FINALLY! DONE4 sent to be booked
 

Yes! Finally, I just emailed my final DONE4 itinerary to the CX office in CMB, probably much to the relief of the agent there I have been dealing with:p

With the help of many people here at FT, and many helpful ideas from my fiancee, this is the routing we finally worked out:

04JUL CMB-HKG CX700 TRANSIT HKG
05JUL HKG-JFK CX830
08JUL JFK-SFO AA179
10JUL SFOxDFW-DCA AA530/AA1544
11JUL DCAxDFW-YUL AA2057/AA802
12JUL YULxLHR-IST BA94/BA676(13JUL)
20JUL ISTxLHR-DXB BA677/BA109
22JUL DXB-LHR BA106
26JUL LHRxHKG-MEL CX250/CX105
12AUG MEL-BME QF1050
13AUG BME-PER QF1073
OPEN PER-MEL
OPEN SYD-BOM
OPEN DEL-HKG
OPEN HKG-CMB

It is a lot of travelling in only a short time until we reach Australia, but we have to drive to SYD, to get our dog from the Quarrantine Center there, on August 4.

Visiting family in PER, so we don't know how long we want to stay there yet.

Our wedding is in November, so the SYD-BOM etc leg will be for our honeymoon, but we haven't picked a departure date for that yet. Return CMB-MEL will be with CX.

Including the flights ICNxHKG-CMB and CMBxHKG-MEL we will make EXPlat with AA, and over 155000miles. I could have gained alot more miles with an ANC or SJU flight, but my fiancee wasn't too keen on the idea of zipping up there and back on AA first class (in a 757!) The quick DXB trip will be for a visit to the Gold Market and Al Jumarah (sp?) Hotel.

Some of the stops are very short, but it is a Global Tasting Menu- we will see which cities we would like to revisit for a longer time in 2008. Any tips on not to miss restaurants in any of the cities listed (except HKG, and OZ- we know them well enough:) ) will be received with much appreciation:D

ANC actually is the nicest place in the US, and a desirable destination in its own right. The flight path is often along the Alaskan coast, so you get several hours of spectacular scenery (at least from one side of the plane). But you can get similar scenery in NZ, I suppose.

Unfortunately, I fear that is going to be bounced by CX. I don't think they will allow MEL-BME and PER-MEL on the same ticket - that falls foul of the "one transcon in Australia" rule.

oh no... I didn't realise BME was on the list! Now how to reroute, and still get the miles needed.:confused:

Keep MEL-PER, then own ticket to ADL, and have ADL-AKL-MEL- this actually is about 800miles more...but it needs and overnight stay in AKL.

Or, the easier thing to do would be to fly MEL-BME-PER-ADL, the own economy ticket ADL-MEL, cheaper than a stay in AKL I should think, plus we can get AAmiles, though at a reduced rate.

CBR isn't on the transcon list, so PER-CBR is one way to avoid the transcon ban. Its even on a 738 (not too bad for J, though not quite widebody standard).

ssshhh ;)

don't want to give OW ideas for enhancement

After checking the flight schedules, we have changed the Australian components to the following:

ADL-PER
PER-BNE
BNE-MEL

This fits all of the rules, and while a little less miles than the old routing MEL-BME-PER-MEL, the flight MEL-ADL will make up the miles thanks to the minimum mileage with AA on QF flights.

The CBR routing gives more miles, but the CBR-PER direct flight arrives in PER at 2200, which is too late for us to drive the 4 hours out of PER we need to.

Thanks for all of the help you've all given on this. I've emailed the changes to CX in CMB.