I have a trip planned for about $1300 consisting of 5 r/t tickets on 5 oneworld airlines. So far, so good. But before I actually buy the tickets I have a few questions about earning the bonus on two different airlines.

1) How does one go about actually getting the bonus on multiple airlines? Presumably I would be eligible since each r/t is 2 segments, but how does one actually get credited on both airlines? One of the airlines will be American and the other I haven't determined yet. Has anyone actually confirmed with the airlines that it's even possible to get multiple bonuses?

2) I want to keep this trip as short as possible (looks like 4 days). Having not travelled within Europe before, how long does it take to go through customs flying between countries within Europe? Is 90 minutes between an arrival on one airline and a departure on another adequate? Is 60 minutes? Obviously I need to also look at what terminals the various airlines are located at the specific airports.

3) Since I currently don't belong to any oneworld ff program except American, do any of you have any recommendations on which 2nd one I should join? I would like to get the most bang for my buck on the 2nd bonus.

Thanks for any help!

I would expect that you'd join the second partner's program, then have the outbound flight in each case credited to your AA account and the return on this new partner account. (Make sure the promo for that carrier permits non-residents of their home country to participate, something CP does not do from what I've head in another strand of messages.) Also, ensure that your non-AA carrier's account number is printed on the boarding pass to ensure credit has been changed from the one you used to get there.

I assume each of your round trips in on a different oneworld carrier so you can use my solution. I am note sure an AA codeshare on a CP-operated flight would be counted as CP...

Also, as someone has already pointed out, QF's program is measured in kilometers and not miles, so 100,000 kms is worth a third less than 100,000 miles. This means you can't get quite as generous a reward on QF as on the other partners using miles.

Maybe you can show us your planned itinerary and where your base airport will be. You say most of this will be in Europe, so I assume you'll fly AA to LHR, then BA, IB and Finnair, then do a transborder up to Canada when you get back to the US. Do you plan QF or CA?

As for connecting times in Europe, this could be dicey more because of air traffic control problems that have plagued Germany and Spain particularly, and all flight flying over them. (I flew in France, and to/from UK, over the summer and experience no such problems, fortunately.)

Customs and immigration would be an issue passing through Heathrow (as would terminal changes and security checks) and again when you make your first entry into mainland Europe.

Once in the European Community, there will be no customs or immigration to deal with until you leave the EC again. Thus from Spain to your connecting point to Finnair (for example, Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam) will be no problem, though I can't recall if Finland has joined the EC, so you may have to clear customs and immigration to return.

60-minutes most certainly will NOT provide you with a safe connection. And as I noted with ATC problems, even 90-minutes might give you ulcers. I'd be conservative and recommend 3-hours minimum. (If you're elite on AA, use the privilege to sample the other carrier's lounges. They won't charge you for alcoholic drinks either.)

Let us know how you ultimately plan to do your trip.

Two of my roundtrips (BA & CX) are ticketed, and both reservations agents had no problem putting in a BA Executive Club # for the outbound and an AA AAdvantage # for the return. Of course, it remains to be seen what will actually post...and yes, I'll be checking my boarding passes carefully!

I'm flying on a OneWorld explorer ticket to collect 3 bonus', requalify for AA Platinum, qualify for BA Silver and QF Silver.

Now CP have joined the fray (they say you can get the 100,000 bonus - just not the draw), I'm booking some extra sectors to get their bonus. It's all taking about 2.5 weeks and 85,000 miles!

Almost every sector will have a different FF number in and I think as long as I don't get stuck with through check-ins I should be OK.

My plan is to make sure that I leave with a boarding pass which shows the right number on it. That way I should be able to argue if I don't get a credit for some sector or other.

Finland is a European Union member and is in the euro zone.

Finland is outside the Schengen Treaty so there will be passport control to and fom Finland.