Thanks for all the great info, everyone - even if it's not all good news. ;-)

Would really like to clear the waitlist on CX, but it also looks like they do a pretty good job of selling their F seats. I kinda hate to wait until a week before departure to see if I clear. Anyone got any tips on who to call to see if they can get a seat cleared? The EXP desk, of course, doesn't deal with RTW; and the agent I talked to at the RTW desk didn't seem to be the most knowledgeable. I suppose I could call back and hope for someone better.

Flying through YYZ isn't all that appealing, as I really want to get the Betsy seats.

The SQ/BA RTW is a great idea, and the price is even better than 1W. It works for me, schedule-wise, but I do lose lots of elite bonus miles that way - I can only get AA miles on the SIN-LHR segment. The SQ segment I could apply to DL, but the transatlantic segment is just lost miles. A bigger downside is the A inventory looks just as bleak on SQ as it does on CX.

It's very disappointing to hear that CX rates 1W Emerald the same as CX Gold. Kinda defeats the purpose of the whole thing, IMO.

I guess for now I just have to hold my breath and see what happens. I am going to call the RTW desk again, though, and see if they can do anything at all.

Thanks again for the great tips!