Who cares about having a car in all this?

I think the only way you can take care of the other two, is to have a way of earning miles for effectively nada (ie.credit card sign-ups), then use them when you find a nice $2 hotel somewhere you actually want to go.

Sure, I might get v.lucky and get a $0 fare and $2 hotel in the same area- but I wouldn't want to actually stay awake at night worrying bout it, or not going because can't.

As it is, I have seperate flights to both PVG & PEK for £20+tax in flexi Biz Class.., so I could time them in synch with my Tokyo hotel res's - since gets me 80 or 90% of the way there. Maybe if I was a teacher and had time on my hands, I would - but otherwise shall be just redeeming BA miles direct to NRT.