Seems I got lucky and was able to book an award in Emirates F SFO-DXB for a flight in September. I was trying for SFO-DXB-MLE but the agent couldn't find any availability for DXB-MLE even in economy which I found strange. She was able to get 2 F seats going from SFO-DXB so that was good.

Now I have to either keep calling back to check for DXB-MLE availability or pay for that leg of the flight out of pocket.