I am appears as though this only applies to Qantas business class RTW tickets booked ex-Australia.

With Qantas' RTW biz ticket you are now booked in D or J class for international sectors, Y class within U.S. and C class for Europe.

Gary,

Why not book the whole trip as an AA flight or BA flight? You'll be still flying QF/AA/BA without any downgrading and you stand a better chance of getting better treatment from QF as a visitor from a "competitor".

Spider,

Do AA or BA allow their RTW tickets to be booked ex-MEL or ex-SYD?

I always thought that RTW tickets for each carrier could only be booked with departure and destination from their own countries, e.g. AA RTW is ex US; destination US.

if AA or BA offer a RTW fare ex- Australia you could have it issued by them. However the general rule is that if a Travel Agent issues the tix it has to be on the first carrier's stock. If an airline issues the tix it doesnt matter.

I am not aware of the present rules but I have bought such tix when AA used to fly Down Under on its own metal. Besides, one can always buy their tix from NZ where QF is not the main carrier and AA & BA have massive discounts to compete with it, so overall if you do your homework right you might be able to save upto 50% on the fare.