Gosh

Lots of good advice and more food for thought. I hadn't considered DOH as a starting point (doh !) but it sounds promising. MRU I had discounted as although the fares are compelling I was intending to use 2 award tickets to get there and back - award tickets being totally flexible, so allowing me to shift them around if I need to. MRU availability on BA is quite tricky AFAIK.

The DOH idea does sound good - particularly as I can chuck in a couple of BAH/DOH runs if I need the TPs.

Restricting the European stopovers is not an issue for me - I want to break the journey in London and the side trips are of little interest as I've done Europe to death over the years.

As I mentioned the miles are not a motivator here - my mileage balance is pretty large - but the TPs would be very useful as I think it would easily guarantee me Gold for a further year, while satisfying my holiday requirements for 2008.

Thanks again for all the input - back to the route validator and guide books !

BAH