Since you are paying for Asia, you may as well stopover there, either between Europe/Middle East and South West Pacific, or between South West Pacific and North America, or both!

Do you think it can work with Europe to Australia with the QF10 direct to Perth and then Asia after Australia ... that wouldn't be backtracking? That would make a huge difference!!

Most certainly you can do that.

ETA
As a data point, on my current (ex-MEL) RTW I am visiting Asia twice - after starting in Australia and again before I return to Australia at the end.

Well that works perfectly, thank you. Now to work through some decent stop off points !

I was trying to consolidate experiences of booking directly with airlines...

Do we know which airlines will ticket DONE/DGLOB fares without longer legs on their own metal or codes?
Or, which airlines simply won't ticket these fares over the phone?

While there's no clearly formal rule, it seems there are several experiences where, when calling airlines directly, agents refuse to price itineraries without a long TATL or TPAC sector on their own metal.

I've been trying to find and consolidate experiences through this long long thread, what I can see so far is:
AA - Often demand a TATL or TPAC sector on AA codes
AY - Won't ticket anything
BA - Often demand a TATL sector on BA codes
IB - Won't ticket anything
QR - Won't ticket anything
QF - Seems to be very flexible, but agent experiences tend to be poor - also default for the OneWorld tool

Does that list look right? Do we have any experiences of other carriers (JL, AS, EI [for DGLOB], FJ, or any of the African/Asian carriers?)

We are on a second RTW this year, both ticketed with QR, though used a travel agent.

Always, not often. If they don't require an AA code on an over-water flight, it's because the agent made an error. It's one of AA's requirements.

My last DONE3 was ticketed on UL stock by a TA in CMB.
Minor issues in getting code share flights. Not easy to change with changing fare class availability updates,
Major issues with married segments on AA in the USA (My itinerary choices)
Seemingly low added taxes.
Payment cheaper by funds transfer as airline will not pick up CC charges.
Anything to improve the wandering.
Fred

JL won’t bother trying unless the first flight is on JL … but the phone agents push you towards the online tool. There’s also a fee for ticketing changes with JAL, separate from the $125, not to mention the long hold time to speak with an agent … unless you have top tier JMB status. So, JL is generally a no go here.

CX is fine in doing DONE from my experience, require minimum one sector on CX coded and operating flight but no restriction on sector length so could be anything within Asia or intercontinental one
Only drawback to me, no exclusive line or access to the dedicated oneworld team so often take couple dates to in quoting or even simple flight change request though still work for me.

IME it appears that the requirement from AA is for one intercontinental flight on their own metal, not necessarily TATL or TPAC. I recently had the AA RTW desk book OSL-DOH-SEZ-DOH-AKL-SYD-(AKL)-JFK-GRU-MIA-PHL-EYW-PHL-DFW-SFO-JFK-DOH-OSL. SYD-AKL-JFK is on QF, JFK-DOH is on QR, and JFK-GRU is on AA metal. I got zero pushback about needing a TATL or TPAC AA metal flight on this itinerary. The JFK-GRU segment appears to have satisfied AA's own metal requirements. And yes, I know that JFK-GRU does technically cross the Atlantic, just not in the sense that most people here usually consider when thinking about the RTW rules.

Could I ask if the surcharges are noticeably more on CX plated than say AA or QR plated?

The requirement is technically an AA-marketed flight, not necessarily AA operated flight. But yes, your point about how it can be N.Amer-S.Amer for the required AA flight is clear.

Slightly OT but happy 79th birthday to RTW tickets. Pan Am began selling the first commercial RTW tickets on this day in 1947.

I never understood the business case for these. If the revenue that an airline receives for a flight on an xONEx is ((mileage for this flight) ÷ (total mileage for the ticket)) × (fare for the ticket), the airlines are often nearly giving these flights away. What's in it for them?