<Is this definitely the case, or a mis-interpretation by one of the call centre agents? Very sad if true.

I still find it bizarre that the rules are such that if you arrive into say JFK, and your destination only gives the option of departing from LGA, or EWR that you have to use a surface segment. > I'm fairly certain that transiting LGA//JFK counts as a surface segment. The two AA RTW reps I spoke with today said that.

The more I think about the new rule re: not being able to transit through the point of origin, the more problematic (or at least annoying) it seems. This was the beginning of my planned routing: JFK-EZE//GRU-SCL-IPC-SCL-xJFK-HKG-BKK ... However, that is no longer permitted; instead I'd have to connect to Asia through, say, LAX. That's a pain, because I was going to try and force a 6-8 hr transit (without stopover) to drop off some stuff at home.

Here's a different question: If I want to terminate in the U.S. somewhere other than NY (which would require me to re-enter the U.S. at the end of my trip through a gateway OTHER THAN NY, because of the new rule), do I have to allow enough surface segments to get me back to my origination point (i.e., via surface)? To put it differently, let's say I reenter the U.S. at the end of the trip in BOS (coming from Europe), and then fly to SFO. If the last leg to SFO is my 20th segment (including all surface and flown segments to-date), does that work, or do I need to allow for a final surface segment to get back to my origin at JFK (i.e., would my final flown BOS-SFO flight have to be my 19th segment, rather than my 20th, if I'm going to end the trip in SFO)? The rules say that "origin-destination surface segments are permitted" for trips originating in the U.S., but I'm not clear whether that "origin-destination surface segment[]" counts against my 20. Thanks...(hope this question isn't too muddied).

Thanks also to Viajero and Gardyloo for clarifying the source of the Star File.