One of the issues I've heard mentioned on a number of sites regarding OneWorld and QANTAS Classic awards relates to missed flights and cancellations.
Specifically, I've heard that if you have, say, a five leg around the world trip planned, and you miss the second or third leg of your flight for some reason, that all other legs are cancelled and you lose the points as well. is this correct? If so, have there been cases where people have got around this?
We're planning a full 5-stop trip to the USA and Canada next year using QF/AA/CX (or JL) and wouldn't like to find myself stranded and dipping into my pocket to get home should this go wrong. Knowing the rules (which I can't seem to find in any official sense) would help.
As a supplementary question, what happens in situations like this when the carrier cancels the flight? Do I lose these remaining flight legs as well?