You are good. :D

Yes, we had thought of making Moscow/St. Petersburg a side trip from ARN... that would be easy and relatively cheap.

I'll have to feel out Mr. f on South America again. He hasn't been very enthusiastic about it in previous discussions.

What about NOU instead of CNS? I'm thinking maybe SYD-NOU-BNE-WLG-MEL. (WLG instead of ZQN because we haven't been to WLG and would like to visit the wine regions around it.)

Oops, I was thinking Namibia (and trying to figure out how that could possibly work). D'oh! :D

Okay, so maybe:

ARN-xLHR-DXB-xLHR-SYD-NOU-BNE-WLG-MEL-HKG-BKK-NRT-SIN-HKG-LAX-DEN-MIA-UVF-MIA-MAD-ARN

55990 miles

9 legs in First, if I'm counting right

And if you are concerned about jetlag, or want to dash to London for a pint, both xLHR connections can easily be turned into <24hrs overnight stops, with a little schedule creativity.

Yes, I was thinking that, and the NA routing would allow us to take a break at home if we wanted...

The only part of this I'm not wild about is the MIA-MAD leg, because of having to use AA or IB. But that's a relatively minor quibble...

What a lively, rapid-fire, and engaging thread this is. Looking forward to the next instalment...

A few routes:
(1) ARN-LHR-MCT-LHR-SYD-PER-ALS-MEL-SYD-HKG-NRT-SIN-NRT-HKG-LHR-ARN 45,423 miles 9 legs in true F

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=A...OR=&MAP-STYLE=

(2) ARN-LHR-MCT(or CAI)-LHR-SYD-PER-ALS-MEL-SYD-HKG-NRT-SIN-NRT-HKG-JFK-LAX-DEN-MIA-ORD-LHR-ARN
57,695 miles 11 legs in true F
http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=A...OR=&MAP-STYLE=

(3) DEN(o)-LAX(o)-LHR(x)-MCT(or CAI)(x)-LON(x)-TFS(x)-LON(x)-HKG(x)-NRT(x)-SIN(x)-HKG-NRT(x)-JFK-SJU(x)-JFK(o)-LAX(o)-DEN(x)-MIA
46,768 miles 10 legs in true F
http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=D...OR=&MAP-STYLE=

(4) ARN(o)-LHR(o)-MCT(or CAI)(x)-LHR(x)-HKG(x)-NRT(x)-SIN(x)-HKG(o)-NRT(x)-JFK(x)-SJU(x)-JFK(o)-LAX(o)-DEN(x)-DFW(o)-YVR(x)-LHR(o)-ARN
44064 miles 10 legs in true F
http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=A...OR=&MAP-STYLE=

That's a nice one. It's somewhat in the same vein as one I've been playing with this afternoon:

ARN-LHR-LAX-xMIA-DEN-MIA-JFK-HKG-SIN-NRT-BKK-HKG-MEL-WLG-BNE-NOU-SYD-xLHR-DXB-xLHR-ARN

58389 miles
11 legs in Int’l or Transcon First

We could do a side trip to Russia at the beginning.

We could also break it up seasonally:

ARN(side trip to Russia)-LHR-LAX-xMIA-DEN in the summer, then

DEN-MIA-JFK-HKG-SIN-NRT-BKK-HKG-MEL-WLG-BNE-NOU-SYD-xLHR-DXB-xLHR-ARN in Nov-Jan.

I think the SYD-xLHR-DXB run would be exhausting, though.

But if you do a little rearranging of your Oz stops MEL-xLHR-DXB can be done with a nice overnight stop in LHR of nearly 24 hrs, as commented before.

BNE-NOU on QF is only 1 or 2 times a week. NOU-SYD is FSaSu I believe. IIRC other flights are on a codeshare not eligible for xonex.

Good point. SYD-NOU is a few more miles as well. So it will really come down to whether there's something in BNE we want to do and whether the BNE-NOU flights work with our overall plans.

True. Or we could save the LHR stop and use it at that point.

And pay the honking great passenger duty extortion.

(deleted - in error)

Ugh, forgot about that.