tfung,
Easiest way to avoid the "Cathay Problem" is to have the ticket issued in your BOS homebase by AA or BA. There is no rule about who must issue the ticket. All of my tickets have been done by AA or BA and NONE have started with these carriers as the first segment. I also look forward to your reply on the answer to the "PPT - no way to get there" issue.
Guy Betsy,
Who issued the ticket above for you?? How did you get them to do LHR - CPT - JNB - LHR???
rich