That's a lot of flying JohnM. How long did it take to figure out that routing and find the available flights?
It obviously takes a bit of organising, but it's not hard. Fun, really! I do a DONEx every year (this will be the 15th in succession) and I build that around things I want to do (and vice-versa - eg. last year I made sure I built in QF10 LHR-MEL to try out the direct service). The OW RTW planning tool makes it easy to work up the DONEx itinerary, while other tools like Rome2Rio are good for seeing positioning options in the one place.
This year, I wanted to do a 5 Stans tour and a voyage in the Russian far east to the Arctic Ocean, so they were core things to work around. After working out timing and routing for those, it was a matter of looking at other things to fit in to a routing that made the most of the DONEx (where x=4 in this case), picking well-timed long-hauls on good birds and airlines (eg. avoid BA and AA long-haul!), adding el-cheapos where necessary to position for activities where using a sector of the DONE4 would either not work or be a waste (eg. whY-only short flights) and picking flights/airlines/aircraft types that I want to try (eg. more Qsuites and A350s please!
).
So I just join things like beads on a string. I have an endless list of places that I'd like to visit, so if some place works, I just look for things to do there. This year, a brief visit to some friends in the US, followed by Mexico and Cuba, then up to Alaska and over to Anadyr by charter on a local operator to join the voyage, back down to LAX to ride (again) the Qsuited B777 on the nice long perfect afternoon departure to DOH, a bit of playing around for a few days by detouring up to Finland before getting to DEL the long way to try out some AY and JL hospitality and aircraft.
Separate flights to and from DEL to do the 5 Stans, followed by a bit of whY flitting around India (Mumbai, Ajanta temples, Ellora caves, Hill Country, Goa) before picking up the DONE4 again DEL-CMB for a couple of weeks in Sri Lanka, then home via HKG.
The DONE4 cost less than it would to fly J QF9/10 return PER-LHR, it comfortably keeps me WP and brings in about 100K points plus offers great choices of airlines and birds. A no-brainer IMO! Obviously one has to have the time. In the beginning my DONExs were 6 weeks; I'm stretching them out a bit now as I'm running out of time on life's steepening slippery slope downhill
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