<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JohnAx:
My understanding of rtw's (OWE in particular) is that you've been "charged" with using the segment whether you flew it or used surface transportation (open jaw). You cannot simply "pop up" in a different city to continue your journey. Of course it costs nothing to try.</font>
Our experience is that we aren't charged for the open jaw. We frequently switch between flying into and out of SAN and LAX, depending on which minimizes our flight segment useage.
In January, we did not use an LAX-SAN segment we had booked. AA reissued the ticket and gave us the other segment for domestic travel. It confused the agents, both on the phone and at the counter, but they eventually agreed that the segment was unused and available for a different routing.