OP

Please remember you can only fly to Sydney on their 1 time a day flight using your BA 2 for 1. You have to use BA metal when flying on a 2for1 to Asia as there are no alternate Iberia or Are Lingus options.

You then have to faff around calling 355 days a BA NYC call centre at midnight before your Outbound and then 355 days subsequently for your Inbound ! if you wait the promised 4 Club World Seats a flight disappear and are grabbed by other Punters! It's a similar situation also for Singapore I also found out. BA have vastly reduced their SE Asia network, no flights now to BKK or KUL anymore and Avios seats are therefore in high demand

Travelling to Hong Kong there appears to be more BA avios availability but you do need to be sharpish and organised this far in advance to be sure of getting 2 seats. SeatSpy.com is a good resource to check availability on any class of redemption. Whilst Avios cancellations do happen and open up you have to be lucky for example for this to happen on the dates you want to travel and be alerted and quick to grab them when this does occur! Therefore you must book this far in advance my friend.

If you want to fly to other destinations then your Combo of Revenue ticket to SE Asia followed by a Revenue ticket is a good strategy as you have indicated you also want to see some of SE Asia before you travel down to Oz.

From Hong Kong I'm sure many Asian airlines will do a deal to Oz allowing a stopover in their primary airports, but you still may might have to get a domestic then to the primary touristic destinations. So easy for you to fly Singapore Airlines to any of their Australian gateways with a Singapore layover. Similarly Garuda through Bali etc. Alternately Air Asia is the long haul budget carrier but their pricing with baggage almost brings it close to the Legacy Carrier pricing anyhow. Using Air Asia your transfer point would be Kuala Lumpur generally.

In the end I was Avios rich and being retired we wanted J class all the way. BA has tied up with Qatar Airways as you know and once your accounts are established it's easy to switch BA Avios to Qatar Avios. Qatar has the advantage of also flying from your local UK airport into their Australian gateways and New Zealand additionally.

So we chose BHX-DOH-MEL for the outbound. Direct flights to/from Sydney specifically seem to be harder to get on Qatar. I did think about starting in Dublin or Madrid to start the trip for this as it does save about £ 380 on the UK Govt imposed taxes but by the time you've wasted a day and a hotel its not necessarily worth it unless you want an extra night holiday! That cost me 180k in Avios for the 2 of us one way in Mar24

We then had the drama of the return which I had to book a month later as returning in apr 24 and can only book essentially a yr in advance. Imagine my surprise when Qatar decided it wanted double Avios mile redemptions then. It took me a while to figure out what was going on but we return essentially just when Eid finished and during Aussie School Holidays!.

I thought I would be clever and whilst I could return from SE Asia that too was on X Avios redemption pricing although less miles.

So I bit the bullet and bought some Avios in their bonus miles award that appear from time to time. Coming back PER-DOH-BHX but for 360,000 Avios in Business. cough cough choke choke

BA Avios redemptions into Qantas flights I didn't think were 2 expensive we are only doing MEL-SYD as we are then on a cruise to NZ and then the Indian Pacific train back from Sydney to Perth.

So despite best laid plans not using my BA 241 on this trip I now need to use this one up by June24 but Avios skint relatively!

Alternately you can buy cheaper Business tickets from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur on Royal Jordanian / Malaysian at under £ 1000 each yielding 360 tier points. Use your 241 on BA to Cairo. and then revenue tickets from KUL to your Australian gateways. My wife is not that adventurous and management certainly wouldn't approve this one!

you could also do Dubai on a BA 241 and then Sri Lankan from AUH to JKT in business, tickets are great value at circa +£800 return and yield 560 tier points if also hunting Silver Status renewal!

Another option might be BA into India on 2for1 in Club and then Revenue tickets on an Asian carrier then down to Oz.

21st Century challenges and happy travels!

Good Luck m8!

SteveG