It's not really a flight - Such a connection indeed applies against the ticket total 16 segment limit.

It does not, however, count against the continental limit (being the Maximum of 6 NA segments in this case).

LGA//JFK counts as one (surface) sector

It is a limitation of electronic ticketing, the sectors need to be contiguous so a surface sector needs to join two unconnected airports; but there can only be at most sixteen sectors in a ticket booklet

The other biggies are NRT/HND and LHR/LGW. With more flights moving to HND, that one is getting tricky.

The oneworld explorer ticket FAQs
 

NRT-HND connections are fine for the lower flight limit tickets (eg xASnn), but would use up a sector on an xONEx.

is there any information about how to lower YQ from USA to Europe?
AA US Finair BA IB are in a joint venture and it isnt cheap. AB is also in 4xx.

when i try to price DFW DOH MUC on QR using ITA, it gives YQ or less than 200. but YQ for DFW DOH is more

Choose a ticketing carrier that has no idea what they're doing?

UL might be a good bet.

i was reading some old posts about AA ticketed DONE. it is said that aa only charges yq on its own metal, is it still true?

In my experience AA will pass through YQ on BA metal; for example ticketing an xONEx out of South Africa, AA will add the fuel fine to an initial BA-operated segment such as CPT-LHR even if it's booked using an AA code. I assume it has to do with the AA/BA/IB joint venture agreement.

Where AA differs on YQ is that they don't charge it for other segments operated by non-BA carriers, whereas BA does if it can. Note this is extremely difficult to document because of the cone of silence imposed by the AA (and BA) rates people. Even the AA RTW desk agents can't (and/or won't) reveal a detailed accounting of the construction of YQ/YR amounts on the ticket. They're neither published fares nor are they taxes that would require disclosure, so instead they're treated as a black box from which numbers are pulled.

basically, the price online is the highest because it applies all YQ?
interesting to know. i have priced my ticket online and by ita, i have sent it to cx to price, will see how they do the yq..

How did you price on ITA? I did not think it could support RTW fares.

Have to disagree with you on this one, I have AA stating in writing that they collected AY surcharges on an intra-europe leg. I think maybe because they are part of TATL JV.

In addition, on my ex-JNB DONE4, AA was clearly collecting YQ on QR JNB-DOH, because I kept switching between BA JNB-LHR and the QR segment, and the price differences equated to the delta between BA and QR revenue YQs. The same thing shows when selecting different options between JFK-HKG and NRT, AA added its YQ on CX and JL segments.

I actually think now, I am not any better off going with AA when I consider the service of the RTW desk plus the Tariffs desk. Mindpearl remains a plus for as long as they exist and are not downgraded like the rest of the AA ops since USAirways took over.

Whilst we are on the subject of fool surcharges, does anyone know if the RTW booking engine adds all surcharges in its pricing?

I'm not doubting you but am curious how you managed to get a detailed accounting of which segments AA was adding YQ to, and how much. Transparency is not one of Oneworld's strong suits.

for the online quote, my sectors are ba short haul with no yq, aa short haul with no yq cx has a fix yq per sector, anf 2 sectors on qr (connection) that i check on ita and 2 sectors on jl with yq that i can check on ita, they pretty much match up the charges on the sample that i got online.

i price point by point... and add them up.