YEAH! Booked HKG-LHR-IAD. 100,000 miles and about $320 in fees (I took the fees in HKD since if I went with USD the fees roughly doubled) in UC!
(Granted I had to spend about $1400 on the miles to get everything into place...but still, that's $1700 paid for a $13,000 ticket. I'll take that with a broad, broad smile...)
Now to futz around and get the SYD-SIN-HKG ticket worked out (I may have said that I've compared this trip to an Indiana Jones itinerary)...which will probably take a few weeks at this point. However...the tricky part is done and as long as the sale stays in place I have NO problem forking over $50 (availability permitting) if I need to slide things by a few days. I'm just glad to have something in hand for this.