I agree, for me, it would be far better in this scenario to fly BKK-LHR and then LHR to DXB. Equally, I would not waste a AONE on mainland europe based segments LHR-DME-MAD as you would be cramped up in BA Club Europe or Iberia's equally poor offering and can often be bought relatively cheaply even in business class.

As for "Dream" suggestions or at least somewhere I was lucky enough to first visit purely because I had a XONEX - I would like to bang a drum for Muscat either direct with BA or to Dubai with BA and then a separate cheap business ticket with Swiss.

Sometimes with a XONEX it is about having the most comfortable flight to somewhere close to where you want to go and then purchasing a cheap ticket to the places that have uncomfortable service once you are close to them - if that makes sense??!!

Great points, everyone. Okay, how about:

DEN-LAX-SYD-BNE-ADL-PER-SYD-HKG-NRT-SIN-BKK-HKG-DXB-LHR-DME-MAD-LHR-YVR-JFK-MIA-DEN

This improves mileage to 46,515.

We'd be in CX First for the SYD-HKG-NRT and BKK-HKG-DXB.

I agree that it makes more sense to use the Shinkansen to return to NRT instead of wasting that leg.

It's true that LHR-DME-MAD-LHR is not ideal, but haven't come up with anything better yet. There is a limit on flights between LHR and various destinations (Middle East, Russia) that causes routing issues. I'm open to suggestions.

websterlewis, I agree that a lot of the trick is getting close to where you really want to go, as comfortably as possible. We will definitely be taking some side trips by train and short-hop air throughout this trip.

Thanks for all your help so far!

Any particular reason you enjoyed it so much? I really don't know a thing about Oman.

Nope - there is no First class on any CX flights to DXB.

Rats. CX site wasn't working properly last night so I couldn't double-check, but the sticky thread listed CX as having "some flights" HKG-DXB in First.

Okay, how about this:

DEN-LAX-SYD-BNE-ADL-PER-SYD-HKG-NRT-SIN-BKK-HKG-LHR-DXB-AMM-DME-LHR-YVR-JFK-MIA-DEN

20 legs, 48,757 miles and valid according to Mileage Monkey and the oneworld tool.

I'm not wild about stopping in AMM, but the only other way out of DXB seems to be returning to LHR, which in turn would mean no DME because we'd exceed the limit on flights from LHR to certain destinations.

It also puts us in Business on Royal Jordanian for two legs (DXB-AMM-DME), but I guess that's supposed to be a good product?

Are you aware you can only have a total of two stopovers out of LAX, YVR, JFK and MIA?.

DEN-JFK-HKG-BKK-NRT-SIN-HKG-SYD-ZQN-SYD-CNS-MEL-LHR-DME-AMM-DXB-LHR-YVR-JFK-MIA-DEN comes to around 56,500 miles. 7 flights of 20 in J, the rest in F.

As no QF "domestic" routes in Oz/NZ have F I've included ZQN instead of PER and ADL as you'd be doing this trip in the northern winter/southern summer in which case visiting the Fjord country on the S. Island of NZ might be a nice counterpoint to steamy and/or desert locations. CNS is thrown in instead of BNE on the chance you want to see the Great Barrier Reef or Daintree country.

NRT-HKG-SIN-BKK-HKG-SYD-ZQN-SYD-CNS-MEL-LHR-DME-AMM-DXB-LHR-YVR-JFK-MIA-DEN-JFK-NRT is another approach (about 52K miles) in case you want to start in Japan for a cheaper AONE4 price (or way cheaper DONE4.) However you'd have to decide which 2 places in Asia to use for stopovers, just as you'd need to decide which two stopovers to take in N. America if you originate there.

Yes, but we don't actually care about stopping at any of them except possibly MIA. Those are gateways and/or mileage runs.

This is great. Thank you. I knew I was missing some possibilities.

We've seen a lot of NZ and cruised the fiordlands of NZ but haven't actually been to ZQN, so that's an interesting idea. It might make more sense to focus on NZ and skip BNE or CNS since the weather will be miserable in that part of Oz at that time of year.

I don't want to go out of NRT because there's a lot of Asia we haven't seen. (We've only been to Japan.) So I really want the full 4 legs there. Otherwise it would be a great itinerary.

I still wish I could figure out a good itinerary from ARN but it has defeated me. We actually love ARN and would enjoy going back there, but it just doesn't have good enough connections for an optimal itinerary without wasting a lot of legs -- unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible.

I see. Ok, since you are interested in MRs maybe you'd want to consider DEN-JFK-SYD instead of DEN-LAX-SYD.

Just remembered DEN-JFK doesn't work. It's hard to believe, but AA now has NO non-stops from DEN to any NYC airport! Still shows on the oneworld charts but doesn't exist.

So it would have to be DEN-LAX-HKG...

One possibility: ARN-xLHR-pick any BA EUR/ME destination-xLHR-SWP-Asia-NA-pick any IB gateway (ORD/MIA/SJU/SJO/MEX...)-MAD-ARN.

Here's a route that starts in ARN but uses LA's remaining F services in Latin America and across the Pacific; it avoids NA altogether, but includes Easter Island, one of those places where the OWE comes into its own. Bumps up to 10/20 in J, but that's the price you pay for exotica. You could include Moscow en route to ARN or as a side trip.
ARN-MAD-SCL-IPC-SCL-EZE-SCL-SYD-ZQN-SYD-CNS-MEL-HKG-NRT-BKK-HKG-SIN-LHR-DXB-LHR-ARN

I don't see SWP on the oneworld routes. Am I missing something?

Er, SWP = South West Pacific (the continent)!