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That sounds like a very unlikely situation. I cannot believe that there would be no award seats set aside between YYZ and HNL, even in Executive Class. I quote from AC's Air Canada's Customer Service Plan, posted on the website earlier this year. [There is no direct link from the home page, but go to Press Releases and you will find a link to the complete document.]

"For frequent flyers: a guaranteed number of seats Air Canada will make available a minimum of 10 percent of the airline's seats per month on each route for reward travel.

" If you are an Aeroplan™ member, you accumulate miles with the full expectation of being able to redeem those miles for future travel. To ensure that this basic expectation of our Aeroplan members is respected, Air Canada makes a substantial and measurable number of its seats available for reward travel.

"Despite the commitment to a set number of seats, it is always advisable for Aeroplan members to book their reward travel early and have a certain flexibility regarding travel dates."

And particularly with the introduction of the new YYZ-HNL-MEL service, there will be even more capacity to Australia early next year, so there must be more award seats. This is a very attractive route for awards, granted. And seats will be hard to get. But even if there is a limit on "local traffic" for awards between Canada and Hawaii, there can be an override for those wishing to travel directly to SYD or MEL.

Alternatively, have you considered using Air New Zealand or United? Both STAR carriers can be an alternative, flying down to LAX and catching one of their services into SYD or MEL. Or at least into AKL, then using additional miles to get into SYD on Ansett. But you should be able to do the trip, one way or another.

I very much doubt the voracity of that agent's statement. True, as a non-status Aeroplan member, you may be down the pecking order. But you sound flexible in your dates. I would call back -- I realize the wait time, but... -- or better still, if you are a lawyer [as your Username suggests], then why not drop the AC VP who wrote this policy a line with the quote you were given from the agent you spoke with. As a lawyer, you can certainly find a reason why they have published a misleading statement, and suggest you might take further action if this indeed is the case! But say it in less blunt terms: you know, honey rather than hammer.