Gardyloo,
Thank you for being so organized in your reply. I value your expert opinion very much.
I have been reading the Plat Challenge thread as suggested, and have gained much insight and understanding. I decided to participate (with DW too) and achieve Plat before our RTW. In fact, I have a trip to BKK coming up (will take DW also) and will use it as part of Plat challenge. After doing some searches, decided to best do it from JFK via NRT to BKK. See my thread with this link (Post 157, I think)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l#post12845094
I will look into an itin with ex-AMM, and see what is the fare for that.
Great Circle Mapper is great. Thanks for the link.