Oneworld's RTW products such as the LONE3 (economy class RTW that would apply to your dad's trip) allow for flight-by-flight upgrades from economy to premium economy (offered by BA, Cathay, etc. - useful for your trip.)

Unfortunately the rules set a price of US$1450 per segment where PE is used. If you wanted your dad to have PE on all the longhaul flights, e.g. LHR-SFO, SFO-HKG-(PVG) and PVG-LHR, that would add US$4350 (say GBP 2720) to the base price - actually increasing the total cost by over 100%. (The base price for an LONE3 ex-UK is around GBP1890.) That would make the total cost over GBP4600 plus fees and taxes, a pretty terrible deal.

But one of the features of RTW tickets is that they're priced very differently from one "originating" country to another. While the UK isn't bad for economy class RTWs with Oneworld, it's not very cheap (compared to some) for business class RTWs.

So one - somewhat complicated - "work-around" for your dad's issue would be to purchase a business class RTW - but somewhere cheaper than the UK. For example, a DONE3 - up to 16 flights in business class (first class on domestic US flights) bought in Cairo, would cost around GBP3490 plus taxes and fees. In Jordan or Israel, it would be around GBP3700. Add a couple hundred quid for a one-way (economy) flight to one of those cities, and you're still well under the LONE3 + PE upgrades originating in the UK, and he's in business class - flat beds and all - for Pete's sake.

And by starting the RTW someplace besides the UK, at the "end" of the trip he could return to Edinburgh but as a stopover, not a termination, and still have a couple of available segments to use within Europe before ending somewhere back in the Middle East (doesn't have to be where he started) - so another business trip or holiday handled using the same ticket.

Not to mention all the Avios or other miles he might score.

Here's a sample route that would work. I'm not including any EDI-LHR segments as they're economy only and a waste of RTW segments (IMO.)

(EDI-BCN-TLV) - positioning flights, Iberia, around GBP500 in business class.

RTW - TLV-PHL-SFO-LAX-PVG-HKG-WUH-HKG-PVG-HEL-LHR-FCO-LHR-TLV

Notes - 1. LHR-FCO-LHR is a made up holiday in Italy. Could be anywhere in Europe, the Middle East, or Mediterranean Africa. 2. I've added a stop in Helsinki so that he could use Finnair rather than BA for longhauls, which would save hundreds of pounds - maybe more - in "fuel surcharges" that BA adds to RTW tickets. Similarly, I've shown using US Airways (AA) on TLV-PHL rather than BA through London, and AA from LAX to PVG - also avoiding "fuel fines."

He could return to Scotland after the trip is over using some of the many points earned in the course of the big trip.