That is only true if you start in north america. If you start in MRU you can have as many stopovers in north america/NYC as you want, just limited by the available segments. You could do MRU-JNB-SYD-JFK-XXX-JFK-XXX-JFK-XXX-JFK-LHR-MRU if you really wanted to.

Sorry, yes - tenmoc's itinerary is so, er, dynamic that I'd lost track of where he was planning to start this hour.

LOL! That's the reason I deleted my response. After exJFK, exJNB, exDOH and exNRT I got a little lost as well. :)

(no criticism meant to the OP, by the way, OWE planning is like that sometimes)

Thanks all.

Yes. Its all a quite learning curve with this that what sounds easiest when you first start looking, becomes why was I thinking that as soon as you learn some more.

Looking to start this next spring so I have plenty of time and I'm sure changes to come.

MRU would have been nice but seems rather difficult so far with my need to get the 1st post europe and SWP sections in a continuous pattern even if over 2 DONE or AONEs and a limited time frame of about 3 weeks off of work.

So for those two reasons I am most likely leaning toward, at the moment :D, NRT. Its cheaper than DOH and as has been pointed out I can choose to go to MLE via CMB or DOH from DXB, a city i've not been in in more than 10 years now.

Thank you all for the great help. Hopefully I can continue to make this a part of how I travel.