I believe Pandaperth pointed out this Qantas link that's a phone number specifically for RTW booking support. Who knows where it routes you or if they're any more helpful, but it might let you circumvent the phone system.

This is just the standard Qantas phone number. Perhaps there used to be a special number but no longer.

As I posted in another thread, contacting them through social media may lead to better support.

I'm a glutton for punishment. After (finally) getting ahold of the lovely Auckland center who managed to make my date change (finally) so I can end in CAI when I want...I decided to risk another Global Explorer out of CAI:

CAI-xLHR-BER
BER-HEL
HEL-xSEA-DCA
DCA-xSFO-ANC
ANC-HNL
HNL-CXI
CXI-xNAN-MEL
MEL-ADL
ADL-xKUL-BKK
BKK-xDOH-CAI

...I mean what could go wrong, right?

Is this ticketed? I read SEA-DCA-SFO as violating the rule on US/Canada transcon flights.

Not yet…but isn’t that only for OneWorld explorer? I don’t think that’s a rule in Global Explorer.

​​​​Right. Looks okay to me.

Good luck getting it ticketed.

Correct ironmanjt , The Global Explorer has no restriction on the number of transcontinental flights - it has an overall mileage limit (34,000 miles for business/first class).
Instead the Global Explorer limits the number of stopovers per continent to four.

Not for a GE, no. I missed that in your post.

Depends on your starting point. Ex-Japan then it doesn't matter, the it's YR only and they're nearly identical. Ex-OSL it seems AA code is definitely cheaper and I'm not entirely sure ex-CAI.

You can test it pretty easily in the tool though by subbing LAX in just for testing and see what the difference is using the the AA or QF flight.

[QUOTE=ironmanj
HNL-CXI
[/QUOTE]
maybe it's just me but Kiribati makes any punishment worth it!

In playing around with another RTW today, I noticed a *massive* spike in starting CAI-AMM-DOH-BOS as opposed to CAI-LHR-BOS. Price jumped by $3000 AUD.

Very odd. I'm building the following routing:

CAI-AMM
AMM-LHR-BOS (or AMM-DOH-BOS)
BOS-LAX-LAS
LAS-PHL-BOS
BOS-JFK-AKL
AKL-DOH

If there's only one QR longhaul flight (DOH-BOS or AKL-DOH), the final price is $6545 AUD ($4467 AUD base and $2078 AUD taxes). That's with AMM-LHR-BOS.
If I switch so there's two QR longhaul flights (AMM-DOH-BOS and AKL-DOH), the final price jumps to $10268 AUD ($7906 AUD base and $2362 AUD taxes)

Adding a DOH-CAI flight on the end reduces the fare by about $700 AUD.

Well the EGP to other currencies did crash ~40% in recent times. To be expected that OW would reset the base fare ex CAI
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-rate-to-27-25
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/06/egyp...ecord-low.html
https://www.google.com/finance/quote...EBAo&window=1M

Sorry, I edited after you replied promptly. To be clear, the price is only spiking when I incorporate two longhaul QR flights as opposed to one.

So, is AA definitely not pricing out ex CAI itineraries? Even ones without AA flights over the Atlantic? I don't see why anyone would continue to subject themselves to the lunacy of QF agents if AA is willing to price it out using BA or RJ fares

As far as I can tell, base fares have not (yet) been adjusted due to the fall in the Egyptian pound.
I just ran my already booked and paid for DONE5 itinerary through the on-line booking tool.
And it still prices up OK, showing the base fare as AUD4,585 (=EGP145,000, as before).