Are you a Delta Platinum or Diamond? If you can book and cancel awards it will help a great deal. Last year I was able to fly BOS-LAX-MEL and SYD-LAX-JFK with a one way car rental back to near PVD where I live. It ended up being 70k per person United on the Outbound and 80k Skymiles per person back.
The key though was finding 80k one ways on Delta thru PVG which I did not want to do. As a Diamond I could then look for better options. Ended up finding a better option on the return on AA. Then there was a schedule change on AA and that provided flexibility again and finally within two weeks of the trip the perfect outbound opened up at the low level on United and a few days later VA opens up the perfect return. Just had to cancel the fully refundable DL flights thru PVG and the refundable with the schedule change on AA.
I know that 80k is gone but if you are able to make free changes on Delta it helps a great deal and you can start with something even if not great. And then change it as things open. Of course you need miles on United and AA too with my approach and you couldn't do this on peak travel days.
Good luck.
Last edited by mfFrom35K; May 3, 2017 at 9:46 am
Reason: Typo