Thanks for the clarification Himeno!

So ...

Assuming I do have a Japan based TA who's willing to work with me, I can used my AU based credit card to pay for the ticket or will that count as ex-NRT ticket costing the Japan price in AUD?

Assuming you do have a Japan based TA who's willing to work with you, you will pay the ex-NRT price in JPY. The bank will exchange that and process it in AUD.

So in this case, since AA can ticket locally in Japan, is it possible to call the RTW desk, have them build it, and then send to Japan AA office for ticketing and payment? From what I've read, it seems this should be possible, but I've also seen conflicting reports. I'm looking for actual experiences (and if nobody has any to share, I'll of course go ahead and give it a try and report back)

Yes, that is how it works. At least that's how it has worked many times for me. The AA RTW desk fares the ticket and sets it up for ticketing in the country you specify. Then the TA in that country calls AA and picks the itinerary up for ticketing.

Why involve the RTW desk at DFW?
 

From my recent experience, calling the overseas AA office in South Africa reached very knowledgeable and helpful agents who produced AONE4 tickets within a few days. The only significant downside was the time offset from my California base.

A plus was that, when the rate desk hadn't gotten around to pricing my tickets after a couple of days, one of the agents in South Africa priced it himself. I did purposely start with a minimalist trip - I didn't know what I was going to fly beyond the first couple of segments, and $125 seemed small change for having ticket in hand.

English seemed to be the default language; I don't know if you'd find the same in Japan (assuming that's your language too). And I don't know if the folks there are as well trained. But the agent in Cape Town was not the least surprised when I asked to book an AONE4 and took and processed my booking in a most professional manner, and I'd hope for the same in Asia.

I booked a DONE4 ex-NRT a couple of years ago. Set up the itinerary and PNR with the RTW desk, got it priced for pickup at NRT, then paid for it in a turnaround. The whole thing took maybe 30 min. at the AA desks at NRT, mainly because they had to find the (paper) tickets at the "advanced sales" desk. I had confirmed the ticket's readiness with AA's Japan office on the (Skype) phone before I headed to Japan.

ooma

Sadly, there is now an error message on the website link with the RTW prices and a note saying there is no ETA on fixing the site and problems with the underlying data :(

I am based on the West Coast of the US but am wanting to book a business class RTW for a trip of a lifetime.

Given the link is no longer active, I was hoping someone on here might know off hand:

1. Whether Japan is the cheapest country to originate such a ticket in Asia, or if there are other better or comparable options in Asia? ...It seems as if Japan is mentioned most frequently on flyertalk, followed by Korea. I will just pay for a flight or use miles to get from the West Coast to this starting point.

2. What the approximate price is for a DONE5 fare originating in Japan? Out of interest, I would be curious if you knew how this compares to the LONE5.

3. Would I be better off financially getting a 39,000 mile business *A ticket instead?

My sense is no because of my routing but if there is a significant price difference I would consider *A but again there dont seem to be prices on the *A forum without access to this link>Other prices are many years out of date. My (rough) itinerary would be SFO to NRT (assuming this is the cheapest place in Asia to start) followed by:

NRT-BKK-AKL-Buenos Aires-SFO-Paris-HKG-NRT

I will probably throw a few side trips in the Americas in as well. The desire to go from AKL to South America is pushing me towards OW where they have such a routing on LAN but if it made a big price difference I would certainly go AKL-SFO-Buenos Aires instead (using Air NZ).

Many thanks for the advice!!

...To complicate matters, there seems to be a (known) bug that prevents me from getting this quote myself from the OW online tool as it won't show fares originating from Japan.

The fare comparison website comes up with the error:
"Due to troubles with the underlying sources the fare data is currently offline. There is no ETA for its return. Sorry."

...Just wanted to show that even though I'm a newbie I'm trying my best to find out answers myself before appealing to the seemingly infinite wisdom of the FT community!

Welcome to the forum:

You will not get a OW quote without a valid routing. The additional taxes & fuel surcharges are very variable. Depends a lot on the first carrier and exact route (avoid LHR if you can)

For route testing have a go with MM http://www.slfft.org/mm/award.htm
Written by FT'ers. Is not always 100% perfect or with all routes but a good starting point

NRT-BKK-AKL-Buenos Aires-SFO-Paris-HKG-NRT
needs to be something like
NRT-BKK-HKG-AKL-SCL-EZE-DFW-SFO-LHR-CDG-HKG-NRT (click blue link)

It is hard to get D or L ticket on the LAN AKL-SCL flight. Look at QF code share or SYD-SCL on Qantas

Japan and Korea prices are similar. I've started DONE3's from both NRT and ICN before. It depends on exchange rates. India and Sri Lanka are cheap, until you add the luxury taxes for premium class tickets departing from those countries.

LONE5 ex Japan 433,800JPY DONE5 895,200JPY both before tax.

Don't know which is which, but these are the Star business RTW prices ex Japan before tax:
CRWSTAR1 618,400JPY
CCPSTAR1 694,000JPY
CCPSTAR2 833,000JPY
CRWSTAR3 846,900JPY
(a quick skim of the star fare rules shows the "CRWSTAR3" is the business 39,000 mile RTW fare)

I had assumed (wrongly) that the *A fare was going to be higher than OW.

In the end, once I added in some extra destinations in Europe and Asia, *A became convenient enough to skip Latin America, which I will do on a separate trip on points later instead. I ended up using the *A online tool and got a quote for ~720,000JPY before tax for a CRWSTAR2, which has 34,000 miles. It LOOKS as though it will just let me book online without talking to an agent (unlike OW) but I guess I'll just have to find out if they accept credit cards with a US billing address or if I'll have to get creative.

Thanks so much for the prompt responses! If I was on a radio talkback show I would call myself a "longtime listener, first time caller". Despite using this forum frequently for research this is the first question I asked and really appreciate the willingness of folks like you on here to help. I'll toast flytalk with a glass of champagne on my first A380 ride, BKK-NRT in business, which kicks off this trip :D

Pricing ex-CAI?
 

How do I get a quote on the base fare for a DONE4? ExpertFlyer quotes it ex-CAI as $US5,874... but when I make a dummy booking on the OW site it prices at 48,642EGP (before taxes, fees and carrier surcharges), which is almost $US7,000. Any ideas?

Call the AA RTW desk.

I just tried a dummy booking, CAI-AMM-MAD-JFK-LAX-SYD-HKG-AMM-CAI and it quoted US$5,878 as the base (and $614 for taxes/fees). So I'd try again before throwing in the towel. What was/is your route?