Just got a bad data point from a British Airways Avios rep on the phone. My booking of:
YVR-LAX-DOH-HAN-HKG-LHR-YVR
Got priced as 3x (first class for the whole booking).....the only two legs in first were HKG-LHR-YVR, and the middle east flights are in business. The agent is bringing the flight back to pricing to see what he can do, but when he brought it up the line the manager told him to charge what the pricing agent had set. The longest leg is LAX-DOH and all business legs come to more in miles than the two first legs.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - just waiting now on the call back from the agent.