One a OnewWorld RTW Business Airfare, QANTAS have not been able to explain what they count as a segment/stop/transfer etc.

eg. In the USA I get 6 segments, but QANTAS says if I spend less than 24 hours in one place, it is a transfer, meaning I could bounce around the USA, or in Australia on my way home, and just go to 10 citys in couple of days, earn all these status points???

Also, in my Coutry of Origin, I am leaving from BNE (via SYD) to HKK.

Coming in, I am LON (via Sing) to Syd... Can I then take flights from Syd to ADL, MEL, PER etc, and if I am in any of those places less than 24 hours, can I just do this forever?? What are the restrictions?

A segment is the piece of your journey you can accomplish with one flight coupon. During the "segment" your airplane may stop one or more times. You may even get off and board a different aircraft (although it will continue on using the same flight number). As long as the one coupon got you on that entire journey, it's one segment.

A stopover happens when you stay in a city for 24 hours or longer, or when you make your way from the city in which you arrived on an OWE flight, to a different city from which you'll continue your OWE journey. Stopovers aren't counted except in your continent of origin, where you're only allowed two. In your continent of origin, after those two stopovers (which can be almost a year long, if you care), when you end one segment you must begin the next in less than 24 hours (unless there's simply no flight that soon. Note that "with available seats" isn't in the sentence.)

You cannot bounce all over the place because although stops aren't limited except in country of origin, segments are. As you noted, you get six in North America (which includes Central America).

The OWE fare is further limited to 20 segments total. So the segment limits stop you quite effectively from accumulating unlimited SCs (each segment gets one SC amount, based on mileage from origin to destination). The classic ways to maximize SCs on OWE in US are the seasonal ANC service (june through september) and SJU-LAX. SFO-BOS was good in the old QFF plan as it was 2701 miles (with 2700 miles being the threshold) -- less important after the May 25 QFF changes. In any case it is trivial to make QF Platinum on a DONE4 fare (which is the minimum you can buy from Australia). Just remember your OWE ends when you return to your city of origin.

That is my point... What is a segment? If QANTAS route us to HKK via SYD from BNE, is that 2 segments? If I fly SYD - PER (with a forced 1 hours layover in ADL) is that 2 segments?

Easy answer: one flight number = one segment
two flight numbers - two segments

Using your example of SYD-PER. If you take a direct flight like QF 565, 575, 571, 583, or 577 it is one segment. If you take:
Then it is two segments.

Another example, if you want to go BNE-HKG you can take CX102 which is one segment or BNE-SYD-HKG (QF 509 connecting to QF 127) which is two segments.

So for me, a stopover is irrelevant, since even if I stop at one place for only 2 hours in the airport, that is counted as another segment, if the flight number changes.

Whereas my fiance is flying on an award flight, where there is no limit on segments, but she can only stop 5 times, meaning that a stopover for less than 24 hours doesnt count for her.

Does that make sense?

I spoke to QANTAS today and asked the guy what is stopping me from bouncing around different airports if I only spent 1 hour at each, and he said nothing... its obvious he may have been drinking *g*

Yes, definitely get your information here, the combined wisdom of FT is more reliable than any individual airline employee.

Your own �bouncing around� is strictly limited to 20 segments, so you do need to try and choose long segments if you are trying to maximise miles and SCs. Yes, for purposes of miles and SCs, it is irrelevant whether a segment is terminated by a stopover or a transit.

Yes, award tickets have different rules to revenue tickets.

Stopovers count in your continent of origin - you can only have two in the SWP if you start in the SWP. That means you can't stop for more than 24 hours more than twice in SWP if that is where you start.