back to back - etc.
My travel agent has in the past proposed back to back's - they get our corporate business based on what they save us !!!! So their creative thinking is the order of the day.
They have also, at times, refused to sell me back to back's and have told me to use 2 seperate travel agents - as that way they have no responsibility and it is purely "my liability and risk". They won't give me that in writing, as you can imagine.
The trick that I have used on back to backs, after an airline did make some loud noises and cancelled my bookings (but refunded the unused) is so simple that it isn't illegal. Use 2 different airlines. There are usually 2, sometimes more, on most routes and there is nothing either of them can do to you, because you are not breaking your agreement with either one of them as long as you finish one ticket before your buy its replacement.
Funny my travel agent does'nt even have a problem with that any more he offers it as a service to us now.
Try this for size
On the magnetic coupon tickets - flying out of sequence after sector 1......... so far no problems and on the paperwork I can't find where it says that this is illegal - on handwritten tickets it was there in the fine print above ....
Smart cities
As you mention Alpha Leader, BKK is cheaper - way cheaper. Didn't realise that Taipei could also get close - thanks! Shame the direct Macau to Brussels is no longer ....
Going to Europe from HK very often - I always buy my ticket in either BKK or in Europe. When buying in Europe I always try to use either the local carriers promotional fare (which can legally be limited to 'local residents' as opposed to a nationality - close to the old cabotage fares that existed between a country and its colonies) or use a 'foreign' airline - as most dump on their neighbours (AF or LH in Switzerland - KL in Germany or Belgium - etc.).
Cheapest place in Europe, by far, used to be Athens (well Greece), not sure how this has changed with the Euro, but it used to provide 3 or 4 short holidays a year when I lived in Europe, happily paid for by my employer as he was saving close to 50% compared with tickets bought elsewhere !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally for all you Flyoholics
If you need to go lots of places and your fare is similar to a LHR-TYO or a HKG-East Coast - it is always cheaper to get a RTW fare (Round The World) - Most groupings do it - I personally find the Star Alliance the most useful as they fly to so many places with so many partners (shame about Ansett)
So for less than a HKG - GSO return, which was just one of the destinations needed - I used the HKG-BKK leg of a return to Europe (the rest is still open) and got an RTW starting in BKK at 70% of the HKG-GSO fare - but it went on to Sao Paulo, LHR, Germany, Switzerland, SIN, SYD, SIN (with no stopover), HKG, BKK. Total saving - free vacation in Europe for me and a HKG-Sao-Paulo return and an HKG-Australia - total cost paid by this routing around a third of the alternative 3 tickets ! Oh yes and by buying a SIN-HGK-SIN, I managed to get back to the office for a few days before going to Aussie.
Rules are - you can pass through a point as often as needed, but only stop-over once. (A stopover is more than 23h and 59 minutes unless it is longer to the Star Alliances next flight.... You must go over Pacific and Atlantic in the same direction and you start and finish at the same place, which can not be a stopover (possibly also not a connecting pass-thru - but the experts differ there). Re-routing when underway is usually a no-go or a very expensive option but nothing prohibits you having multiple open segments on multiple RTW's at the same time ! Now there is a though to please many a traveller.
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Plan and thou shalt succeed !