I always have my RTW tickets issued in Canada:

The last one was a *A CRWStar1 ex-ARN, priced in Swedish Kronas, on UA ticket stock, first flight on LH metal, issued in Canada and converted into Canadian Dollars.
...UA also forgot to add the USD650 sector surcharges for the SQ 77W J class flights ...

The only drawback is that you have to deal with UA to rebook flights, which can be a pain as most agents are clueless.

Some changes to xONEx rules? [02NOV2008]
 

Your interpretation matches my parsing of the changes to the rules, mind
you I had to read the paragraph about 15 times to make sense of the
numerous double or more negatives etc used to construct the sentences
and paragraph.

I called Uk Amex premium travel desk in the past week, initially the
response was, "we charge the highest amount". However taking the
person I was talking to through the paragraph fragment by fragment,
they agreed that it was very confusing. In fact they called on someone
else in the team to recount my fragment by fragment analysis of
the sentences and asked what they now thought. Again, confusion.

I suggested calling the OW help desk (assuming there was one).
When I got the return call from Amex, the resolution was that it
still meant we charge the higher amount.

What this says to me is that the paragraph is subject to frequent
misinterpretation, and that even OW help desk may come to a
different conclusion compared to those on this forum.

I would assume this rule has been inserted to comply to some
sort of EU (and Canadian) fair trading regulations. By wording
the paragraph in a manner that is indecipherable, is that
intention (or obligation) actually met?

Oneworld would do well to translate into english the paragraph
regarding point of purchase versus point of origination of travel.

I have uploaded the latest versions (dated 14 November) as published by CX in for tickets originating in HKG here.

They don't include the pricing issue since they are just for ticketing in and travel ex-HKG with the HKG prices.

They do specifically say that changing, for example, LHR-JFK to LGW-JFK carries a US$125 fee. I still see nothing that says I can no longer ticket LON-NYC and use it on either route.

Confirmed an ex-JNB DONE5 yesterday with AA in London and they
priced at the JNB fare converted into GBP.

Interpretation of Canada/EU Exclusion
 

Explained as simply as possible....

A) If you purchase an Around the World ticket originating in Canada but sold and ticketed in the U.S, you will pay the Canadian fare level converted to U.S dollars based on the date of sale

B) In Contrast, if you purchase an Around the World ticket originating in Hong Kong but sold and ticketed in the U.S, you will pay the U.S. fare level as the U.S. fare level is higher than the Hong Kong RTW fare and the U.S. is the place of issuance.

C) For the EU part of the exclusion, it is a moot point as the Around the World fare from all of the Euro denominated countries are now the same. The RTW fare from Italy, Portugal, Germany, France, Turkey are all the same level in Euro's so it really does not matter in what country you were to actually purchase as long as it is within the EU zone

D) But if you were to purchase a RTW originated in France, but pay and issue in the U.S. it would actually cost you more TODAY as the DONE3 from the U.S. is US$8600 but from France is Euro converted to US at $6,990.

Because the fare in the country of sale is higher then the higher fare applies

The Canada exclusion is primarily for Canada originations purchased and ticketed in the U.S.

The EU Exclusion is to provide free access for RTW issuance in any EU country, but if you try and issue and pay in the U.S. it will cost you more (until the Euro regains against the dollar)

Not quite moot.

The exclusion applies to the European Union, not just the Euro-Zone countries. So it applies to say the UK, Sweden, Denmark.

So in your example, a purchaser in any EU country can ascertain which of the (25?) EU countries has the lowest fare and book a ticket originating in that country.

But the rule isn't restricted to tickets within the EU. For travel originating anywhere in the world, where the country of purchase is any one of the EU countries, the purchaser pays the country of origin price - e.g. Korean Won, converted into the currency of the country of purchase - e.g. euros, pounds, kroner.

The exclusion means no more having to find an agent in the country of origin to issue the ticket in order to get the country of origin fare

... nor paying the (surprisingly) high fees for this service from a Canadian TA.

********************
Tell you what.....I see you are in Perth and I did a quick check to see what the DONE4 (four continent business class) fare is out of Australia and it shows at AUD 10,499...This works out to about US7,200 + taxes...Call your local One World office (likely Qantas) and tell them you want to start an Around the World ticket in Perth but pay for it in U.S. dollar and in the U.S...They will quote you the US fare of $9,100 as the fare in the country of purchase (u.s. dollar card) is higher than the country of origin. If you do it in person, then it does not matter

These checks do not apply to sales from Canada or Europe

The currency of the card is irrelevant. The country of issue of the card is irrelevant. The billing address of the card is irrelevant. Whether you make the purchase in person or (where allowed) remotely does not matter.

PLEASE STOP making multiple incorrect posts on this issue - it is becoming very annoying to have to keep correcting you.

If you buy from the local Qantas office in Perth (whether over the phone, if they allow it, or in person) then your credit card will be charged the ex-Australia price in AUD. Your credit card company will convert that to USD in exactly the same way as it would for any other foreign currency purchase - this is of no concern to OneWorld.

However, if you wish for some bizarre reason to make the purchase from a OneWorld office in the USA then you would be charged the higher ex-USA price as you describe.

Christep...

As you are in Hong Kong, it may be different but from first hand experience I can tell you that if I want to buy an RTW tkt with One World starting in a country other than the U.S and purchase it in the U.S. it will be raised to the U.S. fare level. I am not making this up, but that is just the way it is. Most airlines will not take credit cards over the phone billed in countries other than the country of origin. Maybe you have a cousin or friend that takes care of these things for you in an airline office so you are not aware of these policies but raising the fare level to the same price of the country of sale is the very thing the Canada/Euro exemption is referrin to

I have never disputed that. But if you buy it from a Oneworld office in the country of departure (whether in person or remotely by email/phone) with any credit card - it really doesn't matter where it is issued or billed - then the Country of Sale is the physical location of the Oneworld office that makes the transaction.

The point being that there is no need to buy a ticket in the US just because you live in the US. The country of sale can be anywhere in the world as long as you find a point of sale, and many (maybe most) Oneworld offices in 100+ countries around the world are happy to sell to you (even if they don't fly to that country!). For example AA had a ticket office in Sydney for decades despite having no flights to Australia, and was quite happy to ticket OWE originating in Australia at the Australia price even if you lived in the US (and did not tell you to contact your local AA office instead).

The cancellation fees are very annoying. Anybody (like me) who actually uses DONE4s for business purposes and really travels with them needs the flexibility.
With high cancellation fees this will lead to people just reserving seats and not ticket or change to Star Alliance.