You might also consider looking at Expert Flyer to set some alerts. Not sure what airlines work with EF, but you should check it out. I booked my inlaws to Australia and I set up an alert on Expert Flyer for the Syd-LAX flight in biz/first. Wouldn't you know, the award came up while they were in Australia! Luckily, I had booked their return as a one-way using Korean points and I had not yet transferred the points to Korean from Chase UR, so all was good

Also, the suggestion of using an award booker is a good one I think.