I'm trying to book a DGLOB34 at the moment and am pulling hair out over the definition of a stopover BA's fares team seem to be using.

The itinerary is OSL-HEL-LHR // LHR-DOH-SIN // SIN-SYD-ZQN // AKL-SYD-HNL // HNL-LAX-JFK-LHR // LHR-HEL-OSL where // indicates a stopover over 24h.

I have 14 segments including overland in New Zealand. I have 30,633 miles according to GC Mapper. I know the fare rules permit 2 stopovers in your starting zone, TC2 in this case, and the LHR stopovers account for this. Transfers in Helsinki are under 24h.

BA are saying that a 3h transfer in DOH counts as a stopover, so breaks the 2 stopovers in your starting zone rule, so are blocking this booking and insisting on a direct LHR-SIN routing. This has a net cost of 120 BA tier points, which is frustrating, and will likely mean flying a BA 777 instead of QSuite, as I'm assuming they won't allow QF2 on the QF A380, which is also frustrating.

Does anyone have experience of this? The HEL transfers have longer layovers than the DOH one, so I'm very lost.

Remarkably, I've been told by BA they use the OneWorld website to validate routings for RTW fares, which may be the issue. I suspect the solution is to book with QF or AA, but on previous RTW bookings the BA Newcastle team were superb and as a UK-based BAEC member I have a preference for booking with BA.