Some great suggestions here as usual – thanks all for your input! Have done some homework (which I should have done earlier) and found QF operates weekend flights to Noumea – apparently the codeshare flights are weekdays. I will have to ring the AA desk and change the dates to arrive and depart on the weekend. Would love to take up suggestions re NRT round trips but as we live in OZ, we are using this RWT to give us effectively two major 8 week holidays (first part and last part of the itinerary) and 2 side trips (SYD-NOU-SYD & SYD-AKL-SYD) in the 12 month period. So that leg of the trip puts us on the homeward bound section at which time my better half just can’t be away from work for too much longer.

Will just have to be content with a mileage of just under 45k miles – it’s enough (with the Platinum challenge) to get us a free flight home at the end of the DONE4! I’m happy!

Again many thanks for all your help – I love this forum where beginners like me can learn so much!
^