Thanks for all of the helpful advice so far. Unsurprisingly, it has generated a few more questions but I think I'm nearly there now.
Originally Posted by number_6
You know you are only allowed 2 stopovers in the continent of origin (so 1 of the 3 LHR arrivals will have to be a transit, with less than 24 hours in LHR).
Ah yes - I did know that but temporarily forgot.
Can I still be in transit if I fly in to LGW one day and out of LHR the next (within 24 hours)?
Originally Posted by number_6
SFO-YVR is highly seasonal -- this is the first year for the route, next year hasn't been announced and it may not be continued, and it is operating for only a few weeks this year. So unless you happen to be flying SFO-YVR within the next 2 months you won't be able to book that (and there is no AA service SFO-YVR as AA codeshares on AS is not allowed).
I found out some further information on the seaonality of this route
here and unfortunately this doesn't fit my dates. So I think I'm going to have to rethink that whole section.
Originally Posted by number_6
Finally NOU-SYD in J tends to be sold out, so might have to be pretty flexible on dates, similarly for SYD-AKL on LA (there are only 20 F seats per week on this route, and they are kept for sale SYD-SCL, so don't expect to be able to book this in A more than a day ahead, and it may take a few weeks to actually get 2 seats on this flight ... most likely you will be flying D on QF on this route).
Interestingly ExpertFlyer shows D and A availabilty respectively on both of these flights for my dates (quite a few months out). I'm assuming that as long as the fare buckets show availability, there would be no other reason why I couldn't fly those sectors.
Originally Posted by christep
It looks OK to me too, subject to number_6's caveats. It's a shame not to have a long-haul CX F (caviar etc.).
Hmm. Yes, I'd like to have put in a bit more CX long haul too. As it stands, the longest F segment I have with them is YVR-JFK. I did have one thought on this. Could I go SYD-HKG-YVR in place of segments 11 and 12 of my original journey if I kept HKG as a transit? It seems possible from the following rule but I feel sure it'll probably contravene another.
Code:
19N . 5. ONLY 1 INTERCONTINENTAL DEPARTURE AND 1
120N . INTERCONTINENTAL ARRIVAL PERMITTED IN EACH
121N . CONTINENT EXCEPT AS FOLLOWS:
122N . * 2 PERMITTED IN NORTH AMERICA WHEN 1 IS A
123N . TRANSIT WITHOUT STOPOVER.
124N . * 2 PERMITTED IN ASIA WHEN 1 IS A TRANSIT
125N . WITHOUT
126N . STOPOVER OR ON DIRECT SINGLE PLANE SERVICE
127N . BETWEEN THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AND EUROPE.
128N . * 2 PERMITTED IN EUROPE WHEN 1 IS A TRANSIT
129N . WITHOUT STOPOVER BETWEEN
130N . GHANA/NIGERIA/KENYA/UGANDA/TANZANIA AND ¥
131N . ANOTHER ¥
132N . CONTINENT.
Originally Posted by Viajero
Instead of EUR-ASIA-SWP-NA-EUR you could do EUR-SWP-ASIA-NA-EUR, for more miles and longer F travel.
This would be a good idea for the miles/F experience but the timing of my trip means I'd like to do ASIA (and particularly Japan) whilst it's still Autumn so I need to do that region first.