My experience does not match this:

• October 2012, bought 2 DONE4s ex-KRT @ ~USD4000 each
• November 2012 the base fare price increased from SDG14700 (~USD2500) to something more 'usual' (and quoted in USD)
• In April 2013 we took the first few flights on the ticket
• In May 2013 I phoned the AA RTW desk and made wholesale changes to the remainder of the ticket, for which we paid the USD125 change fee plus the adjusted taxes. NO mention of paying the 'correct' price

AFAIK the fares being discussed in this thread (and I'm pretty sure of the starting point) are not 'mistake' fares. They are good - for premium cabins they are a lower than ex-South Africa (however for economy they are a little higher)
The problem is they cannot be booked using the on-line tool, because of the first carrier

My experience is exactly the opposite. I bought, via the internet tool, a rtw ex-Jordan, and paid with a US credit card while I was physically in Brazil. When I wanted to change the routing AA refused. The rate desk insisted, citing the US credit card address, I would have to pay up to the ex-USA rate (ex-Brazil would have been the same) or they would not make any changes. This attitude was noted in the record and I was never able to change the routing. I know of other people who have had better luck on this score, but that is my concrete experience. I think this was in 2008. At any rate, it was at about the time that the on-line tool was first set up.

A few years ago, I contacted CX for a quote. They insisted that I go ask QF instead as QF was the operating carrier for the first flight. They only provided the quote once I rebutted that with quotes from the fare rules and noted that the "first carrier = ticketing carrier" was only a technical limitation for the online booking tool and not any sort of "rule".

Last year, I tried to make a flight change with MH at their KLCC office - the flight to get changed being an MH flight. After the agent asked a few other people, they refused and said I had to go talk to SQ. o.O

That formerly very war-torn country with a line to Doha via another stop in southern Africa means burning an extra segment to get out versus somewhere like JNB, and is only about 7%, GBP417 cheaper (for AONE4, ex taxes/charges) than ex-JNB (prices via Expertflyer).

Interesting hack, but I'm not sure that's worth it.

It would be nice if this dodges the South Africa restriction in the recent OWE rule sheet that prevents the former trick of JNB-LHR RTW LHR-JNB that used to allow for a nice lot of F travel. However I don't think it does.

ex-NBO does but ex-NBO is expensive, nearly LHR prices.

(CX have just about ended F service JNB-HKG so an ex-JNB AONEx leaving JNB on that route is not very F any more)

However thanks for the hint, (though obfuscated) that there are places off the OWE tool routemap that still have published OWE fares.

Agreed. Within 2 months it will be impossible to travel with F service RTW via South Africa.

Actually, the flight is one number so no extra segment should be burned, similar to the LHR-SYD flights that stop in DXB. Since you can't buy that first segment I don't even think it's an option to add that segment to your itinerary.

Sharing my experience on booking from other regions- I booked an ex-CAI DONE4 last year out of the UK and phoned twice to make changes which incurred $125 change fees and taxes, yet on both occasions there was no repricing from AA.

Perhaps a useful data point for anyone wondering where to start a RTW ticket in Asia.

Priced up Asia-LAX-DFW-SCL-GIG-LHR-Asia in J (DONE4 i believe?) to give an idea of the best place to start. Following start locations, all in GBP:

HKG - 7269
ICN - 6475
TPE - 7425
NRT/HND - 5232

In my experience having gotten DONE3's out of Japan and Korea over the last 4 years, the ex Japan base price is a little cheaper, but after taxes, ex Korea and ex Japan end up about the same.

Those prices are inclusive of taxes i believe ^

Can't be because taxes change based upon routing. That is why the fares aren't on the website any longer. EU and US regulations require airlines to advertise all-in prices.

Those were all done individually on the Oneworld explorer booking tool as bookable fares including taxes.

Base DONE3 fares from E/F for these origins:

HKG - £5870
ICN - £4887
TPE - £5881
NRT - £3788

I believe you misunderstood my post. I didn't suggest that aa's rate desk ignored the rules in effect when the ticket was purchased and applied a new base fare to the calculation, just that instead of making the simplest possible adjustment - e.g. if I was adding a segment, merely looking up the taxes and fees for that segment and charging me that amount plus $125 - they recalculate the entire trip, subtract what they imagined I'd paid, and charge the difference.

That leaves a lot of room for error, especially since it seems aa is using some arcane software (or leaves it to the agent to do by hand?), and is part of the reason it often takes them days to price what should have been a two-minute lookup (for the example one-segment addition).

When you changed your trip, did you look up the taxes and fees yourself to make sure they were doing it right? Given how often YR/YQ is applicapable and how large those numbers can be, there's a lot of money to account for.

Ooops, missed that part.