I'm long-time lurker coming out of the closet...

I am trying to understand whether what follows is considered back-to-back ticketing. I am based in ORD and in June have a business trip planned to JNB. This September-October, I would like to do a DONE4 and can stop in JNB as part of that trip. Can I purchase a round-trip ORD-JNB-ORD ticket, leaving in June and returning in October; and nestle inside that a DONE4, that would include at least one stop back in ORD? Or is this considered back-to-back ticketing?

In other words, the complete itinerary would look like:
ORD-LHR-JNB-LHR-ORD-....-SYD-JNB-LHR-ORD,
where ... indicates a few flights in North America. The first two flights and last two flights would be booked as a round-trip paid by my employer on AA/BA. The remaining flights would be the DONE4.

Given that the definition of an illegal ticket seems so vague, at least on aa.com, I'd like some assurance that this will not raise any red flags with AA or Oneworld.

Thanks, and thanks for all the helpful advice I've read over the years.
-R

Welcome to Flyer Talk underwater

That is no problem at all.

Welcome!

Lots of people on this board (including me) are doing this all the time (often having multiple RTWs open at the same time). Never a problem.

Thanks underwater for raising the question, which I had in mind; and thanks to Kiwi Flyer and Unterwegs for clarifying

Resurrecting this thread to confirm something:

I'm booking a DONE4 that's essentially ORD-LHR-PVG-SYD-ORD on AA/CX/QF.

OK to add in a separate roundtrip ticket on AA LHR-ORD-LHR between LHR-PVG?

So it'd be ORD-LHR-[LHR-ORD-LHR]-PVG-SYD-ORD. Doesn't seem to be illegal... correct?

No worries.