I tried to find whether this has been covered before, but I don't think it has.

It concerns a number of AA/US flights that are direct from outside US to somewhere in the US via an international entry point.

I've tried to see if it will validate with the flights onboard with the RTW tool, but unfortunately the RTW tool finds these segments, but won't find others in my itinerary, so I can't build the itinerary online.

I'll give an example: AA69. It's MAD-MIA-SFO, but there's an aircraft change and there is a change of configuration as well

AA 69 0 MAD-MIA
J7 R7 D7 I7 Y7 B7 H7 K7 M7 L7 V7 G7 S7 N7 Q7 O7 (so Business/Economy configuration on a 777-200)

AA 69 MIA-SFO
F3 A2 P2 Y7 B7 H7 K7 M7 L7 W7 V7 G7 S7 N7 Q0 O0 (so First/Economy configuration on a 737-800)

When you book it using the online tool, it allows MAD-SFO on AA69 with Booking Class D for the the entire journey although there is no Business on the MIA-SFO run.

If I try booking the same in reverse (AA 68 SFO-MIA-MAD), the online tool books it, but insists that the flight be booked into L because "there is no Business Class available".

Since I'm having problems with this itinerary, I want to just call AA. But will AA regard AA69 as one international sector with one flight number on the same day or will they insist that it's two sectors and therefore has to be booked with an intercontinental segment and then a domestic segment too?

Or is this something that falls between the rules?