Thank you for the detailed answers to my questions.

Another reason we are considering the trip now is that we have some miles that will expire soon if not redeemed. We will certainly use them to go somewhere closer to home rather than let them expire, but this is why we are looking at a particular window in time to take the trip.

One more related question. Would you consider it more difficult to take a small child without a seat on a transatlantic flight from the east coast in economy or a transpacific flight in business class?