I'm off to Auckland later this week.

Outbound is EDI-LHR-SYD, (on a 241), a couple of days in Sydney and then - on AA miles - SYD-AKL.

Return is Qatar, AKL-DOH-EDI. All flights in Business.

Now, I am actually on my way to Tahiti, but the direct Tokyo-PPT flight was cancelled nine months ago. So I had to find another way.

With the 241 starting from the regions, I could find BA avios availability, but there was no Qatar availability on the outbound. But I got Qatar for the inbound and kept looking. Nothing has cropped up - and I looked at Dublin, Madrid etc as starting points too.

I suppose that is the benefit of BA avios - you can book and you have the trip in the can. Then if Qatar opens up, you can easily cancel. And if it doesn't....well, you are getting there on points.