dgolds- I have been told by several ff reps from several airlines that the Biz Class ticket to Oz is one of the toughest to come by. It is odd that CO could not confirm a ticket on Qantas. I booked a free Biz Class to Australia using US Airways miles for next month and the US Airways agent simply put me on hold for about a minute and came back with the seats. If I were you I would try and use CO miles on Qantas. They have just redesigned their First and Business Classes so their service is probably the best to Oz right now. Additionally, both Qantas and United have just announced new services from Melbourne to LAX so there will be more capacity coming on line later this year at about the same time you are planning to go (see the threads under United). Connecting through Korea seems absurd. Remember, if you go in November, you will be going in summer... the seasons are opposite below the equator. This is also, unfortunatly, peak season to OZ. I will post a trip report next month for my trip on QF... Cheers.