Originally Posted by clarrkkent

I recently booked at trip on CX to Auckland in business. I booked for 10/30-11/12 and only booked about a month ago. At the time, there were plenty of E and PE seats, at least 1-2 business, and 0-1 F on the segments she checked.

First step, of course, is to call. No amount of pre-homework I did really helped that much unless you are cross referencing several award search engines for partner awards. Too many false positives. Don't rely on search engines to show you what is/is not available.

Next - ask the agent to look segment by segment. When my agent first looked for the entire itinerary in one shot, it turned up zero availability. When I had her look segment by segment, suddenly there was availability.

As someone else mentioned, you have a few close options for CX origination. (SFO, LAX, YVR). Start with your long segments on CX and build your domestic flights around that.

Be flexible. CX routes through HKG to AKL. We decided to take advantage and stay 2 days on the way there to check it out. I think we're in HKG for 6 hours on the way back. We also originated in YVR on CX and return to LAX. Planning to stay in LA for the day and see some sights before heading back to SEA on a 9:30pm flight.

You can always book a less than ideal itinerary and then keep checking back and modifying as availability changes.

I did see some Quantas F space open sporadically LAX-AKL through Alaska's website, but only 1 seat usually showing.