Hi all. Newbie here... I am trying to plan my first RTW trip and I've spent a decent amount of time with the online tool and reading these forums, but I know there is still a LOT to learn. Below is my proposed LONE5 itinerary.

Notes: I want to earn miles with AAdvantage, this is for 2 people starting February 2010, and we live in the US. We already booked 1-way award flights to SA in order to save $ on the LONE5 ticket.

GYE-EZE (LAN), SA 1/4
EZE-MAD (IB), Intercontinental (transfer only)
MAD-IST (IB), Europe 1/4
IST-AMM (RJ), Europe 2/4 (transfer only)
AMM-CAI (RJ), Europe 3/4
CAI-LHR (BA), Europe 4/4 (transfer only)
LHR-NBO (BA), Intercontinental
NBO-JNB (surface segment), Africa 1/4
JNB-SYD (QF), Intercontinental (transfer only)
SYD-WLG (QF), SWP 1/4
WLG-SYD (QF), SWP 2/4
SYD-HNL (AA), Intercontinental
HNL-LAX (AA), NA 1/6
LAX-MIA (AA), NA 2/6 (transfer only)
MIA-GYE (AA), Intercontinental
-----------------
15 segments

Here's my questions:

1. Any problems with this itinerary?
2. For the transfer in LHR, the online tool wouldn't let me book a 2-segment flight from CAI-LHR-NBO (maybe just because of seat availability?). So I manually added the LHR stop (flight BA 154 arriving at 12:00 noon), and then the flight to NBO (flight BA 65 departing the next morning at 10:05am). Since this stop is less than 24 hours, I will avoid the LHR taxes, right?
3. Any suggestions to optimize mileage? Mileage Monkey tells me 39,640 miles.
4. It appears that I can book this online with the tool - is there any advantage to that rather than over the phone? I know over the phone I can leave open segments... but I don't think that's important to me (except maybe the last 2 segments returning to SA since I don't know when/if I'll use those). Are there any differences in fees or ticketing airline, etc when booking online vs. phone?
5. I'm not sure I understand the significance (if there is any) of who the ticketing airline is. Since my first flight is LAN, does that make LAN the ticketing airline? If so, does that mean anytime I want to make changes to my itinerary that I have to call LAN (versus AA for example)?
6. How hard is it, really, to change the flight dates during your trip? It sounds like it's supposed to be easy & free, but is that really true in practice?
7. Finally, I've found with the online tool that some of the flights I want don't show up (in the booking tool, not the planner-only). I guess this is because there are no seats available. But my question is - if I call on the phone to book, is there any chance I could get on the flight I want (in other words, could the availability be different online than on the phone)?

I know this is a lot to answer. Thanks so much in advance for any help - this forum is great!

Alonna