RTW How many points
 

How many points am i likely to get doing a business or first class RTW and what is the quickest time it can be done in?

Please study the sticky for starters as your question is a bit like asking "how much does a red car cost and how soon can I get it?"

Welcome to FT

As the earlier reply mentions, there is no right answer (also varies between the 8 Oneworld FF plans), but ballpark is 70K miles for a reasonably aggressive DONE4 with elapsed time of a week (unless starting in area 1 which has a 10 day minimum duration requirement for all xONEx fares). Remember that some routes are seasonal or not daily, complicating planning. For fun I wrote some route selection software and the longest DONE6 it could find was something like 90K miles under the current rules, however it was a routing that I would never fly willingly. That should bracket your expectations (and illustrates how the OWE fare is quite a bit more than a RTW of 25K miles, more like a double RTW).

Thanks, I also noted a number of people commencing in IST but very few commencing in Cairo. Does this have better routing options or is it just easier for American flight connections?

There was a price increase for fares ex-CAI in Jan, such that most 4,5,6 continent fares are not as cheap as starting in Turkey or other European cities once you add the cost to get to Egypt.

Thanks, I also noted damascus as being very cheap, excluding the risk of an American bombing any other reasons not to use?

In a word: visas.

Michael