Thanks to everyone for their help on this!

We now have 8 confirmed segments and 8 open segments on hold:

Confirmed:

CPT-xLHR-MCT-LHR-xLAX-GRU-LIM-UIO-EZE-

Open:

-EZE-DFW-ANC-DFW-ORD-PVG-NRT-HKG-JNB

Decided to book 16 segments to be able to do an e-ticket, mostly to make the re-issue easier, since it's 99% certain that no matter what we book, we will need to re-issue. At least keeping DFW-ANC-DFW open, we'll be able to grab space on those flights once they become bookable which. This was not a big deal at all (didn't have to get a supervisor or anything like that).

However, the AA RTW agent was not able to book ORD-PEK as an open segment. She knew that AA has announced the route but could not find any notice with the official start date which apparently would be required to book this segment as open.

Also, could not confirm any EZE-DFW in D towards the end of the schedule (last date with availability is 21JAN2009 which doesn't allow enough time for all the other flights), so left that open.

Hopefully pricing will be back tomorrow and we'll be able to ticket this week. We have family in Cape Town, but from Cheetah_SA's post (many thanks BTW! ^), it looks like we may be able to do everything by phone/fax.