I wanted to fly my sister's family (2 adults, 2 toddlers) to visit us next summer. The itinerary would be TLS-FRA-SFO, leaving on July 28 and returning on August 12. I was prepared to shell out 320,000 miles for 4 Economy Standard Awards if necessary. At the end of September, I was able to get two Economy Saver Awards on LH4375/UA901 and UA900/LH4372. The problem is that I was told I couldn't get two Standard Awards to match this itinerary because the TLS-FRA is not on UA. I do not want to split the family and have them travel on different itineraries. The UA rep told me that I should periodically check for Saver Award availability on these flights.

1/ Realistically, what are the chances of more Economy Saver Awards opening up on this particular Transatlantic flight in the middle of the summer? My instinct tells me that, on a flight that presumably will be end up being full, all available Saver Awards are released 330 days in advance. Is that a correct assumption?

2/ What are the chances of two Business Saver Awards opening up later on? None are currently available but are these awards released on a somewhat different schedule than Economy Awards? These would cost me the same as two Economy Standard Awards but could include the LH legs.

3/ Short of calling UA everyday, is there a more convenient/faster way to check award availability for a specific flight/date? When looking for award availability, I end up having to do separate searches for Economy and Business. If I "pretend" to buy a ticket and click on flight details, I can see all fare buckets, except those for awards... Is there way to find out all award availability, all classes somehow? I apologize if this has been covered before; I checked several links but couldn't find an answer.

4/ If all else fails, I'll get two Standard Awards for FRA-SF0 and will purchase 2 TLS-FRA but, right now, they seem to run at 400+ euros each! Between taxes, booking fees and TLS-FRA, these 4 "free" tickets will end up costing me around $1300...

I've had good luck with awards to Europe before but they were always on UA flights, not UA/*Alliance combos. A little bit of an eye-opener...