I was holding a return of BKK-ICN-NRT-MSP-ATL-FLL (5 flights) and suggested BKK-DBX-JFK-FLL (3 flights) and they said it was OK. I am not stopping over in DXB, only a 4 hour connection. I think this might become more common once CO joins Star Alliance. A few friends have traveled to BKK & SIN via Europe on US Air miles. I believe that Star used to charge an additional 15K but may have eliminated that. Singapore's EWR-SIN flies over Europe and SIN-EWR returns over the Pacific. Thai's JFK-BKK-JFK also flew Europe to BKK and over the Pacific back to JFK but that flight was discontinued in 2008. I was able get two trips on the Thai nonstop but never had any luck in getting business on the Singapore nonstop flight. Prior to Feb. 2007 it was only 90,000 miles on US Air to places like Bali, Singapore and Bangkok.

It was interesting to fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan and fly along the Himalayas for an extended period to BKK.

CO was also willing to book FLL-ATL-CDG-HAN on DL and AF, but for some reason would not let me do an open jaw with BKK, they said it was in a different award region, but they gave me more flexibility by using Korean for part of the trip.

I can't figure out the logic of their rules.