FTwannabe,
You may have found some open seats for those routes on that web site, but they may be available for one person. I found some open for LAX to HNL and then went to NW's award site, entered one passenger flying and it worked. But when I entered 2 passengers, nothing was available. But it's still a good web site because you can get availability up to 6 days. I also go to the
www.aeroplan.de/ web site and hit Galileo CSR
on the side bar and bring up availablity for awards by entering "W" in the Buchungsklasse box. This is a German web site and the information you have to enter is Abflughafen for airport of departure (3 letters), Zielhafen for airport of destination, and 2 letter code for the airline. The Datum (date) format is ddmm. In about 5 seconds you'll get an answer. If no flight is listed you'll get an answer in German to that effect or your flight will be listed and under Klasse (n)/Platze (Class & Seats) it may list W2, gesamt 2 Platze. "W" is NW fare code for standard mileage awards.