Just finished a marathon 6 hour booking for my first Mini-RTW (yes, now that I've finished that I will try to find the time to update all the latest ones posted into my online tool). 11 segments and we almost had to go to 12-13.
YUL-EWR AC E75 4J - 11 1/2 hour layover - might pop over to NYC for a bit
EWR-CDG UA 764 4J STOP
CDG-BKK TG 380 4J - 12 hours to enjoy BKK and get a free massage
BKK-RGN TG 330 4J STOP
RGN-SIN SQ 333 4J - 18 hour overnight layover - Turn around for 1 PAX
SIN-DPS SQ 333 3Y - Turn around for 3 PAX
DPS-SIN SQ 333 3J
SIN-KUL SQ 333 4Y
KUL-IST TK 773 4J - 4am arrival and 14 hour layover = free city tour
IST-JFK TK 773 4J - 12+ hour overnight layover
EWR-YUL AC 4Y E75
Three tickets were $1012 each in taxes and scam charges and one was $1011 (or was it the other way around).
$500+ was for the YQ of which the TG54 380 accounted for about $300 (we tried pricing CDG-IST-BKK on TK J instead of CDG-BKK and the price dropped to $702 but it would mean an extra segment, 1 fewer day in Mayanmar and no chance to try the 380). I haven't got the full pricing yet.
I'm not going to say how long it took to research 4J tickets and get J on 8/11 segments for a trip this July/August where there is almost nothing TATL literally nothing TPAC.
The first agent I got was "I can't input segments just give me your destinations" and when I got to CDR-RGN she couldn't get the idea that I needed to book my TG segments 2 at a time. A quick "I'll try later" and next call I was on to the kind of agent you dream of.
The agent and I thought that trying to grab 4J on the TG 380 would be the hardest. Both TG flights showed 2J avail but the 380 had no reward X. After booking the full itinerary we got the the TG 380 and it was showing nothing - without prompting the agent tried a special request - she said not everyone thinks of it and she wasn't sure why it came to mind, but it worked right away and she got 2 more J. No special request was needed for the other TG as those 2J were available as soon as the first two were booked.
We thought we were home free until we got to SIN-DPS ... we could only get a total of 3Y (no J available) despite there being 6Y showing available on her system and the web site showing 4 available. She went to 2 supervisors and even phoned two or three SQ numbers but couldn't get anything. We could get the 4th ticket on every other flight.
The only obvious option was 4J available 4 days later but I didn't want to trade away 1/3 of my Bali time for more days in RGN. She worked with me on every conceivable option including date shifts, routing via TPE, switching CDG-BKK to CDG-SIN and then going via BKK to DPS but there was nothing. We even checked with the supervisor if we could get a later SIN-DPS and not use it and use a 1 way revenue instead - no dice as the whole trip might get cancelled.
In the end it was my wife that suggested using SIN as the turn around for the 4th ticket and getting the revenue return SIN-DPS. I know this is getting long-winded but hopefully it's of some use ... matrix itasoftware was quoting about $300 for Y return on the same flights but expedia and a local travel agent were quoting $600+ because they are CDN based. I got it for $348 from the Singapore expedia.
We were forced into the number of segments by time and availability, especially the hop through SIN to KUL to get the TK flight, as well as syncing with two revenue PAX for part of the trip. There was nothing TPAC and on TATL outbound we had YYZ->CDG on scamcharge AC (but only on an inconvenient date) and inbound TATL GVA->BOS was the only other flight available but with another 2-3 segments.
Thanks to all who have posted before for all the great ideas for an epic mini-RTW. The only downside will be reintegrating the kids to Y class again!