Originally Posted by
ethernal
All of those would be cabotage if there are no US carriers on those legs and the stay is short enough that it is a defacto connection or could be perceived as such.
Unfortunately these stupid laws mean that entirely legitimate trips could in theory be blocked. For example, take a business trip from LA and then returning to SFO the next day on a separate ticket within 24 hours after a critical quick meeting in Seoul (they were separate tickets because for some odd reason - in the eyes of the purchaser - KE wouldn't let him book the itinerary as a single ticket)... Oops, theoretically you "could" be denied boarding because it may be cabotage, despite the ridiculousness of someone trying to transit to SFO from LAX via ICN.
LAX-ICN-SFO is fine, that's a regular open jaw and doesn't compete with LAX-SFO (who wants to fly 15 extra hours, other to mileage run
AC though would come closer to cabotage
if you try to book USA-canada-USA on air canada, you see a warning. AC wants 6hours/overnight to break cabotage
Important: your selected itinerary originates in one U.S. city and ends in another U.S. city. This type of itinerary is only valid if you are planning a stop in a Canadian city (e.g. for business, tourism or personal visits).
Please note that your itinerary may be invalid and travel will be denied if the Canadian city in your itinerary is used solely as an onward connection.
If you have more questions, ask DOT? This person's lawyer did, and DOT mentions that ~5 days stay Will unlikely institute an investigate for cabotage under various scenarios
https://www.transportation.gov/sites...
https://www.transportation.gov/sites...2002-10-28.pdf
In this document, DOT mentions that transportation between two us points is illegal regardless of duration of stopover,though they are not likely to pursue except in straight forward cases (transportation was continuous or short stopovers that are incident or doesn't break the continuity of the trip)