I think I'm becoming a believer in the fix-your-dates v. open-dated argument. I was browsing through the screens on availability for SYD-JNB in August and kept seeing D0, D0, D0... yikes. So booked the best available, which is 4 days sooner than I wanted (hence dominoes fall up/downstream.) Guess I should put off procrastinating for the time being, and look at other segs to make sure we don't end up in the back of the bus.
I can hear it now... "told ya so..."