Originally Posted by ckpeter

Well, the first question is why didn't you just add the AUS-LAX leg to your BA redemption. I thought BA allows you to change award?

But since you already cancelled the reservations, that point is moot.

The short answer is if a seat was going to return as an award seat, it would have happened instantly.

In this case, since it didn't happen instantly, it means that RM is quite happy that you cancelled the award, as they wanted those 4 seats for sale at the moment. You will just have to keep monitoring the flights to see if and when they may open up.

It usually pays to to keep monitoring seat for release. As you discovered yourself, award availability changes all the time, so it is likely that at some point they may be released again. However, in your case, things are more difficult, because you are asking for 4 seats.

One suggestion I have is for you to book your trip speculatively. Confirm with BA that you could change origin/destination with a BA award, and then book whatever is available now (AUS-LAX). If the other legs open up later, you can add to them. Also, you may want do the same thing with the passengers, so if only 2 seats are available on LAX-OGG, you may book 2 seat AUS-LAX-OGG, and 2 seat AUS-LAX only, and when another 2 seats for LAX-OGG open up in the future, you can add them for the remaining passengers.