Well, not if he told them the truth, but a simple $46 ticket from PVG to HKG would have surely done the trick (whether he used it or not). And then, of course, there's the bullet proof strategy of actually flying to a third country on the return portion of the ticket. Do all of these recent AA deal fares really charge such a premium for a Japan connection so as to erode their value? (I'm just curious because we have seen a lot of TWOV threads of late that wouldn't exist if more people attempted to follow the rules.)