It worked. I booked a bare bones itinerary covering the 4 continents I needed using the online tool. Made sure that the first couple of segments (initial trip outside the continent - EUR) was set in stone. The rest not so much.

Then I went through the online booking process (providing my cc details etc) and a couple of hours later - voila - an e-ticket has been issued at ex-AMM prices by AA. So next I called up AA RTW and made all my changes - back to the original itinerary which I wanted to book. Got EXACTLY what I wanted - no idea why the online tool wouldn't let me do it.

Had to pay the change fee + extra taxes but still worked out.... Oh well - interesting lesson here.

And to Moomba - I've done a few RTWs now most of which I've taken advantage of ending in a different country than I start in. And NO it definitely doesn't count as a segment for the 16. I've always hit the max (20 and now 16) without that segment.

Skipaway - thanks for the suggestion but as tt7 pointed out it was about the ticketing not booking. If AA RTW (based in US) does the ticketing I'll get ex-USA prices the whole point was to not pay the $10k+ price.

Thanks everyone for your help and input - I'm sure it would have worked out better if I had done it through a TA or something but eh - all in all still got a great deal RTW DONE4 <$8k. Nothing like the ex-ICN deal of old but....