Welcome to FT, Down Under section, cassiusd!

I think there are three issues to consider:

1. How much will the tickets be?
2. How good is the Biz product?
3. Where do you actually want to stopover?

So here are a few options for you:

SFO-SYD direct with UA or QF. UA is now fully flat, QF only on the A380 but QF has much better service. Price on UA starts from $3800++, QF has not loaded any decent fares yet.

SFO-NRT-SYD on JL. A nice stopover in Tokyo, decent product but no good fares yet. Often JL can be quite cheap.

SFO-PEK-SYD. Stopover in Beijing on CA. Okay product at best but interesting city.

SFO-HKG-SYD on CX. Nice product, nice stopover, not so nice fares

LAX-NAN-SYD on FJ. Stopover on Fiji, nice prices but not so nice products.

LAX-PPT-SYD on TN (might need another connection in AKL). Stopover in Paradise, not so great prices and not so great product.

LAX-HNL-GUM-CNS on CO. The exotic way which can be combined with even more Island hopping. But you end up in CNS, not SYD. Similar to flying to Boston when you actually want to be in Miami.

LAX-RAR-AKL-SYD on NZ. Partly a very nice product (not LAX-RAR) and stopover on the Cook Islands. But not so cheap usually.

SFO-ICN-SYD on OZ. Usually very good fares, Seoul is a great stopover with not too many tourists. Service is excellent, hardware only mediocre.



NZ is actually not flying LAX-PPT anymore so the OP would need to backtrack to PPT from AKL. Also many flights to PPT are on the 767 which doesn't have the nice business class.