I have always waited until I was able to find R > 2 space before booking. Now I usually need to search multiple routings and be flexible with scheduling in order to find free R inventory. For example if we're flying to Asia, I check EWR/ORD/DEN/SFO/IAH (etc.) - NRT/ICN/HKG (etc.) looking for R space. If we're flying to Europe, I'm checking EWR/IAD/ORD - LHR/FRA/BRU/MUC etc.
But so far at least, it has worked for us.
Exactly. We are doing a "mileage/GPU" run very end of Jan to use up expiring GPUs. Also to get more RDMs before the change comes next year.
Out of curiosity, I have never seen R availability on TATL flights from EWR. Not that I want to connect there, but is it ever available?