I just talked to the AA RTW desk and was told that they had some rule changes last week.

Here is a summary of the 'new' rules:

1. OK to visit 3 cities per continent using no more than 4 flight segments. Intercontinental flight segments do not count. A flight segment seems to be any flight number. So a Perth-Sydney-Auckland flight with the same flight number would be one segment but if the flight number changes in SYD then it is two segments, even if no stopover is made.

2. OK to fly through a third continent on your way between two continents. This is the only time you would be allowed through an already visited continent a second time. Stopovers are not allowed in the third continent. Example: You've already been to Asia and want to go from Australia to Europe. It is OK to make a connection in HKG but you cannot stop in HKG.

3. No limits on number of times you can go through a city.

4. Only 1 city that is not international arrival or departure city in home continent.