Scheduling a biz trip in early Sept and am trying to avoid the BAA airports if at all possible. My first leg is SFO-GOT and the choices I've found aren't that great, at least those that fit the criteria below. Before I look for a carrier outside of OW for the last leg of this segment, I thought I would ask the experts if you have any other suggestions.

I would like to get AA miles across the Atlantic.
I hope to use free segments in Europe to get to GOT, as I won't be traveling much else inside Europe.
It would be nice to upgrade to 1st with a VIP cert.
AVOID LONDON!

The (somewhat) reasonable options I've found:

AA SFO-JFK, AY JFK-HEL-GOT (Dep 7:45 AM, Ar 6:15 PM, 9 hrs in HEL)

AA SFO-DFW-ZRH, AY ZRH-HEL-GOT (Dep 8:30 AM, Ar 6:15 PM)

AA SFO-DFW-FRA, AY FRA-HEL-GOT (Dep 8:30 AM, Ar 6:15 PM)

Any other suggestions? If not, which of the 3 options are recommended?

Thanks.

A slightly different suggestion: SFO-JFK-HEL-CPH (AY) and get the train (from the airport to Gothenberg). You'd arrive CPH at 10:35am. If you could get the 11:06 train (should be OK if no checked bags - no immigration etc on HEL-CPH) then you'd arrive G�teborg Central at 15:15. If you drive I guess you might be able to do it slightly quicker.

(Danish train info here: http://www.rejseplanen.dk/bin/query.exe/en? )

Or even more different...

I think this is what I would personally do.

AA1486 SFO-ORD (Lv 9:30am Ar 3:30pm)
IB6274 ORD-MAD (Lv 4:45pm Ar 7:45am)
AY892 MAD-STO (Lv 10:00a Ar 1:45pm)
SK161 STO-GOT (Lv 2:25pm Ar 3:20pm)

You get AA's 763 to Chicago, full flat beds to Madrid (unlike AY and AA), and arrive before when you're looking at with your suggestions. You also only use one NA and one Europe segment, unlike going through ZRH or FRA. You can buy the STO-GOT segment for about $50. IB gets a bad rap, but I thought they were fine and the reports of late have been much more positive (except for ground staff, which still bites).

And for what it's worth, I think christep's suggestion is good and at least worth checking out.

Two superb suggestions, both better than the original options.

Never having been to Denmark or the Malmo area, it would be nice to see it from a train.

But I've also been looking for a chance to try IB's new seats in their 340-600's, and enjoy the FL in ORD. The later departure is also nice.

Now to check availability of these options and decide. Thanks very much for the help.

Thought I would provide a link of Carfield's recent AY trip. It has some photos of the new biz seats and I think is the first report since the seats have been installed. They look nice, though he expressed some criticism.

I think that AY flies between CPH and GOT nonstop a few days per week. I know that I took that flight from GOT to CPH last year on a Saturday morning.

I guess they didn't find any worthwhile stops within those 142 miles then

IB has been a good airline for me and I fly them often. For intra-Europe flights I like them better than BA in many (most?) respects.