I agree with the previous poster that it would be crazy to get a standard business award rather than obtaining a first class saver award. That said, if the poster needs two first class saver awards, that can be difficult as well.

Nonetheless, in both 2005 and 2006 I was able to get two first class award seats to Australia from SFO. On both trips I came back through NZ (in 2006 it was in Air New Zealand's 2 class business clas with lie flat beds rather than a traditional first class seat). On one trip, I went non-stop from SFO to SYD on UA on the outbound; on the other, I flew SFO-LAX-AKL-SYD (using ANZ from LAX to Auckland and Thai from Auckland to Sydney).

I think your December travel dates are going to be problematic ... even if they open up F seats it will be near the last minute. My trips were in April and May (very nice fall weather in NZ and still 80s in Sydney and up the Australian Coast). When booking seats, I resigned myself to taking any outbound date (or inbound date) I could fnd in a 2-3 month window and then being willing to spend anywhere from 13-22 days overseas as long as I could get a return flight back. It is definitely best to use a real UA agent to find possible flights.

Not an easy task -- good luck.