The short answer is 'Yes, but at an additional cost'

See rule 4H

You have 5 flight segments in the South West Pacific. You are allowed 4 free flight segments per continent, and can purchase up to two additional flight segments percontinent at the rates shown in the rules.

Since your 5th segment is MEL-SYD, and the cost of purchasing an additional economy segment is USD150 (USD400 for business) - it will be far cheaper for you to not buy this, and instead make you own way MEL-SYD on a separate ticket.

___________
An 'off the wall' idea if you are serious about maximising miles:
Shell out an extra ZAR4,500 and purchase the 4-continent circle trip; start it with CPT-LHR-MEL... :D

I very much appreciate all the feed back in here.

I just spoke to QF.

CPT-JNB-HKG-SIN-SYD-MEL-BNE-MEL-SYD-JNB is R47500.00 (give or take a bit) which includes all the fee's, taxes, surcharges etc.

JNB-SYD-MEL-SYD-JNB is R48003.00

So there is the answer.

Might be worth checking the LH Z class fare (Business). Not sure how it stacks up with a JNB origin though.

I recently did one SYD-SFO-FRA-JNB-SYD and it came in around AUD$6500 all up. Got me a stop over in each of these cities. My real target was JNB and it was a great way to top up my QF and UA points whilst coming in under anything OW could offer ;)

Those kind of fares are only available ex-Oz and NZ by virtue of being roughly halfway around the world from Europe and high levels of competition. Ex-JNB the circumstances are very different.

I didn't think it was but QF just quoted me exactly that - DONE4 (oneworld Explorer four continents in Business) and DONEWC4 (oneworld Circle Trip Explorer four continents in Business) as identical in price.

What, then, is the go with the USD4167 ex-Manila on the excellent tool constructed by the AFF member whose name escapes me?

When I spoke with QF I was asking for the fares for the DONE4 and DONEWC4 ex-Manila. Is it possible the DONEWC4 ex-Manila fare is actually USD4167 (base) and that QF just quoted me the ex-Australia price?

The 3rd party downloadable tools/websites used data pulled from the oneworld website. That data has been removed. As such the information on those tools/websites are out of date. The only way to get current prices now are from the airline/TA or the base price from somewhere like EF or KVS.

current prices (before tax, USD)
DONE4/DONEWC4
ex-MNL 11346
ex-SYD 12629

An LONE4/LONEWC4 ex-MNL is 4167USD and DAS13 (Circle Asia 13000 mile limit) is 4385USD.

In the fare rules of both these tickets (the xONEn and the xONEWCn) there is a clause regarding the fares to be charged, namely:
(my bolding)
So if you ask Qantas, in Australia to quote you a fare ex-The Piliipines, you will be quoted the higher of the two fares (the Phillipines and the Australian fares). And the higher in both cases is the Australian fare.

For the DONE4 you can use the on-line tool to book and get the ex-Phillipines price
But there is no on-line tool for the DONEWC4 - so to get the ex-Phillipines price, you have to purchase though an agent there

Thank you both.

I thought I was on a winner with a cheap DONEWC4 but apparently not.

I did call CX first (being a carrier that services MNL). The agent insisted that there was no way she could give me the base (ex-taxes) fare without a valid itinerary first.

Base business class Oneworld fares ex-MNL
[KVS Availability Tool 6.9.3/Diamond - Sabre: Fares/DotRes/US]

Not completely true.

As per the link in danger's post, there is a great up-to-date resource available:

RTW Fares Comparison

I never considered a Circle Trip Explorer, because it's basically an xONEx without the Americas, and we like to start somewhere cheap and include a few stops in North America, including at home. But, I'm in need of ~30k miles in D and have been hunting for an ex-JNB DONE4 or ex-TLV DONE3 that could take me to fun beachy places, and either all of the overnight flights are nice for a solo flyer (e.g., CX, BA on 747 upstairs, or AA upgraded to F), or I could get a reasonable award ticket for a friend to cone along.

I was thinking jnb-lhr-lax-dfw-mia-cur-mia-lax-hkg-hkt-hkg-jnb, which prices at $6887 on-line. But this thread has be thinking about a DONEWC4 ex-Manila for under $5k! I'd have to include Australia/New Zealand, and QF are awful for solo flyers (no privacy, lousy wedgie seats) but maybe those could be daytime or maybe there is award space.

Maybe AKL in Dec or Jan instead of CUR?

Is there an agent in Manila who can sell these by fax/email? I assume no chance of AA RTW desk taking it over, since they're not a carrier?

I found a BA page listing a GSA in Manila:Also confirmed with AA RTW that they won't touch these. I'll try emailing them to ask about setting up a ticket and issuing it remotely, via email and fax. It would be terrific to hear from anyone who has done this. It sounds like an amazing deal, cheaper even than a DONE4 ex-KRT, and much safer and easier. Why is there so little discussion on FT? You'd think people would be all over this deal.

If this itinerary works and if taxes and fees aren't crazy, it sounds amazing. Great Circle Mapper shows 35,571 miles and EF says $$4167 base: mnl-hkg-hkt-hkg-bne-bme-syd-lhr-jnb-hkg-mnl

Based on the KVS table above and on a look just now on EF, the price quoted in the RTW fare tool is way out of date. Current pricing is now ca. US$11,400 for a DONEWC4 ex-MNL.

Odd, because EF quotes $4167 USD:

Results from ExpertFlyer.comI don't see a local currency in EF's drop-down; I did the EF query using USD.

The KVS table above shows a DONEWC4 costing more than a DONE4, while my EF query shows a DONEWC4 as much less expensive. Very odd, since one would expect the relative cost difference to be accurate even if the currency conversion is incorrect.

Ah, I see the difference: I queried using BA as the carrier, while the KVS query used CX. Changing EF to query CX instead of BA shows fares in the $11k area:

Results from ExpertFlyer.comSo, can the BA fare be used?