There's nothing new about this. As of last year you couldn't get a phone agent to book it. It can however be done online and looking at a random couple of dates it does still work at 80k in J for LAX-SYD via PVG, ICN, or Guangzhou. Again can only be done online for some reason. I've talk with international ticketing who's talked with RM and they agree should be able to get 80k J for LAX-SYD via China or Seoul, but for some reason they can't get it to price correctly using the agents phone system. They tell me to book it online. It's the only time I know that online can book something a phone agent can't. They even tried a wholly MU operated booking LAX-PVG-SYD which is a valid route on MU and thus should book and they still can't get it to work.