A change after the first sector has been flown for a change from MEL-SYD-LAX to MEL-LAX will be a ticket change so $125 and repricing.
Better to fly as ticketed. Is the SYD-LAX on AA or QF?
The QF aircraft MEL-LAX can B787 or the unfurnished A380. Aircraft type can change any time.

Thank you for clarifying. Flying AA for the transpacific portion unfortunately.
I suppose I will chalk this one up to experience and stop trying to do anything about it.
As regards the $1,000+ YQ/YR change, this is the type of egregious fee I am more used to seeing from BA but it looks like QF is equally guilty...

Certainly Qantas knows how to charge, but it is also possible that the charges on other flights have increased. Each time there's a change like this, the whole itinerary is reassessed.

Fair point. Still seems like a massive change from when I ticketed in January, for a relatively simple 7 sector DONE4. Lots of lessons learned on this booking...

Just want to report back here it is possible to ask AA RTW desk to take over and re-issue an AA 001-plated xONEx originally issued by a travel agent. Be prepared some agents will say "no" though, so HUACA may be needed. AA may also add a 50USD "assistance by reservations" fee that, according to an agent, is only waived for CKs and EXPs.

In case it hits anyone else who used the AA RTW desk, if you bought the ex CAI fare just before the price hike and then AA were slow to ticket such that by the time it actually ticketed the fare was no longer filed then you may be in the same situation as me which leaves AA willing to do date changes but requiring the $1000s base fare difference if you want to reroute. I'm pretty sure that's the reason I've been told that anyhow, would be good to hear from someone who ticketed this fare earlier with the AA RTW desk and can confirm they have no issues re-routing.

Have you flown the first segment (of the low priced ex CAI fare)?
Flying the first segment locks in the price and fare rules.

Sorry, I should have made that clear. Yes I have flown the first segment.

In my case the unusual complication is that ticketing took so long after I paid that by the time it completed the fare had been pulled, as in the (airline specific) fare I was ticketed with was not filed at all at the time ticketing completed. Apparently this led to my ticket being broken in some way in terms of how the fare is stored (or if it's stored). I don't know what tickets store and how so can't comment but that sounds credible.

Whilst more than one AA RTW agent has told me the fare was misfiled for weeks and *anyone* who paid that "incorrect" fare will need to pay 1000s if they reroute, I wouldn't be surprised if others with a less broken ticket will have better luck. Would be interesting to know if anyone's been able to reroute one of these low exCAI fares with AA.

((FYI whilst some are adamant the rules do not allow for a base fare reprice on reroute, there was no clear consensus on that when I raised it in a fare rules thread. I.e. I'm not the only one to worry the intent is clear but the wording ambiguous in stating that the base fare will reprice if a reroute occurs before the first segment and saying nothing about how the base fare is treated after the first segment is flown. I.e. they only *imply by omission* that no base fare reprice will occur after the first segment is flown)

my ex-CAI DONE3 by QF was about 5.3k AUD, flown 4 segments, requested QF to price for changing few of the balance segment, they quoted me 4.8k AUD, exclude the 125USD change fee.

if just changing dates or flight, as long as same cities, they are ok though. But still need some luck to find the right agents.

When I ask QF to change my ticket, the agent told me he cannot find any JL flight in Qantas system. I checked some ex HND flight on QF website it was read that the flight only can book with points while there is no JL flight in it. How to reissue a JL flight by QF?

Have you checked D class on JL is available. HND to where?
The text in red makes no sense to me for a DONE*.
With QF phoning again can get a different result. Then again and again. But must be 100% sure what you are trying for is in accordance with the rules.
What your route as booked and what you now want may help in getting a reply.

Guessing this is a different problem to another of your posts (22 July)

Yeah, it's different problem. I would never have thought that I would get stuck with QF with the flight which has available D class can be searched by ITA Matrix. I am afraid of phone agent will reprice the ex-CAI ticket. Though the twitter agent told me that "To change your ticketed points, there will be a fee of USD125 per person to be converted to AUD at the current day rate. The fare will also need to be reassessed and any difference in fare/taxes will apply." But I can tell them the rules of rtw ticket at least.

As you have flown the first segment the fare is locked in. Although some, but not all, QF agents accept that. Are posts in this and other FT OW threads on this topic. They do seem to recalculate taxes with exchange rate for those taxes. Carrier surcharges are not taxes.

QF seems like not to obey the rules most of the time. As for me, I can't go to pricing step since this QF twitter agent cannot find any JL D class in system.

Have you verified it in ExpertFlyer? Maybe there's indeed no D available. JL has really tightened up D availability on a lot of routes this summer, I have one to BKK in 2 weeks that I really wanted to change to somewhere further south, but nothing available on a JL code except CGK which they (QF) won't let me do since I had a stopover in CGK already. They admit that there's no rule against it, just they can't do it. Yesterday there was D1 to KUL but of course they didn't check it until today and JL removed the D already and now only J and C are available.

Having said that, I think JL has done a pretty solid job of selling premium cabins this summer to SE Asia because quite a few routes are even low on J inventory for the week I'm checking. .