Well, the US AA RTW desk is excellent. They clearly know the rules back to front (as they should) and booked me into the HNL-NAN-BNE legs without batting an eyelid.

So, my final itinerary looks like:

20/9/08 Zurich-Madrid-London (IB3477, IB3172)
21/9/08 London-Chicago-NYC (BA297, AA350)
26/9/08 NYC-Chicago-Dallas-Honolulu (AA303, AA2313, AA5)
6/10/08 Honolulu-Fiji (QF(FJ) 3840)
10/10/08 Fiji-Brisbane (QF(FJ) 398)
19/10/08 Brisbane-Darwin-Perth (QF824, QF793)
21/10/08 Perth-Sydney (QF568)
22/10/08 Sydney-Tokyo (QF21)
26/10/08 Tokyo-London-Zurich (BA6, BA720)


33526 miles, 1360 QFF SCs (considered BAEC, but don't like the way it resets after Silver)
CHF9000 per person.


My only remaining concern is the short time between the LGA-ORD-DFW-HNL flights. Depending on how courageous I'm feeling, I might take the LGA-ORD or LGA-ORD-DFW leg on the evening of the 25th instead.

Thanks for the help, everyone. ^

Finally got this ticketed (took about ten days from submitting my final itinerary to the credit card being pounded). Had to wait a while so I could get my credit card limit bumped up high enough first.

Final itinerary: ZRH-LHR-ORD-LGA-ORD-DFW-HNL-NAN-BNE-DRW-PER-SYD-NRT-LHR-[PRG-LHR-ZRH]

(We'll save the PRG-LHR-ZRH legs for a weekend holiday later in the year.)

A bit over CHF9100pp (taxes/surcharges/fuel fines inclusive), plus a CHF160 booking fee (which I thought was a bit rude, but in the grand scheme of things is a rounding error).


Now, I can see the itinerary via AA's "My Reservations", and select/reserve seats on the AA flights there, but how do I select seats for the non-AA flights (BA and QF) ? Also, how do I get out QFF #s associated with the flights for the SCs and points to rack up ? Do I need to call up AA's RTW desk again, or is there some way to do it online ?

You need to ask AA for the underlying BA PNR and then you can do seat selection etc on their website using Manage My Booking.

I don't know a way to get a non-AA FF number on an AA flight online, so remember to ask them to do that while tyou're getting the underlying PNRs from the AA RTW desk.

QF does not offer seat selection of their website. To request a seat, call QF reservations

Dave

Unless you are oneworld Sapphire or Emerald you will not be able to pre-select seating on the BA flights until 24 hours before the flight.

If you do have such status, you frequent flyer number is in your booking and you have the Amadeus booking reference you should be able preselect BA seating online.

Is it not also class specific on BA? I seem to be able to select my seats in a forthcoming trips in F (A & Z) with a no status (AA) FF number in the system.

This be true; any F booking can do so as well as full fares in the other cabins and a few others. Specifically:

• Passengers who have booked in F, A, J, C, W, Y ;
• All passengers who travel in FIRST;
• Passengers travelling on a corporate dealt ticket, using a BACCI code (please see further instruction below);
• Premier, Gold and Silver Executive Club members and oneworld equivalents;
• Passengers travelling with infants

More here: BA - New seating policy

Nice summary, thanks for that serfty!