after three years of lurking and shirking, i am booking my first rtw, more out of necessity than for pure mileage gathering reasons (don't flame me)

here it is: hkg-del-hkg-nrt-hkg-lhr-edi-lhr-vie-lhr-lax-mia-dfw-anc-dfw-jfk-hkg (DONE3)

now the asian and european parts are business appointments, but the US part is just for miles and could be optimized: lhr-lax-mia-dfw-anc-dfw-jfk-hkg is what I have come up so far.
suggestions appreciated

You know you could save a heap of money (at the cost of some miles) by starting in TPE? This could work if you could go to NRT before DEL and then straight to London...

TPE-NRT-HKG-DEL-LHR... ...HKG-TPE

then for the US the best I can come up with is:

LHR-SFO-DFW-ANC-DFW-JFK-PHX-JFK-HKG

which is 26687 miles rather than the 24467 that you had.

lhr-lax-sju-dfw-anc-dfw-sju-jfk-hkg will get you nearly 29k miles

I think you will have problems with the rules based on the start of your planned itinerary:

hkg-del-hkg-nrt-hkg

See this rule:
Your itinerary has your departing HKG three times (to DEL, to NRT and then to LHR) and arriving three times (from DEL, from NRT and then from JFK).

These fares are frestricted by the rules to try to stop people having much flexibility in their country of origin except to get you to/from a convenient international gateway. And for HKG there is only one international gateway!

If you were to start in another country, you could then use HKG as a stopover and transit point.

I am actually starting in TPE - and booking with CX Taipei office for TWD 164'000. (TWD:USD 33.6:1) I just left it out when posting the itinerary to make it easier on the eyes. . which also solves the other problem so kindly pointed out above. thanks guys.

Problem with the Asian part is a schedule of business meetings. Thanks for the US suggestion. I'll look into that.

If starting (and finishing) in TPE, I think you may still have a problem. That would make the routing commence with TPE-HKG-DEL-HKG-NRT-HKG and end with JFK-HKG-TPE. I make that six sectors in Asia where you are only permitted four. And you can't purchase additional sectors in your continent-of-origin.
Also, I assume you are planning stopovers in DEL and NRT. All connections through HKG will need to be transit only (less than 24 ours).
You may need to consider taking the DEL or NRT trip as a seperate ticket??

i called CX today regarding the last recommendation, and they said it was no problem, my segments being TPE-DEL, DEL-HKG, HKG-NRT and NRT-HKG, the last HKG-TPE would not count they said. this whole segment business is utterly confusing to me. TPE-HKG-DEL is one segment, but DEL-HKG-NRT is two. Go figure. Apparently they don't count TPE/HKG at all.

That advice from CX is simply wrong, and their ticketing desk would refuse to issue a ticket like that. A segment is a single flight number without interruption of journey. I suspect they are making the same mistake as other CX offices have with me (specifically Paris) which is to misinterpret "segment" as "stopover", not realising that if that were the case some of us would fly continuously with no stopovers for several days in order to get a huge number of miles.

TPE-DEL is definately two segments. It is two different flight numbers. For example, it is CX401 TPE-HKG and CX753 HKG-DEL. The flight number for the TPE-HKG segment varies depending on the day (eg CX531, CX471 or CX401). The only way it can be one segment is if it is one flight number all the way through, and it is not.

The same thing for the JFK-HKG-TPE. This is two different flight numbers and hence two separate coupons required, therefore two segments.

deleting accidental post

If that is what CX says, then I say, issue the ticket right away! We wouldn't want you to plan the trip and then be disappointed when the ticketing agent won't issue the ticket!

But I, too say that TPE-HKG-DEL-HKG-NRT-HKG... HKG-TPE is 6 sectors and you are definitely allowed only 4. And you are only allowed 2 stopovers in asia.. which is DEL and NRT I presume.

ok, i called again, Mirinda said that they don't count TPE-HKG because there is no other OW carrier in Taiwan and you HAVE to take the segment to get out Asia. I pointed out the obvious alternatives TPE-NRT/KIX/ICN/FUK, which would count as a segment, so e.g. TPE-NRT-HKG-DEL-HKG would be the maximum 4 segments, but TPE-HKG-DEL-HKG-NRT-HKG is also allowed. after what you guys told me (thanks for all the help!) I asked them to check carefully and get back to me. next week. I'll be in Thailand until then

I don't want any problems, and I find this RTW business very annoying. according to what I read on this board, there isn't an airline or agent in the world who really knows this product the way they should.

GB: what if I get the ticket issued and then it turns out to be illegal??? Quoi faire?

I would have thought that once the ticket is issued no one can refuse you to reserve and board the flights as ticketed.....is that not right?

But there may be a problem if you need to have the ticket re-issued later due to change.

There is nothing in any of the STAR files I have read about such a rule. In fact, if that were the case, anyone starting at a non-intercontinental gateway could claim their initial flight segment does not count. eg Someone starting in Canberra in Australia could claim their CBR-SYD initial segment does not count - but we all know it most certainly does count for both the 20 segment max rounting caclulation and the max 4 segments in SWP calculation. That is the very reason they allow 4 segments in your home continent, so you can get to/from the inter-continental gateway.

The OneWorld Explorer fare is structured to get you to other continents other than your own. They have to build in some flexibility in the home continent in order to get you to/from the inter-continental gateway, and they even permit 2 stopovers in your home continent - expected to be at the international gateway even though they are not required to be so.