MF was fine, you jusdt had to be willing to pay up a bit. I'm trying to do this as cheap as possible basically, no J class for me and I wasn't just buying flights that connect A B C D, I was literally buying flights in an attempt to cross off airlines and keep it cheap. But with that in mind, I found an MF flight that seemed reasonable, clicked the "see more prices" or whatever the exact words were, paid up a little bit to make sure I was in the right fare class and it was done. Again, if you didn't really care about the prices, it wasn't hard to accomplish, the prices were just dumb. You'd find a $200 non earning flight and the lowest earning class in some cases was like 3x.

The visas actually, I was quite worried about, but in the end were a cake walk. You just have to have all your ducks in a row. I never found an answer at the time if I would be allowed to take domestic flights, so I just didn't book any. I flew ICN-PVG, PVG-HKG-TPE, TPE-XMN, XMN-HKG, then later HAN-CAN-BKK, so Country A - China - Country B. I had documentation of my onward flights, showed those and was granted 24 hour permits each time no problem. The biggest issue I had was attempting to do an airside transfer at CAN and being given the runaround. After an hour of sitting there like a jackass, I just decided to go get the visa, go into the public side of the airport so at least I could move around. Worked like a charm.

I sympathize with your plight, but I still can't BELIEVE you're doing all of this, in the HOPES you can retro claim every single one of these flights. I really can't imagine this works out.

I spent one day/night in Hanoi as well. I stayed near the beer street, spent some time there at night watching a game on my phone. It's not bad, it's relatively calm, like it's not Nana plaza or anything crazy, it's just a street with a whole bunch of small bars, most of which extend out into the street via plastic chairs. I had a similar experience in SGN years ago. Went to the Ho Chi Minh museum thing, I dunno what to call it cuz it's kinda big. It was alright, something touristy to do and it only cost like $2 to get in. Getting IN to the country was a piece of cake for me. I had my e-visa (which cathay insisted I print, still makes no sense) and I used the e-gates, I was "in country" within minutes. I rarely checked a bag, but I checked one for this flight and ended up standing there waiting for it for like 20 mins cuz I got through customs so fast. Getting OUT of the country, WAY more of a pain. Make sure you show up early, like REALLY early. I forget how early I showed up, but first I got to a really small security line and thought, no problem I'll be at the lounge in minutes. That first line is nothing, it just dumps you into a MUCH bigger line. A small hot room with 10-12 customs officials doing exit immigration, each one had a line of like 10-15 people and family units. It was really slow. Then once that was done I was in the real security line and it was a disaster. Personally I got through just fine, but it seemed like no one understood what they were supposed to be doing. The whole thing seemed to take at least an hour or so. I ended up going to the lounge anyway, but it was basically to hammer down 2-3 drinks and then walk to my gate. The PP lounge had a surprising buffet though if that's your thing. But yea, between traffic, the airport being far away and then the lineups, SHOW. UP. EARLY.

The good news is you've left the easiest one for last. I have AM/DL left, already booked and I'm heading out tomorrow. I wasn't really thinking about it at the time, but I've booked my last 2-3 flights in sunny places, so hopefully weather is a non factor, I speak good Spanish so I should generally be able to avoid any issues with Aeromexico, Delta was just a matter of finding a cheap flight and then getting the fare bucket. Fingers crossed they both just auto post. Still miiiiight chase down AR as a security blanket, but if I manage to get all 15 credited in the next few days I won't bother.

I'm not really sure what we're talking about here, the flight is operated by Delta Connection like 3-4x a day. Why would anyone buy this from westjet doing this challenge? Just buy it from Delta and then it's marketed and operated by DL on a delta flight number. No fuss. There's just no reason to involve westjet here.