I was taking a look at the HKG-KIX-CNS--MEL (or --SYD-MEL) routing, and while it may be all business class, it's also more than 24 hours of flying and mucking around airports--not the most inspiring thing to be doing on a vacation.

Rafft, you anticipated my next question.

What routing/airlines would people suggest would be not that unreasonable, and with at least a fair chance of being able to eventually upgrade to business by the time of taking the flight? In the meantime, I can book economy. I also thought maybe breaking up the "group" and myself taking a different flight(s) the same day might make it easier to grab award "upgrade" later (instead of a larger threesome on the same flight).

I guess one other point to take into consideration is the fact that that particular flight day will be 16 days into the itinerary, so if I can't upgrade a cabin on the same flight after I have started the itinerary, then even the two-week hurdle when more awards might get freed up won't help.

Otherwise, I guess the best alternative to just get that leg over with as fast as possible is to just take the economy award seats on the direct HKG-MEL (which will also save segments to use for later flexability), even though that's a 9+ hour flight. Discussed it with my parents last night, and they will defer to my judgement, but agreed that 9 hours in economy sounds better than 30 hours in business and airports.

More thanks for all your helpful input!

Steve