Availability per se was not the issue, though. SQ availability on MEL-MUC was there, which was my desired longhaul component of the *A award. The issue was the hurdles involved in adding the intra-European LH segment (thereby making it a *A award) via the call centre. I also have to comment (for anyone else coming across this thread) that buying a separate ticket has the potential to cause all sorts of hassles, given that LH would have no obligation to protect that booking if the separately ticketed SQ flights were delayed. (And of course, a *A award MEL-LIS is only 117.5k in J, whereas two tickets would be 116k+30k, so much poorer value if one finds it hard to accumulate SQ points.)