What’s the cheapest way to get from Australia (CBR/MEL) to BOM?

I’m trying to work out if the difference of an India departing DONE3+postioning flight and a DONE4 out of Australia is worth it (or just sticking with another LONE4).
The proposed DONE3 would start with CX684.

Don't forget the luxury tax for business or first departures from India. See, e.g., this thread.

Not really sure what the cheapest way is but a very cheap way is using Air Asia from MEL.
Otherwise I would consider doing the DONE4 from NZ as the price difference easily pays for the positioning flights. However, starting from NZ limits a bit the SC earnings potential.

I see... That explains why the taxes added almost $3,000AUD when I costed it on the online planner.

My currently planned LONE4 is SYD-SIN-NRT-KIX-HKG-xJFK-BWI-ORD-MCO-DFW-CDG-HEL-xFCO-xHKG-MEL
The DONE3 that I put into the planner is BOM-HKG-xSIN-NRT-xJFK-BWI-ORD-MCO-DFW-CDG-HEL-xFCO-xHKG-BOM

Have a look at originating in Sri Lanka instead. Pretty close to India prices, but without the tax.

Priced a trip out of CMB [CMB-SIN-NRT-HKG-JFK-BWI-ORD-MCO-DFW-CDG-HEL-xFCO-xHKG-CMB]. Cut off AU$1,100 off the BOM price.
831,569.00 LKR
I assume the only way to get that down more would be to call AA and get them to ticket over the phone instead of CX via the online planner?

I have two more NA sectors. Think I should toss in a -DFW-ANC-DFW- or -DFW-SEA-DFW- before the -CDG?

As for positioning, would a cheap flight MEL-SIN then hopping onto CX711 work? (I'd then do a turn around back to SIN on CX710 as the first DONE3 sector)

Or if you can reverse the order of your trip, start with CMB-AMM, which would be ticketed by AA since AA does RJ's ticketing with the online tool. You might plug it in to the machine and see what impact it has on the price.

DFW-ANC is seasonal; if the timing is off and you're looking for more mileage DFW-SJU might be more to your liking.

Note a couple of your sectors, JFK-BWI-ORD, are in Y-only equipment.

I need to do either Asia or North America first due to needing to be in BWI and MCO on set dates and I can't afford to lose a day going west across the date line because of when I need to be back in MEL. I'm thinking the extra taxes from the extra sectors in Europe would all but wipe out the savings on YQ from ticketing with AA.
edit: Just plugged it in. Savings of going west through AMM amount to about 100USD.

It's for mid July-mid August. DFW-ANC is in the schedule then.
Though it might need to be SEA. When I put an ANC turn around, the return didn’t get to DFW in time to connect to CDG.

Checking the QF earning tables, DFW-SJU would get me more points then DFW-SEA, but the same status credits.

When I put in DFW-SEA-DFW the taxes increased. Comparing it to the taxes listed without it, the only difference was ‘US International Transportation Tax – Departure’ which went from 1,849LKR without SEA to 3,698LKR with. Any ideas why that might have happened?

I am aware. I got the same flights on an LONE4 in 2008. Only way around it that I can see at the moment would be to do JFK-BWI-JFK as an extra land trip, then fly JFK-ORD on AA577.

Where do you actually need to go and what is the aim of the trip? If you want to maximise QF status credits in North America, then you could do something like this:

JFK-SEA-ORD-MIA-RNO-MIA-DFW.

BWI can be done using Avis/Greyhound/Amtrak from NY.

This itinerary gives you 810 SCs just in North America alone.

As far as North America goes, mainly to meet up with friends, and then to earn points/credits.
I need to be in BWI for 29JUL-01AUG and MCO for 05-08AUG.

This is what I currently have in the planner:

01 CMB-SIN: CX710 17JUL
02 SIN-NRT: JL710 17JUL
03 NRT-HKG: JL731 25JUL
04 HKG-JFK: CX830 27JUL
05 JFK-BWI: AA3944 27JUL
06 BWI-ORD: AA4296 01AUG
07 ORD-MCO: AA1872 04AUG
08 MCO-DFW: AA1589 08AUG
09 DFW-SEA: AA2033 08AUG
10 SEA-DFW: AA1230 08AUG
11 DFW-CDG: AA48 09AUG
12 CDG-HEL: AY876 12AUG
13 HEL-FCO: AY781 15AUG
14 FCO-HKG: CX292 15AUG
15 HKG-CMB: CX711 16AUG

I might replace JFK-BWI with Amtrak or a cheap flight.
Currently looking at something like this for postioning flights:
MEL-PER: QF775 16JUL
PER-SIN: QF77 16JUL
SIN-CMB: CX711 16JUL (turn around onto DONE3 sector 1)

CMB-SIN: CX710 17AUG (turn around from DONE3 sector 15)
SIN-MEL: QF10 17AUG
MEL-CBR: QF850 23AUG
Haven't been able to get any pricing online for this though.