Advice on returning

[BBSooner]

Hey guys, lately I have been wanting to return to FFXI but I haven't had the opportunity to, either too busy or whatnot. However, I decided to finally make the jump back but I am looking for some advice.

My previous character was a 68 monk, so I am confident I can get back in to the swing of things, however this is also the part where I am needing advice for. After re-checking my account it seems I won't be able to return on my monk. Long story short I played the playstation version of FFXI and am going to return on the PC version, and they won't let me use my Playstation character, so I will have to start at square one. I'm fine with doing that, but I'm worried I would be stopped even though I'm willing to restart so here's where my questions start.

Are the Dunes completely outleveled and almost deserted?
For that matter, do the other leveling zones have a decent flow of characters that would allow me to re-level?
I had heard the economy of the entire list of servers is almost destroyed from inflation, is that true?
Are world passes still required to swap servers, in case I reach a brick wall leveling from not finding enough people?
My PC version has the original FFXI, along with Chains of Promathia and the Treasures of Aht Urhgan, is there an expansion I'm missing/need right away?

I think Square allowed me to return to my previous server Cait Sith, so I guess the questions are more specifically directed towards somebody from that server, however any response would be great.

Thanks!

[Jonnyram]

The only reason they would not allow you to use your old character again would be if it was deleted, because both PC and PS2 versions are the same - the character is on the server, not on your host. But even if it was deleted, they should be able to recover it, so you may just have been speaking to someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. Try customer service again perhaps, and don't take no for an answer.