Why open date this kind of routing/ticket? I do not see any advantage, and a huge disadvantage: the risk of the route ceasing to operate by the time you fly. With a dated sector the airline will re-route you (including multiple sectors for free, or even on a non-OW flight if necessary), while with open-dated you get to reroute (and pay a reissue fee). E-tickets have eliminated 99% of the benefit of open-dated tickets.....am I missing something? It just seems stupid (or a great gift to the airline) to continue to use open-dated tickets, given that date changes are free and easy now (I've never had it take longer than 1 minute).

My opinion is that SYD-HNL is at great risk (with the double whammy of QF dropping a codeshare and/or L being sold out). L availability is quite poor on some routes, something to keep in mind. ORD-YOW is also risky too, I'd book that when possible.