Originally Posted by
DownUnderFlyer
Difficult to give you any recommendation since you have optimized quite a bit and because we don't know to which places you need to go.
But, here is one thought:
If you replace KBP with another city which can be reached from BUD and MAD, you can fly to Madrid instead of London so you can avoid LHR and you can take a direct flight to PTY from MAD. And then maybe PTY-DFW-BZE-DFW-ANC-DFW-JFK which gives you more miles than your itinerary.
Yes, true. I have learned a lot from everyone here since routing the first one.
I like the idea of skipping LHR whenever possible, so I'll look at the IB routes-- thanks for that. As for ANC, I'd love to throw it in sometime, but I can't do so at the expense of my SEA stopover (my home city that I incorporate in all RTW and Awards trips) or losing segments to get to other countries.
I'll keep working on it. If anyone else has advice, please feel free to share.