A few ideas for you:
- HKG-PER - fly QF instead of CX - you'll get 50% miles instead of zero
- SYD-LAX - fly the AA codeshare on QF metal - get 100% (if you weren't stopping in SYD, then you could also fly the AA codeshare PER-SYD)
- DXB-HKG - you could always fly DXB-AMM-HKG on RJ and get 50% miles on a longer journey, instead of zero on the non-stop flight
If you did the trip in reverse (starting BOS-LAX-SYD...), flying AA for the first two flights, and did the Platinum challenge, then you would have Platinum status when you arrive in SYD --> lounge access etc and 100% bonus, so those 50%s become 100%s
With regard to breaking the journey - as others have pointed out, that can certainly be done. With regard specifically to breaking the journey in Nth America - a couple of fare rules come into play (source KVS):
[Flight Application]
...
C. TRAVEL MAY ORIGINATE AT ANY POINT FOR WHICH FARE ARE PUBLISHED AND MUST TERMINATE AT THE SAME POINT EXCEPT THAT ORIGIN - DESTINATION SURFACE SEGMENTS ARE PERMITTED AS FOLLOW -
- WITHIN THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
- ...
- BETWEEN THE UNITED STATE AND CANADA
...
F.ONLY ONE INTERNATIONAL DEPARTURE AND ONE INTERNATIONAL ARRIVAL TO/FROM THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN PERMITTED ...
NOTE - TRAVEL BETWEEN US AND CANADA IS NOT COUNTED AS INTERNATIONAL.
...
H.
...
FREE FLIGHT SEGMENTS WITHIN EACH CONTINENT ARE LIMITED AS FOLLOWS -
...
NORTH AMERICA 6
...
[Stopovers]
...
2.MAXIMUM TWO STOPOVERS PERMITTED IN THE CONTINENT OF ORIGIN OF WHICH A MAXIMUM OF ONE STOPOVER IS PERMITTED IN EACH DIRECTION IN THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.
There's also a rule stating only one transcontinental flight allowed in Nth America and gives a list of West Coat and East Coast cities between which the rule applies
So, putting all the above together:
- if you depart from BOS to a destination outside of Nth America, then you have 6 flight segments and two stopovers to play with when you come back home
- You can have one stopover in the US, and one stopover in Canada
- You do not have to finish the journey back at BOS
How's about your return journey being SYD-JFK (on the AA codeshare of course, on the direct QF flight; it stops at LAX on the way but it still counts as only one segment, does not consume one of the allowed 6 Nth America segments and does not count as a transcontinental flight)
Then later, perhaps much later (you can have up to a year between the first flight and the last flight) - something like JFK-oYVR-xDFW-oANC-xDFW-HNL
(o=stopover, x=transit; YVR as a Canada stopover; ANC as the US stopover)
Then use you your hard-earned miles to get a redemption flight back to BOS
You can use the
Mileage Monkey to play around with itineraries (though I've just plugged an itinerary into it and got error messages that imply ANC and HNL are not part of the USA! - I will post this into the mileage monkey thread)
Happy planning
Footnote: After posting, I see you're moving the thread to OW. Hope you see my post too!