it's all perfectly legal. i checked the rules. appearantly you guys are mislead by the 4 sector rule.

Here is what it says on the oneworld website:

Flights and stopovers
You are allowed to taketwo stopovers in total within your continent of origin in order to get to or from a gateway to commence or return from your international travel.
After departing from your continent of origin, you are allowed to take up tofour flights to explore each of the other continents (six flights in North America).
You can book up totwo additional flights per continent, at a set rate.

http://www.oneworld.com/products/det...fm?ObjectID=21