I'm just trying to fine tune my understanding of an OW award issued through AA. I've already read the other threads here and completed one trip, so I'm reasonably knowledgeable wrt stopovers, restrictions on changes etc.

1) I believe that all travel has to be completed within 1 year. Is this 1 year from the date the ticket is issued or the date of the first flight? If it's the former are there any tips on how to get around this where it's a high mileage award and tight availability on the first leg requires it to be booked well in advance.

2) Does a flight segment have to be marketed separately to be available for use e.g. could I fly GRU-GIG on AA951,LA750 or BA247 even though these legs cannot be purchased separately. This contrasts with the BA247 leg that continues onto EZE which can be purchased as a separate leg.

3) If this is the case would such a flight be counted as one of your transits e.g. flying AA951 JFK-(GRU)-GIG you only earn the 4786 miles from JFK-GIG. Does this mean it's classified as a direct JFK-GIG flight for OW award purposes with no transit through GRU?

4) From conversations with an AAgent when planning my other award I believe the following is true e.g.

- I've already had a stopover in GIG and utilised 2 transits through GRU.
- I can subsequently stopover in GRU, have an open jaw segement to GIG (assuming I'm starting and finishing in the same airport) and depart from GIG.
- The second departure from GIG does not constitute a second stopover there.

Does this correlate with other posters' understanding/experience of the rule? Does this departure from GIG constitute a transit thru GIG?

Finally, one word of warning. On the last segment of my previous award (LHR-SNN) there were no spaces in J. The EXP desk assured me I was waitlisted for J but the ticket was issued in Y (fare code T). EI stuck rigidly to the code on the ticket and refused to put me in J. No biggie as it's only an hour long flight but worth bearing in mind for longer segments.