Hi everyone,

I'm a *A flyer, first time in OW land. Please be gentle.

I'm planning a RTW for next year, and think the OWE is a far better deal than *A. Here's my itin so far:

CAI-GIB;BCN-VCE;SVO-NRT-PEK-HKG-SIN-SYD-BNE-AKL-SCL-UIO-EZE-GRU-DXB

I'll insert some more segments later for MR. This trip will last 6-12 months, with plenty of surface traveling on my own (Egypt, Morocco, E. Europe, Mongolia, Galapagos).

Questions:

1. Are there any obvious concerns/problems w/ my itin?

2. How is AKL-SCL in J w/ LAN? Is it crowded? Someone said in another post 'book a date for that flight and "alter the rest of your life" to make the flight'. Should I be concerned?

3. I'm AA basic, w/ 10k miles due to expire Dec 06. Even if I fly 50k in J here, since none of these flights are AA, I won't get any status?

4. What about the Gold/Plat Challenge? Will I get status even if they're not AA flights?

5. Will I get lounge access flying J w/ no status?

6. By searching the forum, it seems most people used Ms. Shohi @ BA or Emeco for tiks ex-CAI. Is there a particular person @ Emeco I should contact? Any other good TAs? Can I bargain on tik price?

That's all the questions I have for now. Sure more will be coming. Thanks in advance for your help and critique. Looking forward to seating backwards on a plane, and chilling at The Wing ...