I would say that your best bet, since you don't have any program affiliations and the time of year you want to travel, is to just pony up and pay for the tickets.

Getting a reward during the summer is nearly impossible on most airlines for those who have the miles already in their accounts and want to book early. You don't have anything, and you're really only about 6 months out. Even if you want to get an unrestricted award, which is double miles, you're talking about 100k miles per ticket - it's not likely you can do it, no matter how many credit cards you sign up for

For now, I would set up fare alerts on www.kayak.com for first class fares to the destinations you prefer. It's not unusual to find there may be some good fare deals for first coming up for the summer.

Sorry, but that's the best I can think of.