I tried today to book two J Aadvantage Award seats to ISN with a stop in Barcelona (thinking Iberia might be easier than AA to LHR) or Finnair to Helsinki and then onto Istanbul.

No go: the nice AAdvantage desk folks politely told me there was nothing from LA to Europe for August 4 to August 19 (desired date was Aug 4). Not to Brussels, Helsinki, Madrid, Londen. Guess I'm not really surprized.

Fallback, go to China. Same dates (desired-leave Aug 4-rtn Aug 26).

Got two coach seats, now on hold, LAX NRT Aug 3 on JAL, rtn Aug 26 on AA. Told to try tomorrow to get seats to Shanghai or Beijing.

Much better than nothing, but I'd still like to go to Barcelona and Istanbul if there is any way to work it, preferably J or F.

Or, what are my chances (if any) of getting J or F to NRT and on to China tomorrow?

Thanks for your thoughts.