It's a bit late now, so likely moot, but on the off chance the OP hasn't yet flown, one thing to try would be to call overseas AA desks and see if they can book it.

With the added benefit of higher EQDs.

And RTW tickets can have flights in different record locators, right?

I don't think so, other than for additional flights with additional fare, i.e., not included in the RTW fare calculation.

Maybe. If the various flights are on airlines that use a different booking system than the issuing carrier.
The issuing carrier's record locator will show all the flights in the itinerary.
Other record locators will typically only show a sub-set of the flights.
Often you'll want to know these other locators in order to be able to choose seats on those flights.

For example, my last RTW (in 2017/2018) had:

• the issuing carrier's locator (AA was the issuing carrier)
• a separate record locator for the QR, UL, CX, QF, and BA flights
• another one for the sole IB flight, and
• after I did a re-route to include some LA flights, yet another locator for those flights

Also, I'm not sure what this has to do with married segment availability.

Yes, of course. I interpreted UserMark's question to be about combining separate PNRs into one RTW ticket after they had already been booked. As pandaperth said, some airlines set up their own PNRs for the parts of the itinerary that are relevant to them. You can ask the booking/plating carrier for all the PNR codes associated with your itinerary.

If the 2 different flights have the availability by themselves, but not when married, then you can just put them in 2 separate locators. If this is allowed.

I don't think that would work, because

• married segment logic is only used by a single airline controlling access to its own inventory
• all the segments for one airline will be in one record locator
• you, as the passenger do not get to choose which locator a flight goes into (the 'system' does this)
• all segments are entered by the ticketing carrier, and any married segment issues will/should arise during the initial ticketing

I'm a bit out of touch here, but can't a good Travel Agent deal with all of this? In the (distant) past I have had OWEs with many different PNRs.

I don't see how that would work for all the reasons listed by pandaperth especially as both segments are on one airline (in this case AA) as married segments will always be.

You can have multiple segments (or none) in one ticket.

You can have multiple tickets (or none) in one PNR.

A good TA will know how to use these things ...

It's not a question of being allowed or prohibited, it's a matter of how the GDS and airline systems are implemented. An itinerary, such as an RTW, is constructed in one record/PNR/locator. Additional PNRs are often created automatically for other airlines, but these are subsets of the prime PNR, and they are limited-changes PNRs. You can't create multiple PNRs and then combine them into one ticket, there is no mechanism for that.

As mentioned, there are often multiple PNRs for one RTW, but only one is the prime or master PNR. That's the one that contains all flights, and that's the one used to issue the ticket. Additional PNRs are automatically created for operational reasons to allow other airlines to see and manage their own flights (e.g., seat assignments).

Yes, but none of this is a way around married-segment issues. You can't combine separate PNRs and issue one ticket out of all of them. There is no way to do it. You can of course issue multiple tickets out of one PNR, but that does not provide a way around married segments.

OK :)

I don't want to misstate anything. If you only care about booking two flights that can't be booked in the same PNR because of married segment logic, of course you can book each in its own PNR and on its own ticket. But that doesn't help when you want both to be part of an RTW, which I thought was the what was being discussed. If you want, say, an RTW that includes ...LHR-LAX-JFK-MIA-EZE... but you can't book LAX-JFK-MIA as a connection, you could book JFK-MIA in its own PNR and on its own ticket, and have a ground segmentJFK-MIA in the RTW, but then you're paying extra for JFK-MIA.