I have been getting mixed messages from the NW phone agents, so wanted to pose this question to people who have actually had success. I am looking to book two RTW award tickets using my NW miles beginning next April. I don't currently have the 280,000 miles, but hope to have them soon.

For those of you who have successfully booked RTW award tix, how did the mechanics of the booking work out, especially when traveling over a long time period? The phone agent told me that I cannot book my travel until all my flight segments are bookable (i.e. ~330 days before my LAST segment). However, waiting until then means that my FIRST segment will have been available for booking for 4-5 months, and likely will have no economy availability.

Has anyone had any experience booking these award tickets? How did you manage the time gap between booking different segments of your tickets? I was considering booking separate round-trips for the first segments if necessary, but that seems kind of dumb.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Allison