DH and I live in Chicago. We want to visit his old boss in London for 4-5 days and then go to our fave B & B in Provence for another 5 days. So I guess our two European airports would be LGW or LHR, and NCE. I have no required time frame for this trip, just sometime in 2008 and not in July or August (too hot).

Any creative ideas on how to do as a OW80 trip? Trying to brainstorm here and I can't seem to come up with anything that uses AA overseas both ways and then also incorporates two other airlines. Stopping over in another city is not a problem; that would be kinda neat if we "had" to stay in say, Barcelona for one night, if it fits within the stopover time limit and stays within the 9000 miles required for a OW80.

I figured genius flyertalkers could come up with something.

Thanks!
Jennifer

The great circle distance ORD-NCE is 4541 so a round trip is over the 9000 mile limit. In order to stay under 9000, you will need to have an open jaw somewhere.
Some possibilities are: ORD-LHR-NCE//MAD-ORD or YYZ-LHR-NCE-MAD-ORD or ORD-LHR-NCE-MAD-IAD. I think you get the picture. Good luck.

You don't have to use AA over the water or anywhere else. You have to use 2 Oneworld carriers in addition to AA if AA is involved, otherwise just 2 OW airlines. So as far as routing is concerned you could go ORD IB xMAD BA LHR BA NCE IB xMAD IB ORD with no problems. However that's still over 9K miles, so no go.

I'd use the one open-jaw allowance and originate in NYC or someplace in Ohio - wherever it's closer enough (and cheap to get to) in order to make the mileage work. MKE-LHR-MRS-ORD, using Marseilles instead of Nice, seems to come in under 9K miles, although close enough that checking with AA would be wise.

I guess I meant that I *couldn't* use BA over the water so that limited my flights, not that I can only use AA. But yeah, I could definitely use Iberia.

I did this earlier in the year - ORD IB xMAD BA Zurich and then BA NCE to LHR and then back over the pond on AA. So I'm trying to think "out of the box" as I did for that trip.

AA counts stop to stop, not flight to flight. The trip is 9,146 miles ORD-LHR-NCE-ORD, so you would need to change things up a little. My recommendation would be to either go into Paris and take the train or, more preferably, buy a oneway ticket from ORD to east of ORD and start the trip there. You can usually find oneway flights to NYC for around $100. Or you could look for a oneway ticket to Toronto or Montreal and use BA over the water.

Good luck getting IB, at least from MAD-ORD. I've been checking daily on the Qantas site (and sometimes the IB Spain site), and there's very little Biz class. You could still do the MAD-ORD through LHR, and the miles will still be the same, but you'll get hit with maybe $40-50 of extra taxes going through LHR.

I'm doing ORD-LHR-CDG, ORY-BCN, BCN-Granada (paid since IB requires a stop and I need to keep it under 9k), and Seville-LIS (through MAD since the NS was cancelled), and LIS-ORD (through LHR). I just made it to 200k, so I'm going to splurge on 2 F tix. It's barely under 9k. I think it's a fabulous deal.

Have fun.

ps, you could also fly to Paris, and there seem to be plenty of flights from Paris (either airport) to NCE for $73. Then, fly home through MAD (no direct flights from BCN) and you've got your 3 airlines and < 9k miles.

What about this?
ORD to YYZ on AA (could I stay in Toronto for a night?)
YYZ to LHR on BA

(Ground transport to Provence)

NCE to MAD on BA
MAD to ORD on IB

Would this work?

Edited to add - I'd *like* to stay in Toronto, for one or even two nights. It's somewhere I've been wanting to go back to visit.

Yes. You could include YYZ as a stop and still have miles to spare.

Or even better... if I can do this...

ORD to LHR on AA
Stay in London for a few days
LHR to CDG on BA which will get me to the train to take to the south of France.

NCE to MAD on BA
MAD to ORD on IB

According to the GCM, this is only 8966 miles.

(eta - I think headinclouds was trying to say this to me above. sometimes I need to write these things out in order to visualize them)