I booked two ex-CAI with AA in June with no issues.
I also booked one ex-CAI with QF but chose not to pay for it.

Are you sure the BA code would still yield more miles with BA going to revenue earn also? Usually the prorated amount isn't very much of the total ticket price for these, unless BA has decided to still credit xONEx as distance? (sorry haven't seen if that's the case as I don't often read the BA forum).

Both reasonable points but as I understand it (I am hugely open to correction):-

- this was booked before the new system came into operation and
- I thought the new system does not apply to xONEx tickets.

As I say I could be wrong. I am going to phone the BA GGL line when it opens later and see what they say.

Booked a new ex-OSL DONE4 with AA yesterday. I wanted to fly LAX-SYD on QF12 on December 1 and ExpertFlyer was showing D9 (and J9 C9), but the AA agent said that nothing in business class was available, not even J/C classes. We checked all through December 12 and still nothing. Had to book AA73 instead just to get it finished, but not happy about it due to higher taxes and worse J experience. Is this a tool glitch or QF limiting access somehow?

What higher tax for LAX-SYD on AA vs QF? Taxes are by governments and do not vary by airline.
If may be that AA wants to book you on an AA flight and not another airline. In recent times have read AA less willing to book other airlines flight numbers and more insistent on AA flights.
You could try to change later with another airline and/or AA agent, Should be no cost.

Sorry, I misspoke. I meant that AA has a much higher YR surcharge ($349.30) vs QF ($12.50).

Yeah, that's my current plan. Will keep trying periodically to see if the D space opens up.

This discrepancy between what EF shows in D class on Asian airlines, and what AA can actually book, seems to be increasingly common. I have recently been working on three RTWs in Business and found that AA could not book any flights between Tokyo and Seoul despite all of them showing D9 on JL.
Another one was BKK-SYD on QF: flight was showing D5 but AA could not book it.
Now I am trying to get USA-HKG in March 2024: every CX flight from every US gateway to HKG is showing D9 but Oneworld booking tool cannot see any of them. (I haven't called AA yet on this one.)
I don't know if there is some sort of hidden sub-class of D, or if it is related to Point of Commencement (as somebody else suggested) but it makes EF much less useful when trying to build an RTW,

Data Point: In my case, I booked JFK-HKG on CX one day; the next day, trying to make a second booking, JFK-HKG was unavailable to AA despite showing D5 on EF. I went with JFK-HND on JL and HND-HKG (both JL and CX were available) as a placeholder.

Two days later, JFK-HKG on CX was available again for AA to book, so Mrs. Jrobin and I are now on the same flights.

So try again later sometimes works.

HND-GMP and v.v. is a known issue with AA, they can't book it as a standalone for whatever reason, though every other OW airline can. It has to be in conjunction with a flight from the US. I've raised the issue with AA multiple times via different channels but nothing has changed.

I'm having issues with them now because also for some unknown reason they've pulled all business class availability since yesterday on both AKL routes. Went from J/C/D = plenty to 0 on all overnight. You'd think there would be an announcement if they were pulling out of New Zealand entirely. Even AA.com won't sell a business fare today from AKL without going via Australia.

Could AA be pulling out of NZ (at least seasonally)?

The AA forum seems to think that the lack of availability (also affecting other Asia SWP routes) is just a not uncommon AA inventory rebalancing or glitch. Some further discussion here:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...ilability.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...-2023-a-4.html

Yeah as of now it's still zeroed out, but I think as a result of this I've convinced myself to go CX via HKG instead. It's a lot more miles flown (good for mileage earning naturally which is half the fun of these tickets), so even with CX earning lower with AAdvantage vs QF code on the AA flight it's still a win.

Let me run this by you guys and make sure it's valid because the OneWorld tool won't give me CX options out of AKL to N. America. Only the bolded parts are what I'm questioning, I've already validated everything post-SAL, stopovers marked with (s).

Either one of these, I believe both are ok, but might break the 2x in Asia rule on the first, don't believe the 2nd version does:
FUK-HKG-AKL(s)-HKG-JFK(s) (surface) SAL-DFW-DOH-NBO(s) (surface) EBB-DOH(s)-DUB(s)-DOH-MNL(s)-TYO
or
TYO-SYD-AKL(s)-HKG-JFK(s) (surface) SAL-DFW-DOH-NBO(s) (surface) EBB-DOH(s)-DUB(s)-DOH-MNL(s)-TYO

I've got enough segments left I could have JFK-MIA-SAL but married segment availability isn't there currently tied to CX and it's relatively inexpensive to just buy it in Business on UA from EWR or even buy economy on AA and try to SWU it. I may try it when I call in but I'd much rather just buy it and fly the same day vs. staying 24 hours in NYC in winter to break the married segments.

There is definitely something weird going on with CX and OneWorld Explorer availability.
I am in the process of booking a DONE3 starting in Japan in December and CX has 5 flights per day from TYO-HKG and all are showing D5 or greater on EF. But the OneWorld tool will not show any of them, and when I called AA they said there is nothing available on CX.
Similarly when researching US-HKG in March, I can see D9 on flights from BOS, JFK and other gateways, but the OneWorld tool shows nothing. (I didn't call AA on it because I was just researching that leg)

I'm planning to ticket with CX this time, so hopefully those issues that AA seems to have with partners won't affect me, but it does seem to be a growing problem for AA issued tickets.

I've definitely not had problems with the OW tool not showing CX flights when they are on ExperFlyer, my issue is that CX pulls all D inventory from Japan during every single busy period. Or they'll have it to HKG only but not married segments. But I think my above itinerary with QF to SYD and AKL should work and CX should ticket it despite them only having segments 3 and 4 on the itinerary.

How to Select Seats on AA Codeshare on JL?
 

AA-booked Oneworld Explorer showed D availability on JL HND-SGN-HND, but AA agent was unable to book seats, so the agent (not unhappily) was able instead to book AA 8493 and AA 8494 codeshares on JL.

Now the AA website cannot assign seats, and the JL site says "No Seat selection for this flight".

How do I get seats assigned for AA Codeshares on JL? Or does JL only allow seat selection if you book with them?