Thanks for your good wishes tonerman. I had to google dilaudid to find out what it was, and rather intriguingly wikipedia told me that it refers either to "Hydromorphone, trade name Dilaudid®, a drug used to relieve pain" or to " Dilaudid EP, a download-only EP by The Mountain Goats".

The burning question is, to which of these did your comment refer? I haven't listened to the musical dilaudid, but it may in fact be more effective in treating pain and inducing slumber than the chemical type...

Just a thought .

Getting back to the topic, thanks everyone for the detailed discussion on taxes, and for the general scrutiny of the itinerary. I am a little surprised that I didn't make any glaring errors.

Naturally this DONE4 will be spread over the full 12 months, as there's a lot of flying (at least by my standards) contained therein.

Any suggestions as to how to most effectively carry out my side-trips back to OZ from LAX? (LAX-SYD) Buy an economy ticket and use points for an upgrade? I understand that using points for a J class seat may be next to impossible. Perhaps upgrades are too, although I should make QF platinum for one of the side-trips and that may influence may chances.

There used to be relatively cheap flights from OZ to USA via Asia - does that work in reverse?