I am trying to take advantage of the current South African Rand exchange rate to book our second 20-segment DONE5 (first one was in 2006).

Last time, the entire trip was confirmed at booking (last flight was < 11 months from booking), but this time, only the first 3 flights are within 11 months of now, so I have a few questions about how some of the booking details work in that case.

1. First flight changes
   Our desired first flight is CPT-LHR, but there is zero D availability from BA for the entire week we want (even on the daylight flight!). JNB-LHR is available that week. There is availability the following week for CPT-LHR. However, I have heard conflicting stories about changing the first flight on a DONE5 after issuing. One is that ANY change to the first segment requires a complete reissue at the current price (this is also what the AA RTW agent told me). The other is first hand experiences from people changing the dates on their MRU-LHR flights (first segment of an AONEx) without a reissue. From what I can see, the rules say:
   
   Code:

     5N PRIOR TO DEPARTURE                                       
    23N TRAVEL ORIGINATING AREA 2/3:                             
    24N . 1. UNLIMITED CHANGES PERMITTED WITHOUT CHARGE.         
    25N . 2. DATE/TIME AND ONEWORLD CARRIER CHANGES ARE          
    26N .    PERMITTED WITHOUT REISSUE PROVIDED ORIGIN,          
    27N .    DESTINATION, CONNECTING POINTS AND INVENTORY        
    28N .    REMAIN THE SAME.

   If I can change the date of the first segment without reissue, then I would rather begin CPT-LHR on the "wrong" week to then change it to the right week when D becomes available.
   If it requires a reissue, then I'd rather start JNB-LHR and pay for our way to JNB instead.
   
2. New Routes
   We would like to fly ORD-PEK in mid/late 2009. However, since this route only begins in March 2009, there are no dates available for booking. Can we book an open segment for a route that's only being planned and not yet bookable?
   
3. Tentative Routing
   Our preferred routing right now is:
   CPT-xLHR-MCT-LHR-xLAX-GRU-LIM-UIO-EZE-xDFW-ANC-xDFW-SJO-LAX-MIA-xORD-PEK-NRT-DEL-HKG-JNB
   Issues:
   - ORD-PEK, but ORD-PVG-NRT could work as well.
   - SJO-LAX is seasonal, and not the same season as ANC-DFW which precedes it. This year there is a one-stop SJO-LAX (through MIA), but who knows what will happen next year. Our alternatives are DFW-SAL-LAX, or DFW-SJD-LAX.
   - Any others?
   
4. Open vs. Confirmed segments
   Although only the first 3 segments are bookable on the dates we want them, we could in theory book CPT-xLHR-MCT-LHR-xLAX-GRU-LIM-UIO-EZE-xDFW Jan/Feb 2009 on any available date, rather than booking them "open". Does it make a difference either way?
   I imagine it's not possible to only have DFW-ANC-DFW open and confirm everything else either.
   
5. E-Ticket vs paper ticket
   On such a complex itinerary it's very likely we'll need a reissue, althought on the last 20-segment DONE5 we didn't have any. I would love to be able to issue this as an e-ticket, even with the re-issue fee, but I am a little uncomfortable booking only 16 segments now (with the intention of reissuing to 20), knowing that they're likely to set the limit to 16 sometime in the near future. I worry that if the 20 segment limit is changed to 16, after flying the first 4 segments on an e-ticket, I will have a hard time adding the extra 4 segments in 2009.

Thanks in advance!