Well, finding out which Skyteam airlines fly to a destination is critical. When I booked my flights, I spent about 2 weeks putting together a basic flight plan. First, I picked what countries I wanted to go to. Then I choose the logical order (W to E). I then called up and after a few attempts got a NW agent that somewhat knew what they were doing. I got a lot of wrong info out of the first couple of agents.

Most agents won't even want to try and book this. Sometimes, they say you have to call the RTW desk, which wasn't true when I last booked my trip.

You do need a lot of patience, that's for sure. With the charges for changes for Plat members, I'd guess it will be much harder, these days. I had about 5 changes to my trip. Mostly because Biz seats opened up. Unless you're lucky, or have a simple itin, don't figure on getting biz for all your segments.