I'd love to hear suggestions about maximizing mileage on a DONE4 I'm about to book. I live in NYC and the only cities I actually need to go to are Rome, New York, Sydney, Auckland, and Bangkok (well, Ko Samui.) Quick dinners with friends in London and Abu Dhabi will be a bonus, but aren't essential:
CAI-LHR-FCO-(stop)-ORD-(stop)-DFW-ANC-DFW-LAX-JFK-(stop)-SYD-(stop)-AKL-(stop)-HKG-BKK-(stop)-DEL-NRT-LHR-AUH

(Chicago is only in there due to there being no availability to JFK on the date I need to travel. I guess I'll have to buy a ticket from ORD-NYC-ORD?)

A skeleton version of this itinerary is on hold with AA. Any way I can milk some more miles out of it and try to reach the next AAdvantage elite reward tier would be appreciated And is there any truth to the rumor that if the first flight is on BA, then BA's astronomical fuel surcharges apply to the entire itinerary? I'm hoping that's not the case if an AA agent handles the ticketing. If so, I'll have to do some rejigging at the top.

I believe you can route twice thru Asia if one is a connection.
What about
JFK-xHKG-AKL-SYD-BKK
This would add aroound 1700 miles(but no stop in HKG)

Thanks! I thought the transit-via-Asia rule only applied between SWP and Europe, but if it's good from North America too then I'll do this. Great idea.

This is a source of historic debate, but to me at least the rule is clear. From the rules:Without getting into some Talmudic debate about commas, my understanding is that it's only applicable in the case of Europe - SWP, not N. America - SWP or Africa - SWP.

I have flown the following several times.

IAD-LHR-HKG-SYD-AKL-SYD-HKG-ORD-DCA. The second pass through Asia is without a stopover.

This routing can be verified with the on-line tool.

But the debate about commas or lack thereof is Sooo much fun

But in any case, a recent counter-example
We are currently on our ex-KRT DONE4 trip ('resting' back in PER)
We transited Asia (YVR-xHKG-PER) in April
and will be stopping over in Asia (PER-HKG-PNH-HKG-XIY) in August
Ticketed with AA last October, without any issue regarding the Asian transit

Last year I did the following.

DCA-ORD-HKG-SYD-ZQN...CHC-SYD-HKG-JNB-CPT-LHR-MIA-EZE-MIA-DCA.

Two transits of Asia and two transits of North America. It took multiple interactions with CX to convince them about the retransit of Asia to reach JNB. They wanted me to fly direct on QF SYD-JNB.

This yielded a serious number of BA tier points.

Awesome. Any thoughts about any other aspect of my itinerary before I ticket?

I believe the online tool permits itineraries such as EUR-ASIA-SWP(-xASIA)-NA-EUR