Hi experts! I need your help...again.

I'd like to make a change to my husband's DONE4. Currently he has san-phx-den-phx-san. I don't think that is good use of this ticket, as we can fly SAN to DEN inexpensively. So, we are considering the Caribbean. The issue I am running into is the transcon rule (rule K). We use our Transcon for SAN to JFK. In order to get to the Caribbean (open to locations) from SAN, we would have to connect in one of the major airports on the East Coast. I am considering starting at DFW. There are no direct flights from DFW, so it would use all four segments available. If I did that, wouldn't the surface segments (SAN-DFW-SAN) put him over the 16 total segments?

ex-mpm-doh-sin-hkg-nrt-san-jfk-tus-san-phx-den-phx-san-lhr-cdg-doh-sez

Any creative ideas to pull this off?

As always, I appreciate your help!