I was thinking that anyone might call an airline to setup an RTW, then when the price comes back, decide to change to the starting point. My guess is that the airline agent, knowing that point of commencement changes availability, would then redo the flights.

Two months ago I had a lot of trouble getting a SIN-HND on JL confirmed despite D class being wide open according to both EF and the AA RTW desk. The flight would simply always come back unconfirmed. That DONE had a POC of TYO so I feel like there must be more to the story — it seems unlikely to me that JL would restrict availability for TYO POC as surely that would affect simple TYO-SIN-TYO returns as well?

I remember one of the AA agents telling me explicitly that the flight I wanted to change to was no longer offered on RTWs fares but obviously they could have been mistaken.

AA RTW agents have told me the same, that there is a type of fare limitation. ernestnywang has said there isn't such a mechanism, at least as far as he can tell (and has provided information to back that up), just the point of origin one.

Availability is not as good as PoC JFK but definitely better than PoC OSL.

A quick look suggests that the TYO-NYC-TYO D fare is much cheaper than the NYC-TYO-NYC D fare, so that's probably the reason.

I don't have so much confidence in airline agents these days (though AA RTW still seems good on average), so I wouldn't be surprise if you find some that don't know about PoC restriction. However, I believe even if such booking change was able to be completed or even ticketed at first, within a few hours (if not minutes) the revenue integrity system would detect it and force a void transaction or refund. Obviously, how one wants to argue with the airline at that point is beyond me. Chances are there won't be enough time for the booking to be sent for ticketing in the first place before the revenue integrity system detects it.

Availability is somewhat different on this route also between POC TYO and unspecified POC (effectively POC SIN).

Again, for J cabin, TYO-SIN-TYO fares are lower than SIN-TYO-SIN, but not by as much.

I think the AAgent might be confused after handling a lot of ex-OSL tickets, thinking that's all the RTWs out there, haha? Just kidding.

For the AA JFK-DEL flight is it considered as the Atlantic crossing when you travel North America-Asia or as the Pacific crossing. Despite the actual flightplan, I think traveling TC1-TC3 it's Pacific, TC3-TC1 it's Atlantic. No?

Thanks ernestnywang for those investigations / demonstrations. I think the sooner that ExpertFlyer adds a POC option the easier it will be to at least understand/plan around this particular challenge.

Particularly in JAL's case there is clearly something else going on as well beyond POC - as most of my RTW tickets are ex-TYO, but you still can't see space on most JAL flights in A or D, though it would show on the JAL website even for a direct sale - but hey, it is appreciated that you have experimented.

It is treated as a trans-pacific flight by the online booking tool.

I played around with itineraries that included this flight back when it first started.
I wanted to know if it was being considered as TC1-TC3 overflying TC2, which is how the ORD-DEL flight was treated back when AA flew it.
That treatment opened up some interesting possibilities - Musings ORD-DEL flight on a xONEn - it's like a Circle Pacific ticket - only better - FlyerTalk Forums

May I confirm if you mean, for example, you want to have an ex-TYO DONE3 for an HND-LHR-DOH-LAX-JFK-HND itinerary, and you want JL3/01AUG for JFKHND, assuming JFK is a stopover. JL says there is no D available on JL3/01AUG/JFKHND in this case. However, at the same time, you are able to buy a JL D class round-trip ticket for HND-JFK-HND (not JFK-HND-JFK), using JL3/01AUG for the return? Thanks!

Ran into another flight with no 'D' inventory as part of an ex-OSL RTW but plenty of 'D' standalone: the two QF flights SIN-BNE in late January (one daily, one twice a week). Not even a waitlist available for either of the dates I could use (I'm filling in segments that were initially left open as they were beyond the booking window, and I have upgrade and award flights already booked for the ends so there isn't much room to shift dates).

Late January is probably end of summer holidays for Australian schools.

In AU schools and universities start the new academic year late Jan - early Feb. So 1000's returning home and foreign students to AU.

QF are currently changing routes - aircraft. Less capacity to USA and more to Asia-EU.
AFF thread Qantas Moves Capacity to Europe July 2026
https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/tag/QANTAS
https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260327-qfns26inc

Some airlines have their revenue integrity systems setup to go in and just cancel your flight segments, ticketed or not ticketed. Over time I expect more and more to do this, along with incorrect/invalid uses of codeshares where traffic restrictions are being violated.

The flights have plenty of 'D' availability except in an ex-OSL RTW.

I thought we were discussing this already -- the idea that availability is restricted by fare types. You may be restricted from using those flights during peak season because you are on a RTW fare product.

Yes, we have been discussing inventory restrictions; it's clear that there is a point of commencement/origination restriction; the AA RTW desk says there is a type of fare limitation but TAs in this thread can't find evidence of this. Most recently, I mentioned another flight that is available in 'D' except as part of an ex-OSL RTW, which attracted a comment to the effect that of course such flights are unavailable because it's a very busy time, to which I clarified that the flight has plenty of 'D' except as part of an ex-OSL RTW.