Hello:
I'm planning a DONE4 for next year, and I wonder if anybody has routing suggestions for maximising AA EQPs.
Currently I have:
amm-bkk-nrt-cgk-hkg-jfk-yvr-dfw-anc-dfw-gru-lim-eze-mad-ist-lhr-mct which is 53,503 miles, so 80,254 EQPs.

A few points:
1) I could do GYE instead of LIM but I have been to GYE a couple of times in the past year, so want to go somewhere different.

2) Ditto DEL instead of CGK

3) DME instead of IST would be slightly longer but I don't want to deal with the complications of Russian visa again.

FYI the online tool prices this as USD7192.00 + taxes/fees USD863.60 = total USD8055.60

Appreciate any suggestions - thanks!

You might try out some mileage totals using the "free" North America connection to/from South America, e.g. HKG-xJFK-EZE/GRU/SCL etc. followed by putting North America after South America, e.g. HKG-xJFK-EZE...GRU-JFK-YVR... etc. I can put some itineraries together that hit close to 60K miles/90K EQP.

If you are purely maximizing the miles, I would replace BKK with KUL, RJ has a 1 stop direct flight there some days of the week so it's just one segment, then JL KUL-NRT. Should add just under 1000 miles there. I would say, incorporating Gardyloo's valuable suggestions AMM-KUL-NRT-CGK-HKG-JFK-EZE-LIM-IPC-SCL-DFW-ANC-DFW-MAD-TLV-LHR-MCT, should be 57,665 miles or so. Just remember to make sure you spend less than 24 hours in JFK. Also, I know the LIM-IPC flight is seasonal (doesn't start until February 2012 and I'm not sure how long it lasts off the top of my head), so you can go LIM-GRU-SCL if needed, lose about 1000 miles but much more availability. The routing I have also saves the cost of the visa for Brazil, and the Chilean reciprocity fee is only taken for international arrivals in SCL from what I've read, so you wouldn't get hit with it in IPC or SCL (IPC-SCL being a domestic flight). Of course, neither of those may be a concern for you, particularly if you planned to transit GRU only or already have the visa. Good luck!

Only three European segments are used.
So, AMM-xCDG-NRT is longer than AMM-KUL-NRT.

As counter intuitive as it may seem the difference is less than 100mi (8,057 vs 8,152) and the cost is that CDG (as you pointed out) has to be a transit while KUL can be a stop.

Many thanks for suggestions, especially Gardyloo's idea of transiting JFK on the way to South America. That also helped my seasonal timing so that I can use the summer-only DFW-ANC flight (though it has not been loaded yet, so will ticket another city and pay the change fee when DFW-ANC is loaded for next summer.)

KUL instead of BKK is another good idea which adds about 900 miles. However, for other reasons I decided to stick with BKK.

As it happens now, with positioning flights included, I will earn more than 100K EQPs next year so tweaking the RTW for max EQPs is not so important.

Now, if I could only get the online tool to complete the purchase: getting 15012 error - see post in online tool bugs thread.

Happy Travels.

Since you're going to re-issue anyway, why not try to do a simpler booking (maybe without the N/S America transit, or ending back in AMM instead of DXB) to see if it will work with the online tool, then make all the changes at one time when you re-issue for ANC? Might be worth a shot, nothing to lose.