Mrs. Hokieflyer and I are doing this in 2 months. Granted, it is from the east coast, but I went with Virgin Atlantic through London to Shanghai, the out of Hong Kong. I got 2 Upper Class seats on the dates I wanted by booking 8 months out. The award also cost more than other Asia awards, but I'm hoping the Upper Class will be worth it. Before I booked the VS award, I had a reservation in First Class on Malaysian, but the total travel time was going to be 50 hours. I had no luck with either Singapore or Northwest anywhere near the dates I wanted. (I could get as far as Tokyo on NW, but they couldn't find 2 biz class seats beyond that.)