After a couple of days, I have managed to cut the cost another $200 USD but more importantly have included the missing European destination and think it's also much more efficient?
already arriving PVG on a transpacific flight booked months earlier at Sat Sept 6 0035, 5 hr 25 min layover
Sat Sept 6 0600 PVG-KUL 1140 AirAsia X D7 333, 2 days in Kuala Lumpur - $92
Mon Sept 8 1050 KUL-IST 1635 Turkish TK 63, 4 hr 45 min in IST - $623
Mon Sept 8 2120 IST-CAI 2340 Turkish TK 686, 4 days in Cairo
AFRICA
Sat Sept 13 0610 CAI-IST 0830 Turkish TK 693, 3 hr in IST
Sat Sept 13 1130 IST-VIE 1250 Turkish TK 1885, 5 days in Vienna
EUROPE
Thurs Sept 18 1410 VIE-IST 1735 Turkish TK 1886, 16 hr 5 min in IST - $1003
Fri Sept 19 0940 IST-BOG 1505 Turkish TK 800, 5 days in Bogota
SOUTH AMERICA
Wed Sept 24 1635 BOG-PTY 1820 Turkish TK 800, 1 hr 40 min in PTY
Wed Sept 24 2000 PTY-IST 1655+1 Turkish TK 800, 2 hr 5 min in IST
Thurs Sept 25 1900 IST-AUH 0035+1 Turkish TK 868, 1 day in Abu Dhabi
ASIA
Sat Sept 27 0230 AUH-VIE 0635 Etihad EY 153, 7 hr 15 min in VIE - $96
Sat Sept 27 1350 VIE-IST 1715 Turkish TK 1886, 1 hr 30 min in IST - $1197
Sat Sept 27 1845 IST-JFK 2240 Turkish TK 11, 7 hr 50 min in JFK
NORTH AMERICA
Sun Sept 28 0630 JFK-BOS 0743 JetBlue B6 518, 2 days in Boston - $99
Mon Sept 29 2135 BOS-IST 1355+1 Turkish TK 82, 2 hr 50 min in IST
Tues Sept 30 1645 IST-SIN 0830+1 Turkish TK 168, 1 hr 40 min n SIN
Wed Oct 1 1010 SIN-MEL 1925 Turkish TK 168, 3 days in Melbourne
ASIA
Fri Oct 3 1945 MEL-HAK 0345+1 Hainan HU 484, 8 hr 35 min in Haikou - $282
Sat Oct 4 1220 HAK-PVG 1520 Hainan HU 7119
Any further suggestions greatly appreciated as I am very new to this!
I did spend most of my time looking at Miles&Smiles website to find out if the million miles would be worth enough for me, and I have concluded that it is.
There's enough flights on Turkish between IST and Asia/Europe with <$100 carrier surcharges and even some short haul intra-Asia flights that are only 35k to 50k per route.
That would mean I can take 20-30 of these with a million miles.