Originally Posted by stephem
I'm pretty sure you cannot use this routing. I just booked some tickets on MH as well, we were looking at Australia but finally picked SE Asia and i had asked questions about this, trying to find a way to stop both in Europe and Asia and finally got what appear to be definitive answers. For starters, you have to come back the way you came, so no RTW. But that shouldnt be a big deal for you... MH flies both ways, either westward LAX-KUL-SYD or the eastward EWR routing you mentioned. There is great availability on MH in business so you wont have any problem getting this to work. You can also fly the KE routing thru ICM both ways, and I've heard KE availability is pretty good too. You also get a stopover and can do one open jaw (e.g., land in SYD depart from MEL). This can add some value to the award so use it if you can.
Out of curiosity, do you know where on nwa.com or in the member's guide the no RTW award restriction is listed?
I've actually found business avaiability for a number of dates and routings on KE and MH. Major problem is that the MH eastbound return flight time gets me into Newark from Stockholm too late to catch a return flight to DTW. And the LAX-KUL flight doesn't depart every day of the week (specifically the day I want to leave). I have a pretty good KE itinerary that I'll stick with, and fully realize that with an award ticket, beggers can't be choosers.