I agree that creative short hauls are the best use of points. I have recently used YUL-YYT and Ottawa to New Orleans at a reasonable point and scam charge level. I have found that J class overseas has been just as rare, if not rarer than Y class. I tried to get a seat for my wife to either Beijing, Hong Kong or Singapore this summer on J and most of the redemptions were 200 K miles and up. Plus the routings were bizarre (Toronto to Zurich then Beijing?) with over half of the flight in Y. Didn't seem to matter howw early or late I booked, availability sucked. The direct Toronto or Vancouve flights showed absolutely no seats sold, yet no seats had been made available either. Looks like everybody will be getting toasters for Christmas next year!