I would like to go to the following places: Iceland, Hungary, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Namibia, India, S. Korea, China (DONEx)

I need to start with SFO-ORD and finish in ORD (or ideally TVC). This is a pleasure trip and maximizing miles is not priority

Can you think of a more efficient way to do it? (less back tracking, possible insertion of more interesting stops).

1: SFO-ORD: 1st of 6 (North America)
2: ORD-AMM: intercontinental
3: AMM-CAI: 1st of 4 (Europe)
4: CAI-BUD: 2nd of 4 (Europe)
5: BUD-ATH: 3rd of 4 (Europe)
6: ATH-LHR: 4th of 4 (Europe)
7: LHR-LGW: surface
8 LGW-KEF
9 KEF-LGW
10: LGW-LHR: surface
11 LHR-JNB: intercontinental
12: JNB-WDH: 1st of 4 (Africa)
13: WDH-JNB: 2nd of 4 (Africa)
14: JNB-HKG: 1st of 1 (intercontinental entry to Asia without immediate transit & departure)
15: HKG-DEL: 1st of 4 (Asia)
16: DEL-NRT: 2nd of 4 (Asia)
17: NRT-ICN: 3rd of 4 (Asia)
18: ICN-HKG: 4th of 4 (Asia)
19: HKG-PVG: 5th of 4 (Asia)
20-PVG-ORD

Could flipping it make it more efficient?

I was hoping to avoid wasting the land segments for 8 & 9 and maybe inserting something else.

Are there any hidden cities [i.e. part of a direct flight] that might be used?

I was hoping to find a JNB �DEL flight, but it does not look like that exists in OneWorld. This would avoid backtracking. AMM-DEL exists, but that messes up Africa

I also thought about flying ORD-DEL, but that messes up Europe (i.e. transatlantic used up).

Thanks.

Why not buy a separate AMM-CAI return since it would cheaper than buying LGW-KEF return? Then the routing becomes ...AMM-ATH-BUD-LGW-KEF-LGW//LHR-JNB... Malev flies to LGW, not LHR so you save(??) a surface segment of your 20 total segments. Then you can add the ORD-TVC at the end.

You can pay for extra sectors (not in continent of origin).