Originally Posted by sxpsxpsxp
...It is my understanding that awards on this route are virtually impossible to come by...
For someone without QF status, yes, it is very hard.
Are the D seats easy to come by on this route?
In general terms, yes. If you give me a date range I can look it up for you.
Should I instead look at using the Asia tarnsit without stopover rule for my DONE4 (I'm coming back to Asia later) and go via NRT or HKG...
I think you will find some OW airlines, including AA, will not allow this routing under the 'transit without stopover' rule (search this forum for recent posts on this topic).