Thanks Darren and jerry a. laska.
I apology my confusing posting.

I am puzzled now. What is the point of a ticket with 20 segment maximum but only 6 stopovers? The most segments you could reasonably use on a 4 continent ticket would be 16, unless you took two connecting flights to each stopover. Why would they offer such a restrictive package for the same price as a Global Explorer?

My guess is that since it's not the more popular trip that it absorbs a lot of the changes that are incorporated into the OWE even though they dont entirely make sense. For example, the two stopover limitation is probably a throwback to when the OWE also had such a limitation. I am sure that the drafters considered what would happen if they scrapped the limitations and envisioned a trip with 20 segments total and 15 stops in Asia or Africa so they decided not to change it when imposing the 20 segments. I do wish that the trip allowed 8 or 9 stops with a max of 3 per continent.

Darren, I must be dumb and/or not understanding this thread, but the way I read those files they actually have a different fare basis, eg: DONEX (One World Explorer) vs. DONECX (Circle Indian Ocean), which suggests that they are not the same - you wouldn't have two different fare codes for the same ticket - and in any case the most obvious difference is that the CIRIND doesn't require one Pacific and one Atlantic crossing. The restrictions seem otherwise pretty closely track each other so I wonder if that's what you mean when you say they are the same? The other difference seems to be pricing: the website I looked at listed what looks a lot like a CIRIND fare for A$2389 plus taxes and it also lists the Circle Pacific Fare by name for A$2999 plus taxes.

I think that the One World website reference to a "Circle Trip Explorer Ticket" is a slightly woolly way of saying we have a special fare or two here and you should talk to your travel agent about it, rather than a substitute for the Sabre files. But I am happy to be set straight on this.

I will state this with the disclaimer that something might have changed that I dont know about. If so, then I apologize for being misleading. The D obviously reflects class and the X is the number of continents or miles of the fare.

Oneworld Explorer - DONEX
Continent based. Six free segments in North America and four for each of the rest, max 20. Must go around the world. Two stops in continent of origin, unlimited stops in the others.

Circle Indian / Circle Explorer - DONECX
Continent based, fare is the same as the Oneworld Explorer. Depending on whether you ask BA or Sabre, either the same segment number restrictions as a Oneworld Explorer or unlimited segments, max 20. Do not need to go in a circle but not around the world. Max two stops per continent with max total of six stops.

Circle Pacific - DCIRXX or DCIRXXSA with South American option
I know nothing about it other than it's mileage based. Look at http://www.hardlink.com/~markdu/OWFiles/OneCirPac.html for more info.

Global Explorer - DGLOBXX
Mileage based. Can do either 26k, 29k, or 34k on economy but biz and first are limited to only the 34k option. You can use FJ, GF, and PH in addition to the eight oneworld carriers along with a few others like SA on the Qantas codeshare from South Africa to Australia. There are stopover restrictions which for most tickets will be 5 per continent with 15 total however youre restricted to two in the continent of origin.

If there is any besides these four then I dont personally know about them. It's possible but seems unlikely since the people here keep pretty good track of things.

Good luck with your planning.