Logic would dictate that the farther you want to fly, the more miles it should cost for an award ticket. But round-the-world (RTW) tickets are a stunning exception to the rule, especially if you book through American Airlines for a Oneworld award. AA’s Business Class RTW tickets can cost half the miles of those from SkyTeam and Star Alliance.
First, though, the ticket itself: It costs an AAdvantage member 135,000 miles for a Business Class award ticket from North America to India. But an RTW Business Class ticket on American costs a mere 15,000 miles more (150,000).
If you carry the Starwood Preferred Guest Card you can bring the cost down even more with the 20% bonus you get when transferring Starpoints to miles. In this case, you would net that American RTW ticket for 125,000 miles (the 20% bonus gives you the other 25,000).
Oneworld is less expensive than SkyTeam or Star Alliance because its award chart is based on distance flown. The latter two use regional award charts where all cities in a given region cost the same number of miles, even though some are much farther away.
For example, an RTW itinerary going from Los Angeles to London, to Bangkok, to Sydney, and back to Los Angeles in Business Class costs 150,000 miles on American through Oneworld. The same routing booked through SkyTeam costs 280,000; booked through Star Alliance it costs 300,000.
In fact, you can fly First Class on an AA/Oneworld RTW for less than what SkyTeam and Star Alliance charge for Business Class (see chart below).
For more details on the AA/Oneworld program: http://www.aa.com/aa/pubcontent/en_US/AAdvantage/partners/airlines/oneWorld.jsp
[table id=1480 /]