I'm try to plan a trip next year and am wondering if I should use a milage award or buy ticket. Even though I only want to visit 3 continents, I'm not sure if I can do a 3 continent ticket because I have to connect through Europe to get back to US.

Anyways, trying to work a trip that hits Carnival in GIG, the Grand Prix in MEL, and Mardi Gras in SYD.

These are the cities in order of the trip
MKE-GIG-MEL-AKL-SYD-MKE

Part A - OW milage award
1) Would a MKE-ORD seg count as 67 miles in the total or 500 ... I think 67.
2) If I decided to fly into EZE instead of GIG and took the flight from DFW connecting via MIA would the milage total be DFW-MIA-EZE or DFW-EZE (ie. do they base your total on point to point or actual miles flown with a stop in between)
3) Continuing with quest. #2 if I wanted to fly CX and connect thru HKG would the milage total be LAX-HKG-SYD or just LAX-SYD.
4) Anyone know of an itinerary that would involve the least amount of miles...I'm trying to connect from Brazil to Australia and the only routes I'm coming up with are back through the US, obviously has potential increase milage depending on answer to #2

Part B - Buying OWE F ticket 3 continents
1) Again, if I wanted to fly CX along the way and had to connect thru HKG would this now be a 5 continent trip.
2) If I'm going to buy ticket then obviously would like to maximize miles so here's a prelim itinerary if I can't fly on CX

MKE-ORD-STL-JFK-GRU-GIG-JFK-LAX-MEL-AKL-SYD-FRA-DFW-ORD-MKE

Any help or additional suggestions greatly appreciated.

Mileage is actual miles point to point. So 67 miles MKE-ORD and 5287 miles DFW-EZE. You can fly SCL-SYD (on LA) and a 35K Oneworld award would cover your routing.
As for buying a OWE, it would be 5 continents if you want to visit Australia and South America (which would seem to be your requirements). You have to transit Europe, Asia and North America ... so that is 5 continents. You do get the 4 segments in each continent, though -- back to the drawing board?

Should I be able to do the trip in at least 4 continents.
I thought I read on the board a while ago that certain transit points don't actually count as an extra continent...though I could be mistaken.

What number_6 says is correct. To get S America, Australia and N America you need a minimum of 5 continents. The transit not counting discussion was about entering a continent a second time in transit to somewhere else, which is allowed on certain routings.

It seems to me that what you need is a fairly simple RT ticket (award or money) on OneWorld using the LANChile service from Santiago to Sydney.

The flight is SCL- AKL (Auckland, New Zealand) to SYD QF322 on Mon, Wed & Sat.
Code share with Lan Chile, using Lan Chile metal.

Lan Chile got Rio & Sao Paulo

[This message has been edited by Mwenenzi (edited 01-21-2003).]

No one's mentioned it but if you want to stick you your original route, the Circle Pacific fare might be suitable though it is said to be a poor deal mileage wise.

OK then 5 continents seems to be it.
Would I be able to route
GIG-JFK-LAX-HKG-PER-MEL-SYD-AKL-SYD-HKG then intra-asia flights then onwards to Europe?

If you are proposing to start in S America then yes, but if you are proposing to start in N America then probably not (although perhaps if you are transiting all the way from GIG to PER, this seems to depend on who does the ticketing).

If you haven't already doen so I suggest reading the OWE rules available at:

http://members.shaw.ca/fewmiles/oneworld/owe.html

That has all the information you need on valid routings.