Hi all

I am AA EXP and am planning a 5-Continent rtw. over a nine month period - leave the rats to race behind!! I have enough airmiles to get a business class ticket. My current itin. is approx 44k miles so would cost 220k miles to go business.
I am originating in Europe and current itin. is shown below. I have a few questions:

1. Is it better to use my airmiles or pay for an economy ticket and just get some upgrades on the AA flights using the AAVIPOWs I currently have?

2. Does anyone have any suggestions as to better my itinerary. I am thinking about cutting out some of the internal Australia flights. If I was to use airmiles I think it would make sense to add some more segments - (to get up to the 50k(?) distance threshold) ......any suggestions?

3. How can I best get to see Fiji and other South Pacific Islands from Auckland cheaply?

4. How about Vietnam from Bangkok, is that easy?

5. Any other pointers/useful info greatly appreciated from this first-time poster!!


LHR-FCO-MAD-RIO-SCL-LIM-MIA-SJO-JFK-STT-MIA
-CUN-DFW-HNL-SYD-AKL-BNE-PER-DRW-DPS-SIN-BKK
-LHR

nosquirrel,

My only suggestion to your itinerary would be to Cuzco (CUZ) to your itinerary after LIM.

There ain't a whole lot to see in Lima when you compare to the "ruins" in Cuzco. A round trip ticket on some of the Peruvian domestic airlines costs between $150 to $250 USD.

LAN Peru (a subsidiary of Lan Chile a OneWorld Alliance member) will qualify you for miles (roughly 500 each way because it's the minimum if I recall). And I don't recall LAN Peru being too much more $$$ wise.

Enjoy the trip, I'm envious.

Tizoc

------------------
Travel light, travel cheap, travel often

Some more info is needed to advise. Do you have more money or miles? Do you mind losing status if you do take a 9-month break from the rat race? I would advise against buying an coach RTW. Coach on the long-haul segments on non-AA planes can be very tiring. Plus no miles on CX, less than 100% on QF and IB. Also, my copy of the rules state that upgrades on AA segments can only be done with miles, so the VIPOW may not be useful in this case. Tell us more for better opinions.

many thanks for the replies so far.

I definitely I have more miles (220k) than money!! and am therefore leaning toward the miles option - those biz. class award tickets just seem like such a good deal. In order to get 2 biz. class tickets though I will need a total of 440k miles to complete my itin. - in order to do this I will have to cash in some Marriott vacation packages (I have about 800k Marriott points) so it is do-able.
To answer the other question, no I do not mind losing status or even using all of my miles - although I do notice that a lot of the posters seem to be working on accumulating miles - I just wonder am I doing anything stupid by wanting to use mine ?
I definitely want to do the OWE and travel so now I'm just trying to figure out what is the best deal for my itin. ?
Also any additions to the itin or suggestions greatly appreciated.
Interesting about the VIPOWs - can I exchange them for miles perhaps, does anyone know?
thanks again.

Here is my approach:
I will pay for my tickets (i.e. I as the passenger) since I can get miles again and status. But I will use miles for my beloved family members. (My sister just paid $1000 to AA for home return, kind of want to take her $1000 and give her a Buz Ticket, but she is travelling with 4 friends, no dice..)

VIPOW's can be used on RTW tickets to upgrade only the AA segments. No problem.

Just to confirm: I have often used VIPOWs to upgrade on RTW and Circle Pacific tickets. As
BoPeep says, no problem.

Be aware that award seats are much more restricted availability than purchased seats, so you may need to be flexible on travel dates/time and book well in advance if using miles.