Originally Posted by
anabolism
H.A MINIMUM OF 3 AND MAXIMUM OF 16 SEGMENTS
INCLUDING SURFACE SEGMENTS BETWEEN ANY 2
AIRPORTS ARE PERMITTED FOR THE ENTIRE
JOURNEY.
Originally Posted by
jerry a. laska
I'm having trouble understanding exactly what your issue is? A surface segment necessarily will exist between two airports, as in, the traveller will make their way between the two airports by some other method than flying by virtue of the xonex ticket. This "surface" segment counts as one of the 16 segments. In any event, my recollection is that this language has been like this for some time, and was inserted when oneworld clarified that coterminals no longer qualified (as in a transfer from NRT to HND was now a segment as opposed to quite some years ago when that was not a segment). This section is also worded this way via the link on one world.com:
Indeed, I just did a quick check and the "2 airports" language has been there since before 2014 (I'm not going to spend any more time searching).
I don't know when the language was added, but IMO it is confusing on its face because it is poorly written. 16 segments between any two airports, when taken literally as it is written, means that you identify two airports and you are permitted to fly between them up to 16 times.