The travel agent you talked to was incorrect. Certainly this used to be the case re higher fare based on purchasing country (search here in this forum for "Canada Exception").

From Australia you can make an ex Japan booking ticketed by Qantas online using the oneworld booking tool and having the first segment Qantas marketed and operated - it uses the Japan base fare.

https://www.oneworld.com/round-the-world

I had my Oz based travel agent book an 081- ticketed ex Japan DONE4 last month. Fare cost including +++ was under AUD9000 (USD6100). They do charge for the service but I'm happy to pay that to avoid Qantas Call Center Roulette.

can you share how much is the service fee?

Currently a one off fee of up to AUD600 depending on complexity. (They are exceptional - travel on this booking starts next year and the last segment is planned for 2026; their fee covers all revalidation.)

that's good deal, I am trying to get travel agent in my home country, Malaysia to issue. Dont have any luck so far, spoke to Malaysia Airlines, and company travel agency.

Update
Day 6 - first call was answered by Fijian, I wanted to hang up, but she sounds friendly and wanted to help. Indeed, after 30 minutes she able to change my booking, where first 10 minutes going through the routine, then next 20 minutes she referring to support. This was unexpected, I didnt give her both booking numbers, when I told her I have another booking for my wife that need to change as well, she said she have to re-do the same process. Sounded like she need high level authorization to make the changes. She said will call back in one hour. Didnt call back, it's fine because it should be after her working hours.

So, I am not sure if this is 50% done, or making it worst. Because my wife is now pressuring me to change hers.
Then I attempted the second call.
It was Fijian as well, I told her I want to speak to the first call rep, she couldnt identify her within the team. But she said she will handle my case. Unfortunately, the call was dropped.
I have to make the third call, answered by call rep in Manila, similarly she need to refer to "support". And the "support" was Manila based. She was kind enough to update every 5 minutes. Such as, we are pricing the ticket... there are errors.... both me and my support cant make changes... eventually after about 45 minutes, I gave up, and requested call back. Surprisingly, I received a call back, the call rep was kind enough to call to update, 10 minutes before she clock off. She told me, it is now confirmed there will be no charges, and her supervisor is going to make the date change manually, requested me to hang on, as it should be done any minutes now. Unfortunately, after 7-8 minutes, still not shown in system, I suggested her to clock off first. Then we follow up tomorrow, as I know in Manila, most of the call rep need to catch van/bus to commute back 2~3 hours. She gladly agreed, and gave me a 8 digits reference number for me to follow up, in case I got the different agent tomorrow.
About 10 minutes after we end the call, I received email from Qantas on ticket changes.

Finally, it's all done. Just sharing my experience, hope it can be useful data point.

Excellent, when I do have a firm plan (still tire kicking at this stage) I may reach out to you for their contact details.
Don't want to waste their time till I have a firm plan.

Thanks again
Richard

My TA in Colombo (my first ticket with her was 2005) has confirmed our DONE3 exJapan pricing
Japan->USA(6 segments)->Spain->Malaysia->SriLanka->Japan. AA codeshare on JL into USA otherwise native codes
with Mrs WF and I having different USA routing
Somewhat less than $US4700 each including the TA fee. She has been patient......
Credit card portion of payment will attract a surcharge (3%) so I will pay about 2/3 by bank transfer.
A cat sitter may now be the limit to the wandering
Fred

Fred, do you see any advantage over using a travel agent over the AA RTW desk? I'm open to switching to your agent if there's a good reason.

Also, where/how does she make her money? Is her fee included in the ~$4,700?

Her fee is included (at least according to her email)....
I think the combination of Japanese fee rules and UL charging policies may make the difference in prices.
Why her rather than AA RTW (which I have used in the past)....? There were a number of email exchanges on the US segments. And those (which do not and did not used AA's recommended routes) combined with QF having zero D class long haul aggravated the ex change lengths. For once my source of funds is in Australia not the USA.
And besides I support the SriLanka people where I can....
Though it has been a while since the country saw me locally wandering
Fred

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply, Fred. A couple of things, --


I'm curious about this. Airlines stopped paying regular commissions to travel agents decades ago, and I'm unaware of any overage commissions on xONEx tickets.


I'm missing something here, or perhaps I misunderstood you. For domestic U.S. flights on these tickets, I don't worry about connections. I just book them flight by flight to get exactly the connections I want, rather than the ones that AA serves up as options.

I am reasonably certain she added enough to cover here expenses etc. she did in the past. Though she may (or may not) have a $$ volume agreement with UL which would affect overall percentages.
As for US segments, AA has almost NO D class with connections (even PHX) between DEN and TUS (A United nonstop). Well at least at the end of September. And since Mrs WF will be flying that route solo, and even with assistance, a minimum of 2-3 hours at the connecting airport and not starting before 0800 was a requirement. Alaska Airlines is/was definitely "out of the way" but the time xONEx rules and the timings permitted it.
Continue with the wandering
Fred

Fred, I just checked a random date near the end of September, the 25th, and see the following AA connections on EF with D availability (AA flight numbers): 2612-2721 (DFW), 1067-2721 (DFW), 1404-3115 (PHX). Same flights have D availability on the 24th, plus 1320-2926 (DFW), and 1620-4949 (DFW).

I can see, however, that Mrs. Fred's requirements of not starting before 8 a.m. and 2-3 hours of connecting time cut her options to zero, at least on these dates.

Protocol when not taking last flight of xONEx: "No Show" or ?
 

We are not taking the last flight DUB-DOH on QR of our ex-CAI DONE5's.
Should we cancel or otherwise let QR know, or just "no show", or what?
If we should let QR know, how best to do that?
Thanks

Really, you only need to alert QR if you've been checked through on another flight (which I'm sure isn't the case) or you're going to make a habit of no-showing.

Thanks. We stayed overnight near DUB so there was more than a 24 hour connection before the QR flight..