Originally Posted by PHLGovFlyer

About a month ago I booked something similar (OSL-DOH-SEZ-DOH-AKL-SYD-(AKL)-JFK-GRU-MIA-PHL-EYW-PHL-DFW-SFO-JFK-DOH-OSL) starting this March (many thanks to the FT folks that offered advice...). I booked it through the AA RTW desk, and also had the objective of maximizing earnings on AA. I originally tried to include a stop at HND, but it didn't work out due to extremely limited availability of RTW D on JL flights. IME you can see a ton of JL D availability on EF, but the AA desk can almost never access it as part of a RTW ticket.

This. For maximizing AA earnings on longhaul QR, QF, and JL metal it's almost always better to use their Prime flight numbers versus an AA codeshare flight number. I was able to take advantage of the single segment SYD-AKL-JFK flight on QF, but availability was scarce. Prepare to be flexible with dates...

Originally Posted by MoodLighting

I'll defer to some of the experts here though I believe this may have something to do with married segment logic. I've found availability changes for the better where there's a stopover, rather than transit. But you're right, JL does constrain its D class availability.

Originally Posted by PHLGovFlyer

I tried to get SYD-HND-JFK on JL using several combinations of different dates, stopovers at HND, and transits at HND. Granted it was mid-November and I was looking at late March, so RTW D inventory may have been long gone. I was able to get SYD-HND on JL for a few dates over the latter half of March, but HND-JFK on JL was a no go for that entire timeframe. Plenty of availability on AA metal though.

I was also unable to get AKL-JFK on QF on any of the dates I wanted, but was able to get SYD-AKL-JFK on QF on some of those dates. The airlines definitely play some games with their RTW inventory.