This is one of the hardest routes in the world for getting a business award. Lots of people not going to AKL also book it, and QF has only 1 flight/day LAX-AKL. Also QFF awards can be redeemed 355 days out; so one strategy is to start crediting your AA flights to QFF instead of Aadvantage and then redeem using QFF instead. Cost more but there is plenty of availability a year out. Otherwise there is close to zero chance of additional inventory opening up on this route; even if people cancel award bookings, these generally go into J inventory and aren't returned to U. QF is severely short on J seats trans-pacific for the popular travel dates (half the year). This isn't like other routes, it will be tough to get an award without QFF status. EXP is just too low of a status to compete with the others wanting these awards, if you cannot get it a year out.