Hello everyone! I'm trying to figure out a few things in the rules for a LONE5 ticket exAKL. First, do land segments count against your total of 20 and your limit within a continent? This would make no sense, and I've seen a few routings posted which wouldn't seem to be valid if this were the case, but AA's own Trip Planner keeps giving me an error message saying I'm over my segment limit. That, and the rules have some gibberish in them about land segments still counting toward your total number of continents, whatever that means. What is the reality here?

Also, I'm a US citizen but the fares from NZ seem good enough to fly halfway around the world to start my RTW trip. (And I just can't wait until the end to get to NZ!!) But I noticed that American has something in the rules that seems to mark up the ticket to a higher price if paid for in the US, the currency conversion fare check, or something like that... do I need to pay for the ticket after I arrive in NZ, or buy the ticket through a NZ travel agency to get the NZ price. Anybody know?

I apologize if these questions have been answered before... I've read quite a bit here, but haven't seen these addressed directly. Thanks so much for your assistance...

1. surface segments do not count on OWE fares
2. trans-ocean surface is prohibited except for ex-Australia/NZ (not that you would want to do trans-ocean surface, but this rule allows including AKL/PPT-SCL on a OWE ticket)
3. buying from a TA in NZ is easiest, or you can get it issued by QF in AKL. It cannot be issued by AA in the US (if you do that, it prices at the ex-US price), however you can have the ticket set up by the AA RTW desk. I don't think AA has an office in NZ (they do in SYD).

[pedantic mode]
My understanding is that all trans-oceanic surface is prohibited - AKL/PPT-SCL is permitted because PPT is still in the (OneWorld) South-West Pacific region, so AKL/PPT is an intra-continent surface sector, and the PPT-SCL (or even PPT-IPC) is the trans-ocean segment.
[/pedantic mode]

At least that's how it was a couple of years ago - I'm ready to be corrected.

New rule (it reads like double dutch to me):

Edited to show the old rule.

Thanks for your help...one more quick question... how much should I expect taxes and fuel surcharges to raise the ticket price?

I agree with Viajero that the new rule looks nonsensical. But if you add a period (full stop), then the rule might mean that trans-oceanic surface sectors are permitted for ex-SWP OWEs as long as the surface sector is wholly within the Asia-SWP Area (added period shown in red):
(Even if this is correct, the wording of the rule is still preposterous.)

CX's published version of the rule (as uploaded here: http://www.christen.demon.co.uk/CXRule/ ) is:

That varies a lot by routing, but USD 500 to 1000 is typical these days (with fuel surcharge being the dominant cost).

AA does have an office in AKL - it is in the same place as QF! With the lack of advance purchase requirement, you could in theory buy the ticket on arrival. However it may be difficult to get into the country (unless on NZ or Oz passport) since immigration will want to have evidence of planned departure.

That is a firm requirement, and the ticket will have to be issued prior to arrival in NZ, and the ticket number with the pax to be produced at check-in (most airlines will refuse carriage without proof of onward transportation) as well as at immigration in AKL. Goes smoothly as long as you have the ticket number.