I disagree, and do not think this is true at all. The OW airlines are all onboard with the various fare offerings, and adjust the fare or rules when they don't like it -- in fact OW promotes these fares quite a bit. The problem is with the training and resources available to the individual agent, and with the use of outsourced agents (not employess of the airline). When an agent is confronted with a task (issuing a complex ticket and researching the fare rules) but doesn't have the tools for it, the result is not too surprising: they try to palm it off on either the next agent to deal with, or for the client to go away and not come back. I've had this happen dozens of times (it is worse for re-issues!) and I sympathize with the agent. But the problem is not due to a "decision" by an airline to not sell these fares! The trick to solving this problem is to find an agent or their supervisor who is able to work on it and obtains the resources needed. In your case, calling the CX office in the US to set up the reservation and fare would be the simplest solution, they can do all the work and the CX office in JNB just has to issue the ticket. Probably calling CX in HKG would also work, but I think the US office (which is actually in YVR) is more skilled with this and better able to understand English over the phone.