Nope, wasn't blaming QF (I am a devoted customer, without being an apologist...) Fundamentally, I am curious to know whether the 16 segment rule (regardless of which organisaiton imposes such rules) was introduced purely as a consequence of technical limitations stemming from the phasing out of paper tickets, because the previous posts on this issue by oneworld4U seem a bit inconclusive/unclear to me. Like many who read and enjoy flyertalk fora, I am not an industry insider or expert, so a response in reasonably plain english would be nice. If other posters insist on answering for oneworld4U, then I suppose I can't stop them, but it would be helpful if the focus could remain on the purpose of this particular forum and all of the apparent "baggage" from previous debates could be left out...