Basically, this is what I want to do. Go LAX-LHR-SYD-HKG-YVR-LAX. To do an around the world--how many stops am I allowed? min. length of stay? max. total journey. Is there a website for this? Presume I would be using AA/BA/CX. Probably would go J or F!!

Which program miles are you using? Each FFP has it's own rules for awards.

This would not be an award. I would pay for the ticket!!

My mistake. You've come to the right place. Read up on this forum about One World Explorer (search on xONEx, DONE4 or AONE4) and Global Explorer (xGLOBxx) - the OW alliance RTW products. There are additionally RTWs for specific airline combinations.

This might also be a good place to start:

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-trave...world-explorer

The rules are complex and vary by:
a) country of origin
b) RTW product
c) date of purchase (rule changes after you buy are not retro-active)

So you really need to spend 20 minutes and do some reading of the Star file.
But to summarize, OW has both an unlimited mileage RTW product (Oneworld Explorer, OWE) and mileage limited product (Global Explorer, GE). OWE is limited to 20 sectors and priced by the number of continents (you buy from 3 to 6 continents). GE is priced by miles flown, and allows using additional airlines (so more routing flexibility than OWE). The pricing is similar for OWE and GE, but OWE allows flying about twice as many miles if you max out the routing (so OWE is half the price per mile).

Min stay: typically 10 days min for return to country of origin, but there are exceptions (the rules are complex)
Max validity: up to 2 years (first flight within 1 year of ticketing, last flight within 1 year of first flight)
Unlimited stopovers (but constrained by the routing rules -- hence no need for a limit on stopovers)

To draw out some implications for the OP, note that you are only using 5 of the allowed 20 segments. Because you cannot fly YVR-LAX on a ONE ticket (ie. Alaska AL is not allowed), you would have to add a sixth segment to get back to LAX, and so the last two segments would be YVR-DFW-LAX or better yet YVR-JFK-LAX because on the latter you could get on the CX888 flight for YVR-JFK (the same one you used earlier to fly HKG-YVR). Note that you are not using any intra-continent flights except for No.Am. and so you would be entitled to up to 4 such flights in Europe, Asia, and SouthWest Pacific as well as 4 more in North America-- except that the total number of segments has to be 20 or less.

That'd be one transcon too many.

Not quite. Try the seasonal YVR-SFO (QF) then SFO-LAX (AA).

That would be a waste of time and a waste of two segments unless the passenger just can't tolerate a 2.5 hr coach ride or has no place better to use his ONE segments. Fares are cheap on that route.

Well, if you really wanted to get the maximum use out of your 6 North America segments (only one of which can be a transcon), how about YVR-JFK on CX888, and then JFK-MIA-ORD-SEA-DFW-LAX, or something along those lines? That gets a fair amount of miles out of your flights. Please note you could only stop over in two of those cities (MIA and SEA, for example).

For maxing out Europe, LHR-DXB-LHR is pretty popular. It's one of the longest route out of Heathrow that's still considered part of the Europe/Middle East zone, and can be added into an xONEx without difficulty. And if you haven't been there yet, Dubai is definitely worth a visit.

For those crediting to QFF, MCT is better for the extra SCs over DXB (and all over middle eastern flights).

I understand you are allowed YVR-LAX with AA code shares on AL for Revenue tickets.

1. oneworld Explorer is available on scheduled flights that are both operated and marketed by a oneworld airline or on a oneworld member airline affiliate. (Marketed means a oneworld airline flight number must be on the ticket.)

Not True. See this snip from the star files...

48N . 1. APPLIES TO FIRST CLASS, BUSINESS CLASS AND
49N . ECONOMY CLASS, RTW TRAVEL VIA
50N . .
51N . AA EG JO NU
52N . 4M
53N . .
54N . AY IB LA
55N . QF
56N . .
57N . BA JC LP
58N . RJ
59N . .
60N . CX JL MA
61N . XL
62N . .
63N . 2. TRAVEL ON CODESHARES OPERATED BY THE CARRIERS
64N . LISTED ABOVE IS PERMITTED. OTHER CODESHARE
65N . SERVICES NOT PERMITTED.
66N . .

Alaska Airlines (AS, not AL) is not in the above list.

Nope. Alaska (AS) is not a Oneworld carrier. The rule means that you can codeshare if the actual airline is another oneworld carrier or an affiliate, such as American Eagle. Alaska is neither a oneworld airline nor an affiliate. The exception is that the Global Explorer allows the use of Alaska, but that is because the rules specifically include Alaska, as well as a few other non-Oneworld airlines.