Help for a novice please
 

I am traveling with my family to Australia, on to Israel and then home end of Oct. begin November. I wish J was an option - I don't think it is. My thought is a LONE4 (or 3?) which would be JFK-SYD-MEL-SYD-TEL-JFK. We'd do an AA codeshare LAX-SYD which would give full Q miles and SYD-LHR on BA with a $450 upgrade to WT+ (which would give me a chance of some sleep and Q miles)

The OW tool comes up with an error message when I try to transverse LHR twice (SYD-LHR-TLV-LHR-JFK) and insists on IB from TLV – but that’s not as desirable an option because LHR-JFK on AA offers a chance of a EVIP upgrade MAD-JFK is a IB codeshare.

Advice and help would be appreciated.

If all you are doing in Europe/ME is SYD-LHR-TEL-LHR-JFK then that's fine. What you can't do is add any more "long Europe from the UK" segments.

I'm not sure why anyone would voluntarily go through the UK at the moment though... I'd consider going SYD-FRA-MAD-TLV-MAD-FRA-DFWorORD-JFK which gets you on AA across the pond.

Remember also that you're allowed 6 segments, albeit only 2 stopovers, within North America (and you can now go back through the origin) so make sure you use them for the miles!

The routing is valid. Nothing wrong with LHR-TLV-LHR on BA for an ex-US OWE.

Some of the restrictions have been lifted, I believe, and the OP is flying in Oct/Nov.

Not really as good an option because - in order of importance -

1. Need to be in TLV quickly (I presume IB's LY codeshare won't work and even that is two hours later then BA from LHR)
2. No Upgrade possibility on QF.
3. Only .25 miles on QF.

Am I wrong somewhere?

Only in that I'm not sure you realise quite how bad LHR is at the moemnt...

Hopefully it will all be sorted out by October.

Is LHR as bad for transfering as for originating? (I guess I should do a search on BA)
In any case can it possibly last through October?

Who knows? What I don't understand is what they're going to do the first time they find someone smuggling a potentially explosive gel on to a plane by filling a condom with it and secreting it in a body orifice. At that point I think (or at least hope) they'll realise that the current knee-jerk approach simply isn't useful.

In fact please can someone hurry up and do that so we can get through this as quickly as possible?