Thanks Jerry, what is confusing me is given both Asia and SWP are considered TC2, how I'm failing to continually progress forward by doing a <24h transit from Auckland -> NYC via somewhere such as Delhi

That said, I take your word for it that it's just not possible, so given that it looks like a DONE4 is my fall-back (if I can't work out how to access the Pacific Circle), is there a sensible way to bring the price of this down?