For me I wanted to visit Tokyo anyway (it would've been a stop on my originally planned exCMB routing) so it was just nice as a RTW starting point. Got a 80 000 miles OW J award MEL-NRT via HKG on QF/CX.

If exCMB still exists - it's not too hard to get to from MEL - 70 000 miles J award and I get to check out Sri Lanka as a bonus.

Pulling the DONE apart and viewing it as a few seperate trips - it's quite literally only US$2000ish per trip in J! Plus a few repositioning awards of course which to me is an effective use of miles.

MRU would pose a problem as I'd have to get an AONE5 and it wastes as at least 2 segments since I don't have any business to be in Africa. I'm only looking for a cheap but comfy way to travel so the higher cost of an AONE5 (plus staying in somewhere i dont want to be etc) compared with the DONE4 exNRT is not really worth it. Could get a DONE5 exMRU but that'd defeat the purpose. Thin service means my stay in MRU can't be quick, and from reading what other people have posted about MRU - the whole thing seems pretty daunting. Maybe one day when I visit Africa but for now I'm happy with DONEs exAsia.