Air New Zealand Air Points - Is NZ holding back C awards on new seats LAX/SFO-AKL/CHC?

I've been trying to get 2 business seats for next Feb on NZ using UA points. The UA folks tell me there are no C seats available, only Y.
I of course have the added problem that I cannot book the outbound without having a return as well. Which means I have to wait 2-3 weeks (the length of the trip) beyond the outbound leg before I can try for an outbound/return package. By then any outbound that may have existed is gone.

Are these seats being made available? Any ideas on how to book the set for a 2-3 week trip?

There was some talk about this a few weeks ago. Here's the thread where it was discussed:
C Class Avail Thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409142)

But the long and the short of it is that there seems to be a point 3 months ahead of departure where the C award inventories (I) start opening up.

So, my advice would be check back in November.

After I posted my original post I called NZ res and talked to an agent in NewZ. She said others at the res center were mystified why there was no bus award space (only econ) available for next Feb. She had tried to book others that far out previously and no seats. Others at the res center had the same problem. She then said she saw someone walking by who may know what's up. On her return she said, he didn't know either.

She promised to call me in the next few days after she had a chance to look into what's going on.

I'll post any useful info after I talk to her.

Back when the smiley availability tool was still working, I noticed that C was unavailable for all of the January 2006 dates I plugged in.

Here's my wild guess: with the large expense of putting in the new suites, they want to let them go as mileage awards only if they absolutely must.