Trying to use points

[esseeeayeenn]

There are up and down sides to this.

Separate trips can incur much higher costs in terms of the award price as it may not take advantage of the through fare. And if cancelling your whole trip you’d be up for cancellation fees on each sector rather than only once.

To be fair I don't think they were suggesting booking every single sector separately.
This was in the context of my suggestion to book two one way fares instead of one return fare.
Your concerns don't arise with that scenario.

The other relevant situation is where there are fairly normal routings which are offered for cash but may not be offered for points.
I think SYD-SIN- LHR-MAD and SYD-SIN-HEL-MAD probably fall into that bucket.

However I agree that I wouldn't want to book, for example, SYD-SIN, SIN-LHR & LHR-MAD all separately, unless I were actually stopping for a while in SIN at least..

 

[elanshin]

Just for your info, there is absolutely no advantage in booking a return fare with points.
Unlike cash fares, booking it as two separate trips will cost no more.
It's much simpler, and it makes it easier to find multi-sector bookings.

Slightly offT and I don't want to confuse the OP, but there is a difference and there are flights that won't show if you're not as a return but that's much more advanced and probably not needed for the OP. (See SYD-HND-SYD with JL F).