Originally Posted by percysmith

Each time my brother's family came back I had to build their itineraries incrementally:

For Xmas 2015:
Dec 2014 - waitlist outbound leg. Only CX110 0835 available on my SIL's desired flight x 3J
Jan 2015 - add return leg CX101 and redeem. Had to separate nephew out as CX101 only had 2J 1PE. Nephew waits for CX101 in J.
Mid-Mar 2015 - my niece and SIL clears CX162 1125. My nephew does not yet.
Late-Mar 2015 - my nephew clears CX101 in J so I reissue him.
May 2015 - my nephew clears CX162 so rebook SYD-HKG x3.

My brother is travelling on his own (smart...). I manage to redeem him for a week straddling Christmas-New Year 360 days out in J both ways. But he was on the CX110 on the outbound and I had the opportunity to rebook him on CX162 in Mar 2015

The trip before that (May 2014), I grabbed 4 PE seats initially in Sep 2013. Everyone watlisted for J both ways.
My nephew was confirmed first, with outbound J being released in Feb 2014 and inbound in Apr 2014.
SIL was confirmed outbound 3 days before travel and the return did not happen until she begin travelling (8 days before return)
Niece was confirmed outbound 2 days before travel and the return did not happen until she begin travelling (4 days before return)