Originally Posted by
graraps
AFAIK, on an award trip, you have to keep flying in the same direction and can't even backtrack for a connection, and AKL is to the East of Korea!
This is not true. The backtracking rule only applies to actual stops, not connections.
On a reward RTW each stop must actually be in the same direction; on a paid RTW generally backtracking is around within a continent.