I've decided to skip Vientane and spend 2-3 nights in Bangkok at the end of our SE Asian adventure. This gives me way more options for getting home.
I'm also looking at the transpac portion on AA so as to only have 3 flights to take. Right now I have a reservation on JL BKK-NRT-LAX-DFW-MCI on March 12 as that's all that is available at this time for 2 J award seats. I'll keep calling and try to change to another routing, either on JL or AA that goes directly NRT-ORD or NRT-DFW. I have until 4/20 to lock in the tickets.