First time BA exec club user. I've learned a lot. I should have started my hunting sooner. What's done is done!

My family of 4 is traveling to Italy from San Fran this summer. Dates are kind of strict. We are landing in Rome, and flying out of Milan. Wife and one daughter are staying in NYC for 1 week on the return end. My other daughter and I are going back to san fran. So we had 3 one-way legs to purchase.

Used Avios for

1) LAX-> Rome on June 29. Did 3 economy avios tickets at first, as no fourth one available. Then a fourth avios ticket in economy was available and snagged it. Air Berlin for all 4 tickets. Will take southwest to LAX out of pocket.

2) Wife and daughter got Milan -> JFK via BA. They will pay out of pocket for JFK to SFO after the 1 week in NYC.

Dilemma:

The missing piece is the return flight from Milan -> SFO for me and my other daughter. There are no avios flights available. I have searched all permutations: other departing european cities, other arriving usa cities. Nothing for July 14th, which is kind of a must date for us. I've been following the out-of-pocket Air Berlin flights from Milan -> SFO for 2 weeks and the daily fluctuation is breathtaking. I should probably have pulled the trigger when it was $900 a ticket, but I've been struggling with whether there will be more avios availability on anything that comes close to what we need for July 14th.

Should I simply buy air berlin tickets ($1200 one way today, ouch, will wait till they drop to $1000 - assuming they will!), or should I wait and see if more avios availability will reveal itself with time.