Originally Posted by 3544quebec

I have had the experience before of being told that I can't convert an All Partner Award into a Oneworld Award and needed to cancel the reservations first and hope that the inventory returned to award space.

Although its not guaranteed I have on several occasions canceled a QF award that I had on hold and have seen the award inventory reinstate immediately on the QF booking engine. If you are booking almost a year in advance it is unlikely that in the 2-3 weeks between booking your outbound and booking your inbound that the general flight inventory will have changed so much that QF's algorithm for making an award seat available will not put the seat you cancel back into award inventory. If you were canceling a seat 3 months out that you had booked 6 months previously then the inventory would have changed significantly and it would be unlikely that that seat would reinstate into award inventory.