My coach has three controllable heating and cooling zones, plus a fourth zone (the basement) that is not readily controllable. On my coach zone 1 is the living room, zone 2 is the bathroom and zone 3 is the bedroom. There are two 5-button thermostats, one in the living room for the living room, and one in the bedroom selectable for the zone 2 (bathroom) and zone 3 (bedroom). Zones 2 and 3 have their own a/c - heat pump, and heating furnace.. The bottom button on the bedroom thermostat is switchable between zones 2 and 3. The thermostats operate all devices for heating and cooling, except the squirrel cage fan speed for the furnace heating devices located near the floor in all three zones, not to be confused with the overhead fans associated with the a/c-heat pumps. The thermostats control the a/c - heat pumps and their overhead fan speeds, and the furnace, but will allow only one function to operate at any one time - those being either a/c, heat pumps xor furnace. That is, if one function is turned on, then the other two functions are automatically off.
When the bedroom thermostat is set to zone 2, for example, I have control of the bathroom a/c-heat pump and the bathroom heating furnace. When it is selected to zone 3, then I have control of the bedroom a/c - heat pump and the bedroom heating furnace. Also, the a/cs blow into a common duct that goes from just behind the pilot/co-pilot's seats all the way back to almost the bedroom wardroom closet. All three a/cs - heat pumps will push cooled or heated air, respectively, to all three zones. But most air exits the common duct near the operating device. At night in hot weather and if I want cooling without the noise in the bedroom, then I turn on the living room xor bathroom a/cs and leave the pocket doors open. Much of the cooled air makes its way to the bedroom via the common duct.
In summary, I have three zones, each with its own devices, and each zone is selectable from one of two thermostats. I find it a very simple system to operate. If you want heat and it's above 35F or so, then turn on the heat pumps, one or two or three of them. If you want heat and it's below 35F or so, then turn on the furnace heating, either one zone or two zones or three zones. If you want cooling, then turn on the air conditioning, either one, two or all three air conditioners. Very simple.
The only issue I have had to deal with is if all three a/cs are on, then two of them are pulling power from a common leg. If the microwave aor the electric water heating element aor the insta-hot are on, then that heavily used leg will exceed 50 amps of power draw.
"xor" means exclusive/or. "aor" means inclusive/exclusive or.