A dream come true (almost)
It's now a little less than a year from departure, and I've managed to snag r/t award tickets for two YVR-SYD on Cathay (YVR-HKG-SYD and the reverse). All legs but HKG-SYD are in business class.
I check almost daily (obsessively??) but so far am stuck with economy HKG-SYD. Adding a one-day stopover in HKG, I can get business class HKG-MEL on Cathay and then MEL-SYD on Qantas.
I'd rather go direct on Cathay HKG-SYD, but for the sake of flying business class could live with going through MEL on Qantas. Should I wait it out and hope to switch to Cathay business class HKG-SYD, or take the Cathay/Qantas business class seats now?
I'm booking with AA miles. AA's phone rep didn't charge a booking fee, by the way, and in fact never mentioned it. Thanks to all here for the wonderful help and advice.