After numerous phone calls to the AAdvantage desk, I finally developed the itinerary I wanted for my RTW flight. When I called back to reserve it for certain dates, however, they have informed that my itinerary will not work because it has too many open jaws. Can any experts help me modify my itinerary to fit my destinations while still keeping the mileage down? Or should I pay for a RTW flight instead? Is this trip a good use of my miles?

Milwaukee - Santiago overland Rio - Chicago - Bangkok overland Hong Kong - Jburg overland Lilongwe - Chicago

Also, when I called about a month ago, the total mileage required for this trip was 170,000 for business class - when I called yesterday it shot up to 190,000! None of the other mileage requirements for economy or other business class flights using less mileage changed. Anybody know if they suddenly made this change? As another disappointment, it looks like I'm not going to be able to go business on this trip after all...

Please help - I've been trying to figure out this trip for months now and am trying to leave in mid-jan, so time is running out!

The OneWorld Award is a strange beast indeed. There is nothing written in the published rules for this award that limits the number of open-jaws. The only notes restrictions are:

* maximum of 5 stopovers. An open-jaw is a stopover
* maximum distance flown. Ground sectors should not count towards mileage
* max twice through any port, with max one being a stopover

I have a OneWorld Award ticketed that has three open jaws and two "normal" sopovers. But they had difficulty booking my original itinerary due to limitations in the computer system (QF), where the system wants you to take a reasonably direct routing between stopovers.