mileage-based upgrades on BA flights, lounge access pretty much everywhere, expedited security, baggage allowances, good redemption rates... extremely well worth it IMO.

Splendid. I don't know where his account is registered, it's either the Netherlands or the US. If it's in the US, does this no longer apply?

Sounds like we can have a race to Executive Platinum / BA Gold

-Nick

Pretty sure he could (should) change it to the Netherlands if he has an address there. Best to post this question on the BA board.

Alright, he'll get on that! Thanks a lot for the advice.

-Nick