Originally Posted by
serfty
You may have got lucky.
However that very rule you quote has the phrase, "origin-destination surface segments". This signifies this should be considered as part of the route and treated as mentioned in Clause I.
If the booking entity does not do this, then more power to the traveller!
You may well be right but I wouldn't agree that saying that travel must terminate at the same point and then saying that origin-destination surface segments are permitted means that that surface segment at the end must be counted in the mileage. It's not a surface segment "between intermediate points". By definition, a segment between the ending point and the starting point is not an "intermediate segment" if not returning to the starting point is permitted.
You may be right that we got lucky, but we've done these several times with AA without issue.