I've needed to go East Coast more recently, and US Airways is quite easy to get at the moment. If you're very keen to try the A380 then HKG is a better option anyway.

The redemption space gets released at around 01:00 hrs London time daily, so a check first thing in the morning is all you need to do. You may want to also check say LHR to NYC, as a check to see if there is a temporary glitch. If you see nothing to NY then you best leave it a few hours and check again, otherwise check it the next day. I sometimes use Avios.com or AA, it's a bit faster to check on their websites.

For close to departure, then you need to check morning and afternoon, maybe 3 times a day in the final 3 or 4 days.

Checking hourly, goodness, how do people get the time to do that?