So I didn't ask for ORD-DFW-SYD, I requested ORD-DFW and DFW-SYD. But now I have spoken to a supervisor, she explained that because it is 4 hours between when I land in DFW and take off to SYD, the computer automatically married it. I was not aware that this is how it works but, now that I am, I know that if I want to keep things flexible in the future (which I need to do as I change RTW trips at least 3-5 times per trip), I have to book flights which land and take off more than 4 hours apart so they don't get married automatically.

The supervisor told me that she rang Qantas and asked for a "divorce" and the first agent she spoke to said they couldn't do that. So she hung up and rang back and got someone else and asked for the same thing and got it no problems. Problem solved.

Btw, izzik, I didn't use the word blame, you did. I was asking where either AA or myself went wrong so I don't do it again. Thanks to AA, I now know.