Originally Posted by number_6

Normally you have to book a year ahead for awards to Oz, so pretty optimistic to expect to book for Nov -- which is starting to be peak season. As mentioned for CX you need to find award space with other web sites, aa.com doesn't show it even though it is redeemable. Maybe why it is still possible to get In general CX will open awards close to departure date if loads are light, generally 10 to 5 days before departure. Getting 2 seats in J is 10x harder than getting 1 award with no status. Good luck, you may have to book awards to Oz without having return space, but it will open up .... worst case if you have lots of MR points you can get EK from Oz to DXB and then on to USA, that is always availalble with 1 day flexibility, even for 2 awards on same plane.