Starting in YVR is a great idea. My home base is PDX but I worked out the savings to be 2500USD, which makes a one way ticket up to YVR and an extra half day of travel well worth it. The booking tool doesn't complain that my last flight ends in PDX and assumes that the last segment is PDX-YVR via ground, which I won't do obviously.

This trip is tentatively 9/1/2024 and I see the BA flight as an AA codeshare. AA might be willing to ticket because the first segment is an AA codeshare. If not, I'll make it work as an AA metal connection through ORD or DFW. I could also make the last segment from HNL on AA metal to make them happier. I'm willing to add an extra day and a flight or two just to avoid having QF do the booking. Besides, each extra flight gives me more TPs towards the gold level on BA.

The ORD was only in there to force the tool to let me book a longer connection time on AA. It was giving me a limited number of AA PDX-LHR flights with absurdly short international connection times in ORD and DFW. If I'm headed home, I'll take the risk of a missed connection but on these itineraries, a missed connection can make a big mess with future flights.