What
Himeno says is true and it is certainly worth considering starting from NZ
I have a few suggestions for you regarding minimising cost and maximising value of the LONE4, and a frequent flyer idea for you
Minimising cost:
Buy two 1-way tickets SYD-AKL to position to AKL; ‘forget’ to take the final SYD-AKL flight on the LONE4 ticket – thus no need for the return from NZ at the end (you’ll be having your NZ holiday at the beginning, right?

)
Book the first flight of the LONE4 with LA, which has a daily, very early morning flight AKL-SYD. LA does not charge ANY fuel surcharges, whereas Qantas charges lots
You are visiting LHR twice; I suggest you make the second visit a transit (less than 24hrs) and that way you’ll avoid the high UK departure tax (called APD and is GBP85 for an economy flight to SIN)
Maximising value:
You have a number of flights and two short surface segments in the US, using up 7 segments: …HNL-LAX-EWR,LGA-DFW-FLL,MIA-DFW…
This seems wasteful of segments to me. Unless you have a real need to visit DFW twice and to have the surface segments. I suggest …HNL-LAX-JFK-DFW-MIA…, saving three segments which can be used elsewhere.
Similarly with your MAD-BCN segment; drop BCN and use surface transport thus saving another segment
Possibilities for the freed up segments:
- JFK-BGI-MIA and/or other Caribbean destinations
- MAD-AMM-LHR or other European destinations
- Break the LONE4 in SIN, fly el cheapo back to Aus, and sometime later fly el cheapo back up to SIN and have an Asian holiday such as SIN-BOM-BKK-NRT-SYD-AKL
Frequent flyer idea:
You won’t earn a heck of a lot of miles from a LONE4, so IMHO they should only be a secondary consideration, but…
If you fly the SYD-HNL on the AA codeshare, you could join American Airlines AAdvantage program and sign up for its Platinum Challenge (there is a thread on this in the AA forum)
- It costs ~USD200 to sign up; the challenge is to earn 10,000 elite qualifying points on AA-coded flights in 3 months; a LONE4 accrues 1 EQP for each mile flown, so you would complete the challenge with the SYD-HNL-LAX-NYC flights
- From then on you’ll have Platinum status, giving you 100% bonus miles and lounge access amongst other benefits
- AA miles are generally better value than QF points, for example 37,500 are needed for a 1-way economy from anywhere in SWP to anywhere in Nth Am and NO fuel surcharges; QF wants 48,000 and $180 in fuel surcharges just for a SYD-LAX 1-way!!
Finally, a good tool to play around with itineraries is the Oneworld Explorer Validator in SLF's
Mileage Monkey