I have been thinking a bit about this, and I have concluded that it might be economically efficient for me to buy an AONE or DONE (probably 3). Here is my thinking:

I am currently PLT on AA, have about 500,000 miles in the "bank," and spend, on average, about $2,100 a year in airfare/upgrade certs (including the occasional mileage run).

Year 1: I could use miles to get to some distant destination where the RTW fares are cheaper, and get, say, an AONE3 for about $8k. Then, over the course of the year, use that, plus an occasional purchased fare where it does not fit within the AONE scheme, to get EXP, plus another 200,000 or so miles. At the end of the year, fly back home from the distant destination with the back side of the miles ticket used to get there.

Year 2: I use my EXP status and the eVIP stickers to fly, upgraded, on just the flights I absolutely need, and forget about maintaining status. Meanwhile I earn another 100,000 or so miles.

Year 3: I drop back to PLT using the "soft landing" procedure, then use my 700,000 or so accumulated miles to fly F or J for the year.

Year 4: Repeat the 3-year cycle.

In this way, I'm probably spending an average of $9,000 over a 3-year period, or $3k a year, but flying mostly F or J, instead of the $2,100 a year I spend now. If I have the chance to purchase back status at the end of one of the years, then the 3-year cycle becomes a 4-year cycle, and I'm spending pretty close to what I'm already spending, anyway. I realize that airfares may rise over that time, so the actual numbers will be more, but that would be the case, and I would be spending more on travel, anyway, even if I did not pursue this strategy.

Is there anything else I'm missing? Is this similar to a strategy that some here are using?

Just considering my options. . .

Pretty well matches our (wife and self's) strategy, except on a 2-yr cycle - RTW year, award year, repeat.

Note getting 100K points/miles on an xONE3 is pretty tough without considerable non-RTW travel. On xONE4s it's quite easy.

Three or four years is an awful long time ahead to plan given the pace of change in the airline industry. Some questions that spring to mind:

Can you fly where and when you want or need to on an AONE3?
Do you get enough eVIPs to upgrade in your off-year?
Will there be more adverse changes to AAdvantage in these years?
Will RTW fares continue to exist for the next four years?

It could work, but the planning is ambitious. I can't even plan ahead a few months.

Second that. If starting from scratch, EXP+200K miles means at least an xONE4, and even then it takes some planning, plus willingness to take some, er, silly MR flights.

Not entirely. I do more domestic travel, and I'd obviously have to supplement the AONE3 with purchased tickets for that, since most of my domestic travel is coast to coast. But probably no more than 2 or 3 such domestic round trips in a year.

Yes, since normally I do only one trip to Europe and one to Asia in a year, and domestic upgrades are free for EXPs. Occasionally, 2 trips to Europe and none to Asia. Also, I don't travel for business, so I have a lot of control over where I go and when.

I'm sure there will, unless they get rid of the current CEO. But that will affect me the same whether or not I use this strategy, unless I change airlines.

They might not. In that case, then I only go through 1 cycle and go back to what I am doing now. But still paying pretty close over the next 4 years, on an annualized basis, to what I am currently paying.

If it's hard to get 100,000 points on an AONE3, then maybe, instead of an AONE3, I do an AONE4 from Africa for about the same price, with the African segments being used solely for mileage purposes.

Actually, assuming the cheap ex-MRU fares are relatively transient, Africa is not all that valuable in mileage terms compared to other "4th" continents (SWP or S. America) owing to the very limited palate of intra-Africa flights available on OW metal. And in both cases (SWP and S. America) the relative absence of true FC flights might raise the question of the relative value of AONEx over DONEx tickets. Not to say that FC isn't grand where you get it, but it's hard to find FC flights in some regions.

Although it seems that one of the "shining stars" of the OW alliance is F on Cathay Pacific. With the now extremely limited availability of F awards on CX, and the fact that I couldn't upgrade a CX (or BA) flight in J to F using AA miles, the extra $2k or so for F over J might be worth it, even if I would wind up flying F-"lite" on LAN or some of the other South America flights.

Hey, what the heck, with an AONE that includes South America, I might finally make it to Machu Picchu.

The downside is that, by using South America as my 4th continent, rather than Africa, the price of an AONE goes up.

F-"not any more" within the Americas. For LAN F you'd need to take the SYD-AKL-SCL or SCL-MAD-FRA flights.

And, of course, if I were going F to Europe or Australia, I'd rather fly BA, CX or QF.

Do not forget the taxes for your reward flights in your calculation.

They are low to nothing in the US but higher on the outside. Also fuel surcharge seem to be on the rise.

Furthermore,
As mentioned in QF forum,
QF introduces flat bed surcharge for Japan-Australian route business class(260 AUD).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=664759