JonNYC

They've been posted many times here and on Travelingbetter and then from both of those sources have shown up in various wikis and blogs, etc.

Even all these years later, **some** of the info in my regional FT thread on 3rd region connections is still accurate:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-archived.html

But as I mentioned it's showed up many places since, with revisions in some cases. But, again, 3rd region connections have barely changed at all since then (Addition of QR-QR connections and a few other changes.)

Here's a TB thread with latest info:
http://www.travelingbetter.com/showthread.php?t=5804

And here are the allowable 3rd region connections:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/541310...n/photostream/

That said, the issue of the direct flight/one flight # you bring up is not as clearly discerned as disallowed anywhere in these various places.

And, in fact, does -not- trigger 2 awards in some other examples. As an example, N.America-> S.Pacifc does not have an exception for connection in middle east listed in the table. Yet, you can in fact do that on the direct flight QF10 for example which flies LHR-DXB-MEL, as a single AAdv award.

And THAT having been said, I don't, off-hand- recall anyone reporting successful connection in LIM on way to deep S.America from N.America regardless of the single flight LAN flight #.