Booking a CX award in F last month from SFO-HKG-PVG and returning BKK-HKG-SFO was surprisingly painless. I was able to get my first choice dates on the outbound and return flights with only 2 weeks notice. A last minute change had me delay the return by a day and this was no problem as well. I get the feeling that CX opens a lot of F inventory a week or 2 before the flight.
If connections to China or Southeast Asia are what you need I'd avoid doing the JL flight into HND because there are really no connections from there and take CX into HKG where you can basically connect anywhere you want to go in Asia. Good luck and have a great trip!