Well, I guess it looks like US-SYD via SE Asia won't be possible for now. In that case, I guess it's really just a matter of finding an empty award C seat on SQ now. Which means getting a paid ticket from either BHM or HSV to EWR, use the award for EWR-SIN (EWR being closer to southeast US than the west coast) and again another paid ticket SIN-SOC.

(MNLGuy, my mom's looking to visit SOC/Solo, and possibly West Timor; but I'll let my father handle all the domestic flights. )

I wasn't aware of the MPM issue; I'm looking at UA's *A award PDF and it mentioned nothing about it.

Ah well, thanks all. I guess it's time to ask in the UA forum now.