I've run into an issue booking an explorer award for my parents and was wondering if I could get some advice from the experts on FT. In particular, I had a disagreement with the (EXP) AAgent about how many times an explorer award can touch a particular city. My understanding is that my parents can connect in a city twice AND have a stopover. The AAgent thinks that they can touch a city twice regardless of whether they have a stopover. I couldn't find the official AA rules so I was hoping I could get a reading on what you all think. The itinerary I want to book for my parents is:

JFK -- DOH (stop) -- Bom (stop) -- Doh (connection) -- IST (stop) -- DOH (connection of about 20 hours) -- TXL (stop) -- JFK. (All legs are on QR except TXL--JFK which is on AB).

The aagent had no trouble pricing this at 130k miles in business. She was concerned that the proposed itinerary doesn't have any flights on AA but eventually confirmed that this itinerary is valid except for the issue of how many times it goes through DOH.

Not wanting to lose availability, I took her suggestion and booked

JFK -- LHR (connection) -- Bom (stop) -- Doh (connection) -- IST (stop) -- DOH (connection of about 20 hours) -- TXL (stop) -- JFK.

But this requires paying BA YQ and potentially the APD. The total taxes quoted for this itinerary were ~$750, which are a bit higher than I'd like.

What say you all? Is there any chance I can call back and have an Aagent substitute JFK-DOH (stop) -- Bom for JFK--LHR (connection) -- BOM?

If I let the hold expire, is there a chance I can get another aagent to book my desired routing?

Thanks for the help!