Is it possible to have this kind of routing? I want to maximize my 75,000 AP points (actually I need 4 tickets) but the agent said I cannot do that with this routing since Sydney is (or Melbourne) is in the Southern Hemisphere. I saw that from somewhere that they can do North America-HKG-SYD (open jaw) PERth-YOW. Is there any other possibility so I can visit Australia? The dates I have in mind are fromMarh 9,2012 to March 31, 2012. or it uis not possible, I might choose Beijing as a stopover before visiting HKG.

I also heard that we should find Star Alliance partners insteads of AC because of the high surcharges?

Is there a website (free) that I can use other than aeroplan.com to check the availalbility of the flight segments. With this 24 hours limit on flight connection, can I identify the routing myself to stop in a city for just less than 24 hours even if there is a flight available before that so I can "visit" the city without "stopover".

Anthony