How early does EY open up its awards? I am looking at going early next year from LAX to AUH and then MLE and wondering when I should start looking for award space in business or first.

You'll want to start looking a year out. It varies, but I found for the apartments it released a little later than other availability. YMMV

Problems changing awards
 

Australia held my award and USA office ticketed it last month. Now the short haul segment has J availability. I expect to upgrade the segment with no exchange in miles. Though itinerary is same, taxes may be different.

I seem to recall challenges changing awards this way. Any advice?

I've never had a problem doing what you're trying to do. I'm pretty sure the only way you'd see any noticeable change in fees is if the leg you were upgrading involved a departure from LHR. Otherwise, the fees should remain the same. Should be a quick phone call.

Data Point(s)

Called OZ number 2x, with no luck. Called NZ number and was able to secure 2 seats in F for JFK-AUH on first try. Tickets showing as 'on request' on my AA account so all seems good to go.

Congrats! As always, knowing when you are traveling is really helpful info, particularly for this route. Don't need specific dates, but month of travel would be appreciated.

This was for early December. Additionally I received the confirmation email from AA this morning around 3:30a CST.

What is the exact time EY opens award availability that can be booked with AA miles? I don't want to take any chances when those first class seats become available!

Lap Child
 

330 days for EY economy and business, approx 300-315 for EY First (at least for the A380).

This is a question for the EY forum

Currently there are flights operated by QF via DXB and the details were correct at time of posting

A direct service will have no 3rd region issues

If you're booked on EY101 AUH-JFK, you might want to check your booking. EY has done a slight schedule change (moved up departure by 20 minutes and arrival by 10), which resulted in the computer yanking me over to EY103, probably because of my long transit from CMB. In reality, I actually wound up on a waitlist for EY103 even though there was award space on EY101 still, so it was a real head scratcher. I called Australia and got them to put me back on EY101, since it still had award space. (I noticed something was awry by seeing my seat unoccupied on the EF seat map. I then opened the AA app and saw that my flight had changed. Looking on aa.com, it wouldn't even show me the details of my booking when I clicked on it. The agent I reached by calling the Australian number was the one who mentioned that I was actually waitlisted for the flight that they were showing me on.)

I called the Australia number, was on the phone with them for about 20 minutes and she was no help. She kept putting me on hold, or said she couldn't see anything. I called the US number twice, once to check what was available and again to book. They were super helpful, super friendly, and did everything I needed quickly and efficiently. I'd suggest trying to US number first before running up your Int'l phone bill. Our flights are AUH-LHR, and we booked 2 first class suites with a couple of date options.