What are your intended award redemptions? Route? Class of service? Because redemption rates (and carrier surcharges) can vary widely from one FFP to the next -- for the very same award flights -- just focusing on the program that will earn the most miles for your upcoming trip is a little short-sighted. For example, BAEC charges for each award flight flown; by contrast, AAdvantage redemptions include connections when necessary.

Status on AA will not get you lounge access, except when flying internationally. Status on foreign-based FFPs will get you longe access, even when flying domestically within the U.S.

Wow...these are great questions. I did not even think of all this.

My award redemption would be US-Australia and US-Europe or beyond. The sample of destinations beyond Europe or at periphery of Europe would be IST, CAI, DXB, DEL. Would prefer J.

Lounge access would be very preferable domestically as well but it won't be a first priority as i live in DEN which is Star Alliance city. From what i have heard the Admirals lounge has paid food and drink options and there are no AS lounges at my airport. Wish i lived in a city with Flagship lounges.

Let me know if there are any more questions or if i am leaving anything out. THanks.

Finding low-cost, intercontinental award redemptions is going to be challenging; not impossible, but challenging. If you redeem AA miles for travel on BA, you will pay a fixed redemption rate of 57.5K miles in J for North America to Europe, but you will be hit with hefty surcharges. By contrast, if you redeem AA miles for travel on AA, you will often be charged more miles, but will be charged just a pittance in cash. Of course, not all of your intended destinations are served by AA, so you will be dependent on there being partner award availability in J when you want to travel.

​​​​​​My suggestion is to go to aa.com (or the AA app), and do an award search for some trips you might make in the future. (No log-in is required.) This will give you some idea of what to expect if you were to accumulate AA miles instead of, say, BA Avios.

Good luck!

One thing I'd add to this for the OP's benefit and understanding of the various programs. Being located in the US, you're already at a huge disadvantage for any of the big 5 North American based FF programs. They're all essentially credit card programs and there is a HUGE glut of unused miles in North America from the giant sign up bonuses and regular spend on the cards. Miles are actually a lot harder to come by most of the rest of the world and giant sign up bonuses are the exception than the norm. Therefore you have the supply vs. demand issue of AA, UA, DL all charging ridiculous amounts of miles for their own flights overseas. You really want to redeem on partners since those are at a fixed cost (in terms of miles) however being based in North America you're also severely disadvantaged because, well, so does everyone else who has miles and knows anything about the program, so partner awards to / from North America are snapped up quickly on release and many partners don't release more inventory until close in (dates near your travel date). Living overseas and using a North American FF program makes a huge difference because I'm always redeeming on partners and there's not nearly as much competition for the award space since I almost never redeem to / from North America.

There's another approach if you'll earn most miles from your DONEx or similar premium cabin tickets. You can credit everything to an overseas program that has decent awards to places you like to go. (and you'd also get domestic lounge access in the US with status in a foreign program). Many airlines give a lot more seats to their own frequent flyer program than they do partners. I see availability all the time on CX intra-Asia that's unavailable to OW partners, and still at CX's base (saver) rate. Having said that I don't think CX MPC is the best place to credit a DONEx. QR is quite similar, they have a lot of availability on their own flights but often QSuite flights are at 2x of saver rate. (Still a lot better than AA on their own flights generally). Those aren't the only two examples but you really have to compare award charts and see if it makes sense to you. It doesn't do you any good to have a million miles in any program if you're unable to use them for anything enjoyable. Also pay attention to non-Alliance partners, for example QR has Rwandair which is great for hopping around Africa. AA has TN and FJ, which are not only good for getting to the South Pacific but also can be used for connecting fights to Australia and New Zealand.

A further thought as well, both AA and AS typically credit very advantageously on a DONEx, even if they aren't great to get out of North America directly on a redemption. Accumulate a bunch of miles in one of them, then buy a cheapish (revenue) ticket to a region you're interested in and use the miles to hop around. A lot of regions aren't cheap to hop around if you want business class. AA redemptions intra-Asia are really good and fairly easy to find, inside Australia or trans-Tasman as well. (though those shorter intra-Australia flights like the East Coast are far better ticketing with BA Avios than AA miles since BA is distance based) Intra-Middle East or Asia to Middle East is great with AA miles and you also have EY as a non-alliance partner for those. Intra-Europe rates are good and readily available, but I don't really say they are high value since the Eurobiz experience isn't great. AS has a lot of work to do on their OneWorld awards so it's hard to say how it'll eventually look but some awards on their current non-Alliance partners are really great and not terribly difficult to score with planning, only problem with crediting to AS is you need a lot of AS metal segments to earn status, you'd probably need to hop around the west coast a bit to maintain it, AA has no such segment requirement and if you can get to EXP status you'd be earning just as many miles on a DONEx as you would with AS (this assumes that BA and IB will continue crediting to AA as distance based on DONEx, which is also still unknown, otherwise you'd have to use AY or QR for all your long haul DONEx flights between Europe and North America.

Thanks for all the wonderful insights.

I am getting a fair idea of AA, AS, BA, QA, QF FFPs. But still not a great deal of info on AY, CX and IB.

I am still playing with my RTW itinerary routing. But how do i maximize my mileage accrual for J. Or it does not matter and all FFPs will credit mileage at same rates ?

Also what gives me best chance to get One World Emerals status with an approx 41K itinerary traveling on J.

No, each FFP has its own earnings rates and its own redemption rates (and fees and rules). And each program has its own rules for awarding elite status.

Depending on how many segments there will be on your RTW journey, how many of them will be marketed or operated by BA, how many will be marketed and operated by IB, and how long each of the segments will be, you might be able to attain BA Gold (oneworld Emerald) status. But then, of course, you would be earning BA Avios, and not some other frequent-flyer currency.

You need 1,500 BAEC Tier Points in a qualifying year to earn BAEC Gold. You must also have flown a total of at least four flights operated or marketed by BA and/or marketed and operated by IB.

Each Business Class flight of 2,000 miles or more on oneworld carriers credited to BAEC earns at least 140 TP.

Is there a tool to figure this out. Only one of my long distance segments is with BA. I have not finalized my itinerary as yet but so far i am traveling with JAL, CX, QF, QR, BA, ,and AA. So i am not sticking to one airline.

The long-distance segments do not have to be on BA. But you must have a total of four segments (of any length) that are BA-marketed or BA-operated, or IB-marketed and IB-operated. It is possible that you might have a segment marketed by BA, but operated by another carrier, say AA or QR.

In addition to the four "eligible" segments, you must amass a total of 1,500 BAEC Tier Points to attain BAEC Gold .You can click on the BA "Flight Calculator" at this site to determine how many Avios and Tier Points each segment would earn:

https://www.britishairways.com/en-us...-avios/flights

But as previously noted, any Business Class segment of more than 2,000 miles flown on any oneworld carrier will earn at least 140 Tier Points if you credit the flight to BAEC.

I think with the right itinerary you could get to Emerald with any of BA, QR, AA, or AS quite easily. There are other threads for xONEx optimization, but since you're choosing the FF plan based on earnings and status, throw up a tentative itinerary you're working on and we can let you know the feasibility. BA and QR use a block based tier point system so maximizing long hauls wouldn't be the primary goal, while AA you'd want to maximize long hauls with specific partners and avoid certain others, with AS they all credit pretty nicely but you'd want to try for some AS segments to bring down the number you'd have to do in mileage runs.

When you're checking for earnings rates, you'll be looking at D fares (I'm assuming DONEx here, but don't remember if you specified, I don't think you can get to Emerald on an economy ticket alone). Wheretocredit.com gives you some idea as well, just change the airline at the top but you'll be starting out at base level and moving up through the tiers quite quickly as you fly where bonuses will start kicking in on some airlines. Bonus earnings won't matter for status on QR or BA but certainly will if you go with AA.

When considering BA, keep in mind BA, IB, and QR Avios are interchangeable so when one has a better award chart or availability than the other, you can move the Avios instantly between them, presumably AY will be the same next year though at the moment their award chart and program isn't very appealing, have to wait and see if that changes next year or not. EI (Aer Lingus) also participates though I've personally never found any use for their awards, but from the US to Europe you may very well find it useful and their business class seems quite acceptable (however that's long haul only, intra-Europe is economy only).

QR has the same 4 segment requirement as BA, but I wouldn't dismiss QR Platinum (OW Emerald) if your travel will continue to take you via DOH. Platinums get access to the First Class Al Safwa lounge when on QR business tickets (a DONEx would count if you were QR Platinum already). It's extremely easy to put 4x QR segments on a DONEx to meet that requirement and they have much lower fuel surcharges than BA.

Not so sure about AA, given the mix of carriers already identified for this particular trip. All AA segments earn Loyalty Points based on the pre-tax fare attributable to those segments, not the distance flown. Ditto with BA and IB segments, effective October 18, 2023. And if the OP wants to attain OWE status solely from this RTW trip, I do not see how he could do so by crediting to AS.

If we had a better idea of the specific RTW itinerary (including carriers for each segment), I think that we could give better advice.

I am super newb to this.

Itinerary 1:
HND-HKG - JL
Hkg-SIN - CX
SIN-MEL - QF
MEL-SYD - QF
SYD-BCN - QR
BCN-HEL - AY
HEL-LHR - AY
LHR-DEN - BA
DEN-MIA - AA
MIA-GIG - AA
GIG -EZE - BA
EZE-LAX - AA
LAX-HND - JL.

The is the shorter one, it does not include IST. Plan here is to take 3 months in DEN(home) before going to GIG.

Itinerary 2:
HND-HKG - JL
HKG-SIN - CX
SIN-MEL - QF
MEL-SYD - QF
SYD-IST - QR
-IST-lHR - BA
LHR-BCN - BA
BCN-HEL - AY
HEL-DFW - AY
DFW-EZE - AA
EZE-GIG - BA
GIG-LAX - AA
LAX-HND - JL

This includes IST.

I would be interested how to maximize 4 segments on QR.

Edit: I just found out BA is starting services between GIG and EZE. So I included that in my itinerary.

That's a fair point and definitely a huge TBD about what AA does with BA and IB segments on an xONEx post Oct. 18th.

From the limited data points I can find (including my own) other OW carrier plated DONEx's seem to have AA segments credit by distance as a special fare but I'm too nervous about that so even on my own upcoming one, I had AKL-DFW ticketed as QF 4396 vs AA 34 despite QF being 150% vs AA 175% if it were again credited as distance, it's too long of a segment to risk. Also rumor in the BA forums is that BA is going to continue to credit xONEx as distance in BAEC, though currently AA certainly has no indication of that on their own AAdvantage website so we won't know until some AAdvantage members fly some in the coming months and see what happens. I have zero BA or IB on my itinerary so won't have any data points to contribute there but do have 2 x AA (DFW-SAL-DFW, so fairly short and no big loss if they credit as revenue).

Even with AA plated, it's a mixed bag on AA codes. A lot of people reported getting distance credit, while I can only find a few that said they got pro-rated revenue.

I did find one of the itineraries the OP had put in the flame free thread, I can tweak that quite a bit to minimize damage from AA, BA, and IB codes if credited to AA, should have some time today or tomorrow to play around with it. Not sure though if I can get it to 125k LPs without prior AA status.

For a *ONE* ticket you need to list all the separate flights- they count
SYD-DOH-BCN QR [could also do SYD-LHR QF/BA and LHR-BCN IB/BA]
SYD-DOH-IST QR
For the others you need to check the airline fly the route non stop (or with 1 flight number)

For *ONE* questions better ask in the dedicated OW *ONE* threads or a seperate new thread, Not this thread
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld-411/

There is no oneworld carrier which flies GIG-LAX nonstop. So unless AA offers a GIG-LAX "direct" (through) flight, you will have to add a connecting segment. Ditto SYD-BCN and SYD-IST on QR.

To get four QR segments, you would have to transit DOH twice. (I don't know the oneworld Explorer ticket rules so I cannot say what the transit rules are.)

Very important that you list each segment (even if you're only connecting, rather than stopping over) so that we can assess status earning.

Edited to add:

At this site, you can get a good approximation of the distance of each flight segment:

http://www.gcmap.com/dist

You can transit DOH more than twice. I have 4x DOH transits on my upcoming ticket DFW-DOH-NBO, EBB-DOH-CAI, CAI-DOH-DUB and DUB-DOH-MNL and had 3x on last years ticket (DFW-DOH-TBS, TBS-DOH-CDG, DUB-DOH-CGK).

Sorry about that. Let me make the changes guys and respond.

Here is my itinerary now:

HND-HKG - JL
HKG-SIN - CX
SIN-MEL - QF
MEL-SYD - QF
SYD-DOH-BCN - QR
BCN-LHR - BA
LHR-HEL - AY
HEL-DFW - AY
DFW-EZE - AA
EZE-GIG - BA
GIG-MIA-LAX - AA
LAX-HND- JL

ignore the previous itneraries. Apart from IST (which i cannot include without keeping it to 4 European segments), i am getting to all my destinations.

I never thought about that. So technically can my itinerary be

HND-HKG - JL
HKG-SIN - CX
SIN-MEL - QF
MEL-SYD - QF
SYD-DOH-BCN - QR
BCN-LHR - BA
LHR-HEL - AY
HEL-DOH-DFW - QR
DFW-EZE - AA
EZE-GIG - BA
GIG-MIA-LAX - AA
LAX-HND- JL

Well, that would give you an extra qualifying segment for BA elite status if that's what you decide to pursue. And between LHR and HEL, you could add a BA segment between LHR and MAN, CPH, etc., with AY for the short segment in or out of HEL.

However BA may or may not have the 5th freedom rights to sell GIG-EZE as a standalone flight. Will be selling LHR-GIG & LHR-EZE

Have asked moderators to split posts from 1726 into a new thread "DONE5 with DEN stopover". Getting way off topic into detailed *ONE* questions. We have many standalone threads on *ONE* itineraries.
[Calling pandaperth to the front desk ;)]

It looks like BA has local-traffic rights:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6063c02845.png

When i add CPH as in LHR-CPH and CPH-HEL, the itinerary gives errors on the OW RTW tool. When i remove it and have LHR-HEL nonstop flight, it prices the itinerary.

BA flight from EZE-GIG was successfully selected on OW RTW tool.

Well, I'm told that the tool can be problematic sometimes when it comes to pricing, but you're going to have to call a carrier to book it in any event.

With a little tweaking, we can get you four BA segments and BA Gold on this trip, with an itinerary something like this:

HND-HKG JL
HKG-SIN CX
SIN-SYD BA
SYD-MEL QF
MEL-DOH QR
DOH-BCN QR
BCN-LHR BA
LHR-CPH/MAN/DUB (pick one) BA
CPH/MAN/DUB-HEL AY
HEL-DOH QR
DOH-DFW QR
DFW-EZE AA
EZE-GIG BA
GIG-MIA AA
MIA-LAX AA
LAX-HND JL

Change HND-HKG to CTS-HKG and it's 140 TP instead of 40 TP as well. The original itinerary was at 1500, changing to CTS makes it 1600 plus the segment you've just added in. Also AY doesn't fly to DUB much to my dismay as I wanted that segment without LHR in the middle.


@ memanny
I'm still working on it, but I've done some re-ordering and I've got an itinerary that's definitely 91k AA LPs, assuming the AA and BA segments count as zero (which of course they don't), and if the AA segments count as distance then it's right around 120-121k (which I believe they would if you ticket from CX or QF). Will post a bit later after a meeting and some more tweaking.

Hope your itinerary was flexible in terms of which stop comes when :D, but I kept all of your cities.

It looks like Nordic Regional for Finnair offers regular DUB-HEL service (don't know whether that's bookable on an Explorer ticket), but Finnair flies its own metal on the route seasonally:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9f4c457e30.png

If you want to go for AA status, this "should" do it. It can't be ticketed with AA however and I'd be leery of ticketing with BA also. Sadly you may have to ticket this with QF, but AA segments "should" credit as distance with a 75% cabin bonus (special fares). SYD-JFK is via AKL but I'm pretty sure that counts as 1 segment, it can also be quite difficult to find D availability on nearish any major holidays.

NRT MEL QF or JL (both credit the same on this segment)
MEL SYD QF
SYD JFK QF
JFK EZE AA
EZE GIG BA
GIG MIA AA
MIA JFK AA
JFK LAX AA
LAX DOH QR
DOH BCN QR
BCN LHR BA
LHR HEL AY
HEL DOH QR
DOH HKG QR
HKG SIN CX
SIN HND/NRT JL

Assuming the AA segments all credit as distance that puts you at 128k LP's for PlatinumPro (OW Emerald) plus whatever the BA segment credits as. (if for some reason AA segments credit as revenue then you've got 90k LPs + whatever mystery LPs AA and BA credit at) but I've yet to see anyone said a QF plated DONEx credited as revenue in the AA thread.

Once you're PPro, you'll earn a lot more miles for the same itinerary next time. Just using my example above, if you were PPro today then it would put you at 177k LPs, again assuming you get the AA segments to credit by distance. That's just a stone's throw from EXP, and once you're EXP then it's pretty easy to maintain doing the same type of itinerary. An EXP doing that same itinerary today would net 216k LPs, again with the same assumptions.

Good to know for next time, I'm quite certain I was unable to find it before, not sure if it's been long running or recent?

If the OP decides to pursue AA status from this trip, he could also amass thousands more AA Loyalty Points by charging the fare to a qualifying AA credit card. But there are more lucrative cards for charging airfare -- including cards which offer Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption, and Trip Delay insurance.

Yeah, I very reluctantly put my most recent DONE5 on my Citi AA card before I actually did a full LP calculation for the remainder of the year. Now I'm going to be sitting on about 270k LP which I'm not super happy about. I could have moved some spend to Chase for more UR. (I'm not going to switch flight earnings over to another program because the EXP bonus is too lucrative, this overlap is simply being more cognizant of changing spend from Citi to Chase in future years.) I'm not one that needs to compete for domestic upgrades by maximizing LPs as high as they can go as I don't fly domestic much and I rarely buy an economy ticket hoping for an upgrade now. Even going to 250k LP for SWUs vs 200k just for EXP (or for that matter even 125k just for PPro) is starting to reveal how difficult it is to justify for me. I do appreciate getting to 200k for EXP just because the 120% elite bonus and I am in a place in the world where I can REALLY utilize AA miles quite well (and in this part of the world they are the best in OW if you're going beyond the short range tier with Avios. Literally the only program here any better is LifeMiles and that depends on the city pair as their regions are a bit different.). So the 120% for EXP vs. 80% for PPro actually is beneficial for that reason alone. I value the 120% elite bonus and the Emerald status. A couple of years ago I had to burn SWUs for MIA-SXM and back, despite most likely clearing for "free" anyway. The EXP agent was like 'are you really sure?'... I said yeah I have literally nothing else to use them on. I'm going to be sitting on 3-4 of them again at the end of this year sadly.

Not complaining, AAdvantage is wonderful where I live, and OW availability intra-Asia and Asia to the west is REALLY good (that's not unique to AA, every OW program has the same general availability, just a fact of the location) But I think this is the last year I chase SWUs, sadly. The restrictions using them on BA are too difficult where I might actually be able to C to F. If AA ever adds JL to the SWU partners, now that's something I can get excited about again. But even for the OP, AA is likely a very good program, just has to plan ahead for partner awards and be willing to position to where they fly (pretty sure OP is in DEN and that's not served by any international OW airlines I believe). Not saying chasing BAEC Gold is a bad idea either, but Avios are pretty terrible these days for any long haul redemptions and the status doesn't give much beyond other OW Emerald except domestic lounge access in the US (which I don't need but the OP might).

If I lived in the US and traveled on economy tickets a lot, I'd 100% go for AA EXP, not a question. But if most flights are international and you buy premium cabins, then that 'upgrade potential' looses it's luster. Then you get the question of where you're treated best... I find the abundance of AA miles highly beneficial but the OP may find Avios more beneficial.

I was under the impression ( i know in all likelihood I am wrong) that the segments need to be long haul for BA status.

But its great how you got 4 QR segments and 4 BA segments. Thanks so much!

I am assuming i ticket this with BA.

This is very interesting. I would have never thought of this.

One quick question, can i do this in reverse. Reach stateside and than take a break. Than pick up the GIG, EZE, MEL, SYD part of the itinerary.

I am in DEN. I only fly domestically once in a while and for positioning flights.

From DEN, BA does have a LHR-DEN daily flight which i have flown a few times.

I am not sure how to use Avios except for domestic AA flights where you save a few thousand miles. For BA redemption, the fees are too damn high. So that [ushes me away from BA. If i lived in OW hub city AA flagship lounges would have selected BA.

Never used AA FFP. But people seem to still like it a lot compared to say DL or UA. So may lean towards that. Not sure as yet though.

Actually I just noticed that I made a calculation error. I had the elite bonus multiplier on the base + cabin bonus, which is incorrect. The elite bonus is only on the base miles. I just fixed it and you'd only end up at 110k-112k LPs now, needing to find about 13k-15k another way (Other flights, AA credit card spend, AA Hotels (I'm assuming it's still out there, I found one after the change this year where you could still get about 16k LPs for $500 and not need to ever visit the hotel).

Reversing the itinerary does work, but it would then ticket through JL (assuming it even works in the OW tool, I haven't tested that). So I changed it slightly to cause it to get ticketed by CX, but you'd lose MIA. Just be sure you're timing your start and end within AA's Elite qualification year (March 1st to Feb 28th). BA is different and your qualification year is based on the month you earn your first Tier Points (which I'm assuming you already have done in the past so it's probably already set, you can see in your account, mine is May).

HND HKG CX
HKG SIN CX
SIN HKG CX
HKG DOH QR
DOH HEL QR
HEL LHR AY
LHR BCN BA
BCN DOH QR
DOH LAX QR
LAX JFK AA
JFK GIG AA
GIG EZE BA
EZE JFK AA
JFK SYD QF
SYD MEL QF
MEL NRT QF

One caveat in this, you'd hit Gold during that DOH-LAX flight, and I don't know how AA handles that 40% bonus. If it only counts from the next flight then you're at 110k LPs + the 2x BA flights mystery amount. But if AA pro-rates it exactly from 40k LPs then you'd have about 4,400 more LPs than I've accounted for, which might also kick Platinum in sooner than I've calculated so maybe a couple thousand more LPs than I've accounted for.

The biggest difference (high fees aside) between AA miles and Avios is that AA is zone based for redemption and Avios is distance based. Very short flights in business class are a good deal with Avios, but their long haul redemptions are atrocious these days. AA has some really attractive long haul rates, but some of the short haul wouldn't make sense in comparison. It's useful to have both on hand. I have AA as my primary but I always keep some Avios active for specific shorter redemptions. AA also weirdly doesn't have all OW inventory for redemption. I haven't found very many examples of this but there are a small handful that I've noticed on JL and CX where BA would have availability on those routes, I think they fixed one of them after I lodged a complaint to AAdvantage CS but it took a while and I couldn't use it when I needed it.

For you, domestic, if you go with AA once you get to PPro you'd have some chance at upgrades but I wouldn't expect many, you'd also get free Main Cabin Extra selection at booking and 3x free checked bags on AA metal, but only would have lounge access on long haul international. (they were allowing Admirals Club on Caribbean and Central America as well for a while but not sure if that's still in place). If you go with BA you won't get the upgrades or MCE seating, but you'd always have lounge access regardless of itinerary. Your baggage would also go by the OneWorld Emerald policy which is +1 on top of whatever the ticket allows (which is usually zero on domestic economy).

It sounds like you don't do a ton of domestic flying as it is, so I think the big decision comes down to how you will use your miles. In the end, after achieving PPro once, it's easier to maintain. I think you'd likely earn a lot more miles with AA but depends on which airlines you fly on going forward. AA's tier bonus applies to all OW flights. BA's tier bonus for Gold only applies fully for BA, IB, AA, JL and partially for AY (maybe more, I just didn't find them), though I suspect those will be changing for at least BA and IB soon and will just be a higher multiplier on the revenue, just like AA for it's own flights in AAdvantage.

BA Silvers and Golds both get free MCE seats on AA at time of booking, and get at least two free checked bags on AA. AA is more generous than what oneworld rules require.

Fair enough, I thought AA took that away from all non-AA OW elites (this was before AS joined), wasn't aware they allowed BA elites to continue the benefit.

Having one checked bad allowance is more than i will ever use on domestic fligths.

I like AA giving tier bonus for all OW partners and long haul redemption would be better.

I am surprised BA does not give tier bonus on QR flights, they have the same Avios currency. As for their FFP, get BA Gold will provide lounge domestic access. I think a OWE has Flagship lounge access as well. If my base was DFW or LAX i would definitely go for BA as those Flagship lounges are on the better side. Although at LAX there are also the QF lounges which are not too shabby.

But all things considered, I am going to go with AA.

What i am trying to understand is why ticket this itinerary with JL or QF and why not AA ?

If domestic lounge access is not that important to you, then AAdvantage is the way to go -- especially if you will be able to attain OWE status by reaching Platinum Pro (125,000 Loyalty Points). Even if you cannot get all the way there from your RTW alone, you might be able to do so with spend on a qualifying Barclays or Citi AA credit card, and/or with the Bilt Mastercard®; and with AAdvantage Dining, AAdvantage e-shopping, hotel stays, rental cars, etc.

Although there are no Priority Pass lounges at DEN, there are two participating Priority Pass restaurants there. The US Bank Altitude Reserve card -- which can have a net annual fee of zero or less (after its annual $325 travel/dining credit, and generous retention bonuses) -- offers eight annual visits to PP restaurants or lounges; the more expensive Chase Sapphire Reserve offers unlimited visits to PP lounges and restaurants.
​​​​​
If most of your purely domestic travel from DEN would require a connection (on AA or AS), redeeming AAdvantage miles rather than Avios for such trips will always be cheaper (when Avios redemptions are available), since BA charges for each flight flown.

memanny, one very important caveat: You have not indicated the starting and ending dates of your RTW trip, but each FFP has its own qualification time period for earning elite status. AA's runs from March 1 through February 28/29. If you want to maximize your Loyalty Points earnings to achieve status in AAdvantage, you would want all of your flights (and other LP-earning events, like major credit-card spend) to take place in a single qualification period.

Non AA / AS OneWorld Sapphire also can use Flagship lounges, not only Emerald. It's actually quite a good deal for people often transiting LAX, DFW, ORD, JFK, MIA.

You're making a solid choice going with AA since it sounds like redemption and Emerald status are your key perks you're after.

The reason to avoid AA for ticketing, if you ticket with AA there's a much higher chance your AA segments would end up crediting as revenue instead of distance. There's a thread in the AA forum about it and there's no rhyme or reason, sometimes they go one way, sometimes they go the other. I've been in contact with AAdvantage customer service several times and they absolutely refused to answer the question on when or why each happens. If your many AA segments credit as revenue, that wrecks your whole plan and you'll end up between 95k-100k LPs. I've yet to see people report QF and CX issued DONEx having AA segments credit as revenue and no one that I've seen on FlyerTalk tickets with JL because they have a ticketing and change fee. I'm sure in Japanese language forums you'd find people with experience on JL issued tickets but they also probably credit to JL Milage Bank.

I've been through a lot of torture on my QF ticket trying to get changes done, their call centers are nearly 100% incompetent. But finally figured out to use the Twitter team instead and though it can take a few days, they do have the right connections and get things done. Now I'm getting ready to start a CX issued ticket, from what I hear from others they aren't bad to deal with, though it does seem their call center can be hit or miss. Their Whatsapp team is good, I've used them already.

It's actually the one huge disadvantage of having your status in AAdvantage is not being able to use the AA RTW desk unless you're willing to risk taking the huge milage hit on your AA coded flights.

May I know how to find a flight that is marketed by BA, but operated by another carrier in Asia? I can hardly find a ticket in Asia. Thank you!