Wow. HUGE thanks to both Viajero and Gardyloo for the great help! ^ ^ ^

After reading your replies and thinking about this a bit more, this is what I think we'll do:

• Resign ourselves to one reissue (hopefully just one).
• Latest bookable date for AA flights today is 31JAN2009. Assuming it takes us a couple of weeks to get everything set, we'll ticket the itinerary with all segments confirmed, which means everything fits in a 30 day span.
• Book itinerary as:
  CPT-xLHR-MCT-LHR-xLAX-GRU-LIM-UIO-EZE-DFW-SEA-DFW-SJO-LAX-MIA-ORD-PVG-NRT-DEL-HKG-JNB
  SEA is just a placeholder for ANC.
• Issue ticket.
• After ticketing continue spreading the dates, confirming space on flights on desired dates.
• Try to change date of CPT-LHR without reissue.
• Decide on SJO or alternatives depending on what's available in 2009.
• Change PVG to PEK.
• After flying the first 4-8 segments, reissue ticket. I am guessing that LAX would be a better place to do this than GRU, LIM, UIO or EZE.

How does that sound?

One final question, can I confirm space in the DFW-ANC-DFW flights (or any other routing changes) when they become bookable, but not do the physical reissue until after the 4th flight?

Thanks again!