Thank you everyone for the info and advice. There were two flights on 5/7 and 7/7 with A availability that I was hoping to grab. However, they were not available for space release. I admit, I had my hopes up too far for the joker.
Ended up going with a cash booking on Cathay: AKL-HKG-CDG-LHR. Honestly with how many flights are completely sold out in the following week, I'm happy with it.