fanofmumbai, I see you also posted in the FAQ thread on USAir. You probably want to read Ben's (One Mile at a Time) post on Travelsort.com: How to Find Star Alliance Award Space

I personally look for award availability through M&M first, generally requesting 2 more seats than I need. Sometimes if there are 4 seats available through M&M, then you'd find 2 available to other partners, such as USAir.

Of course, Ben's suggestion to use Continental is also very good, better than my method. I use M&M first, since if have plenty of miles here I can use case there's nothing available through other airlines.

I've just compared M&M seatch for 3/4 seats to find 1/2 on Continental and I was able to find the seats I tried. I do only see connections through MUC for next year. LX doesn't generally open awards seats this early. You could find connections through FRA for next week, btw.

Best of luck!

P.S.: You do realize that 80k USAir miles would take you all the way to North Asia (HK/Tokyo/China) in Business class and 100k the same in First, right? But if want/have to go to DXB when it's super hot, that's cool too.