pinniped

I posted a broader Belize question on Travelbuzz, but got no response. I realized that since I really have no desire to fly US Airways or Continental to get there, this is really an AA question.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to get to Belize either using AA miles or buying tickets. The catch is that we are trying to go for New Year's, and I'm quickly discovering that this must be a popular New Year's destination, as I'm seeing no AA award availability and a bunch of $700 R/T airfares (MCI-DFW-BZE).

So a couple of questions:

- I see Taca is a partner airline, but I can't find any way to check Taca award availability short of calling on the phone. Anyone know how to do this? Going through AA.com yields only AA metal, and it's saying no availability for any dates - even flying on Christmas Day itself and New Year's Day itself.

- The lack of availability on Christmas Day itself leads me to ask: is it possible that AA simply hasn't made award seats available yet on their flights? I mean, surely that will be a somewhat empty flight...or will it?

- Is there an AA/Taca equivalent to the Mexican Hat Dance? e.g., Instead of flying MCI-DFW-BZE for 700 clams, is there a MCI-DFW-???-BZE routing that will yield some sort of reasonable airfare - even if it's 2 tickets?

- Any way to query applicable award fare buckets to perhaps find some creative routing using miles?

Any thoughts/ideas (other than "You are silly to try and go to Belize at that time of year!") are appreciated!