Award availability from SYD-ICN in January
 

I'm looking for 2 C class seats in the middle of January from Syd to ICN. Interestingly there is a lot of availability through December, and also through February, but I can't find a single day with 2 seats available in January. My question for those more familiar with OZ is; have I missed them already, or should I expect seats to open up in the next month or two?

Unfortunately you will be out of luck. Almost all of January is within Asiana blackout dates so you can't redeem miles on OZ from any other *A program. OZ members can still redeem but only for 50% more miles on top of the outrages amount needed anyway. Only OZ Diamond Plus and Platinum can redeem as normal.

http://au.flyasiana.com/Global/AU/en...?fid=CLUB16100

Edit: You have two options, either get an OZ account or try coupon connection. Maybe someone can book those flights for you. Alternatively, you could try the QF codeshare on that flight.

Just a bit of an off-topic comment about that. As a Diamond Plus member, I wanted to get an award ticket on OZ this past January during a very peak travel time for me and an associate, but it was quite late when my travel plans became finalized, and I figured there wasn't much chance of getting what I wanted. I was quite surprised in getting the exact dates I wanted right off the bat. I'm planning another trip next year in January, during the lunar new year, and just got off the phone with OZ and again absolutely no problem getting the seats I wanted for me and a friend. So as Diamond Plus, I'm extremely satisfied with award availability. The earn/burn rates might not be the greatest, but the ability to get seats for two during peak travel times at the normal rate makes up for a lot, IMHO.

Funny - I got an award seat on Jan 22/2012 SYD-ICN in C - booked some months ago. However I was looking the other day for some friends and noticed that there were no longer any award seats available in Jan 2012 - I certain hope my booking is OK. (Note I used ANA to find the seats and booked with US points).

Well done. ^
Most probably you booked the seat before OZ loaded the blackout dates into the system.