Due to Hurricane Katrina demolishing New Orleans, I'm having to change my itinerary. And in hindsight, it wasn't the best anyway.

It was:

Heathrow - New York (over) Calgary - Dallas - New Orleans - Dallas - LA - Miami - Quito - Lima - Santiago - Rio - Santiago - Auckland (over) Christchurch - Sydney - Noumea - Brisbane - Alice Springs (over) Darwin - Singapore (over) Bangkok - Heathrow.

I'm particularly interested in both your thoughts and in the North and South America itineraries. New York, Calgary and Dallas are set in stone due to train tickets etc, but everything else is flexible.

How could I improve it?

Improve in what sense... mileage? comfort? sights?

It would also help to know the class of service (LONEx, DONEx, AONEx) and the FFP you plan to credit your miles to (AA, BA, ...).

Last but not least... welcome to FT and the oneworld forum!

Thanks for the prompt reply. tis basic cattle class.

What is a FFP? (Sorry for bein retarded)

I want to improve it based on sights etc. Mileage doesn't matter in OW (does it?!) and comfort will not be an issue for me - I'm 6 foot5 anyway so I'm in agony wherever I go!

By FFP I meant the frequent flyer program you belong to, if any.

Does mileage matter in OW? Well, you can earn miles on most OW flights, if that is what you mean. The exact amount or percentage of miles earned will vary from airline to airline and in most cases will depend on the class of service. In your case (LONEx) the earning ratio will range from 100% right down to 0%.

OK thanks. How do I join a FFP? Sounds like it could be profitable to me. 36010 miles was what I worked out for that itinerary.

What would that "earn" me.

And for the North and South America itinerary, what would you do?

Goodness!... where do I start? Talk about opening Pandora's box.

Let me take a back seat on this one, for the time being, and hope that other members, far more articulate than me, will chime in and help both of us.

Not retarded, just from another universe!

Definitely join every FFP you can and monitor FlyerTalk. It is a gold mine.

Quito is a good time. Very interesting place and probably one of the best in South America that I went to. Lots of things nearby as well. Travel within Ecuador is easy and reasonably inexpensive if a bit slow. Air travel is pricy. Prices are reasonable and you will probably want to stay in Mariscal if youre on a budget and want to be in the thick of things. Most guidebooks will say it's dangerous but just have a bit of common sense and youll probably be fine. I never had a problem and was there quite a long time. Santiago is a bit dull but it has its moments. More expensive than most of the rest of SA I have been to. Food is good, easy to get around, reasonably clean and safe. There are few great reasons to go to Lima instead of other parts of Peru. Go to Cusco or Arequipa if you go to Peru. Lima can be pricy, but in any case be careful. Outside of Lima is very cheap and very interesting. Haven't been to Rio.

Personally, if I were going to South America, I would go to Easter Island. Not because it's the best place on the planet, but because it's very, very expensive to get to and this ticket provides a reasonable cost of getting there. Lodging is pricy but not out of the world and the island is fascinating. It's actually a bit creepy in a way because there are few trees, it's a temperate/desert climate, there are very few people, and you really feel like you are in the middle of nowhere...which you are.

If you don't speak spanish, try to learn a few words before you go. At least try to pronounce things. It's not crucial but it will make your life a bit easier and will help guard against getting ripped off.

I guess that you have not had much answer on the FFP issue, as we are used to someone with limited knowledge of FFPs but not with what would seem to be virtually no knowledge. But I'll start on this.

First, it is not a good idea to join all the FFPs that you can. It is better, as a general principle, to identify within OW the FFP which is going to be more useful to you and put all your OW miles in it.
FFP miles will enable you to obtain free tickets but also to enjoy some perks, such as, for instance, lounge access if you do enough miles in a year to reach a particular elite status within the programme. Given that you are doing a RTW, you should make enough miles there to reach elite status.
In your particular situation, it would seem to me that AA would have the most useful programme, so you should read up on it on the aa site, hang around on the AA board and also look as Fewmiles' Unofficial Guide to American Airlines AAdvantage.
Once you understand the basic mechanics of AAdvantage, you may want to read up threads on the AA board on the Platinum challenge, which is an accelerated way for you to reach elite status. Given that you are doing a RTW in economy, getting elite status via a Gold and/or Platinum challenge will be especially useful for you, as you will earn more miles from your trip, as well as have access to lounges on international flights once you reach Platinum. This should be relatively easy to take a Plat challenge if you are doing a RTW, but there are some pitfalls to be aware of (best time to start challenge, which flights are eligible for how points on this or that airline, etc...).
All of this can seem a little daunting at first but you will probably find it very rewarding in the end.

Oh, I forgot to add: joining an FFP is for most airlines very simple (with some rare exceptions like British Airways). Fill-in a short application form on the relevant airline's website and, hey presto, your FFP account is opened right away.

This brings me to a question. can you cherry pick which routes collect which miles? my general preference for a OWE would be AA, but I also collect BA miles (no AA miles on BA across the pond), and would likely be very close to silver on BA.

You can credit each segment to a different FF plan, but search on FT will reveal lots of past discussion about the problems and difficulties in doing this (basically agents changing sectors other than the one that you wanted to change).

And exactly what sites do you want to see in Dallas? It's certainly not my idea of a great tourist destination.

Not exactly mine either - but there are no other destinations to fly to from Calgary (are there?)