Additionally, Virgin Australia
award space is quite tough to
find (especially business class), but sometimes you will
find more
space closer to departure.
Try to avoid this unless you are very
close to the required mileage for an
award, you have
found award space, and you need the flight on a very specific date.
It's worth noting that it's tougher than ever before to
find first class Star Alliance
award space on Lufthansa and Swiss (see How to Deal with No More Lufthansa Advance First Class Availability), so nowadays this is most practical when planning
close to departure, as Lufthansa tends to open up
award space no more than three weeks out.