Originally Posted by
LarkSFO
Definitely agree with your routing comment...
I also looked at going through Asia, but although there was more availability, I could not bring myself to bring my wife and two kids 'the long way'. If it was just me traveling alone, this would be a much more attractive option. (Or, perhaps, if you lay over in HKG for a couple of days to check it out...)
You can lay over in HKG. OneWorld award allows you to stopover, though not twice in the same city. However, you could stop over in HKG on the way there and Tokyo on the way back. If you do what I did, you'd be booking two separate awards, one to HKG, one onward to SYD, so again, no problem stopping over.