Busman, IMO when OW sells a RTW product bookable in L class only and then OW carriers (e.g. QF) have restricted availability in L, I think it is somewhat (or a lot) deceptive on the part of the airlines.

Just curious, did you HAVE to go to HNL? If not, you could have paid a $125 change penalty and re-routed your ticket to SYD-LAX for instance.

I think you just ran into bad luck when you called AA in Oz and reached someone who could not be bothered to help since you were trying to book a QF flight. Also, remember that the quality of airline staff (particularly ticketing staff) has been steadily declining throughout the world - most agents are fairly clueless and can only add 2+2 to get 4, but not 3+1!

Besides, many airline staff are given incentives on how much additional revenue they collect (e.g. if your baggage is 1lb over the limit, you will be dinged), so they are sometimes keen to extract more money from the passenger than absolutely necessary.

Finally, I will add that I had visited the MEL QF travel centre (on Collins St, if I am not mistaken) last year and also remember that the agent handling my booking was neither competent nor friendly, which is somewhat of an exception Downunder.