Another thing to consider, that I think the OP was getting at:
Direct flights - where AAA-BBB and BBB-CCC are both on the same airplane, thus eliminating the need to deboard and find the next flight, also eliminating the MCT.
How would they find those?
A concern I would have with this plan is whether a direct flight counts as one segment or two? I expect some, but not all, flights which involve the same plane from A to B and B to C would also have the same flight number. With some airline programs, one only gets the direct mileage from A to C, not the mileage from A to B and B to C, when AB and BC are the same flight number. Would this also apply to segments?