I noticed that a bunch of XC/NC seemed to open up in the last couple of weeks over the holidays to Japan (late Dec - Mid Jan). Had no trouble getting Mrs. FMTK XC seats and NC seats for me. In fact there was more XC availability than NC in many cases -- even on the same flights. Other than poor web programming, this still doesn't make much sense to me
Either way, seemed like lots of options, even though ANA's and UA's computer systems don't seem to communicate very well.