These are not connections as they are separate tickets and you will confuse yourself, air carriers and anybody else if you use the term.
OW got rid of the protection benefit years ago.
The only protections out there are:
1. AA-AA or AA-OW (you don't have that).
2. OW tickets booked into the same PNR (I don't believe that you can book the redemption and cash tickets into one ticket).