Which programme would you recommend for a RTW in F. From what I know I would think AA would be best as I can sign up for the Plat. challenge and the first flight would already break the 10000 ml barrier (QF - JNB-SYD) which would in turn give me the bonus miles on the first flight already. Sofar I have sticked with *A (LH SEN) so o/W is kind of new to me.

I have actually signed up for the Plat challenge already but I thought I'd rather make sure if that's the way to go before I leave on Friday.

Any suggestions? Thanks a mill in advance.

I think that's right; however a small technicality that won't matter to you is that the challenge is based on q-points, not miles, and since you're in J or better you'll get 1.5 q-pts per mile on JNB-SYD which will get you 10,293 q-pts, so you'll land in Oz as AA Plat/OW Sapphire. As soon as you have time you ought to get in touch with AA to confirm your status, so that it will show up in your PNR and/or tickets for the rest of the trip.

The only downside to AA's plan is that except on flights connecting overseas, your status won't get you access to AA's lounges in the US, assuming your itin takes you to the US.

Also, although I can't for the moment find it in the AAdvantage rules, requalification "may" require 4 AA-operated segments in the qualifying or requalifying years (doesn't apply to challenges.) If you're not a US resident or frequent traveler on AA metal that might become an issue for you. Also, since you're starting this month, your initial Platinum qualification will only run until early 2006 unless the RTW allows you to get to 50K q-points by year end, thus requalifying you until 2007. With a 4-continent RTW that shouldn't be a push; in fact you might look at shooting for EXP with some creative routing.

Good luck.

That's exactly how I understood it. Thanks for the advice re confirmation of status. I have 4 AA segments booked and I should get above 100,000 q-points for the trip as well (even without creative routing - I simply don't have the time for that).

Lounge acces is not that much of an issue as flying in First will solve the problem anyway, except for intra US flights which I have purposely kept to a minimum (segment and transfer-time wise).

Once again, thanks a lot for your advice.


edited for spelling