What Would You Do to Solve this Middle East Trip Conundrum?

[HUGE AL]

OK, my crazy trip to TLV is now coming together (AGAIN). I've all but given up on the ATW idea so here's where I'm at:

The ticket I'm dealt is a semi-discounted Y ~ $1,700. Routing is LAX-EWR-TLV-EWR-LAX on CO.

I will not fly Y that great of a distance.

I've looked into burning some of the NW miles I have (which pull from the same pool of seats as CO's), but am told I'd be on a waiting list and I'm not about to get into a crap shoot of whether I get the seat or not, so that's not an option.

I can pay $2,800 extra and confirm myself in CO's BusinessFirst (what a joke of a marketing spin that is).

Another thing I thought of was reticketing the $1,700 ticket to a OW (LAX-EWR-TLV) in BusinessFirst...which would cost me an extra $1,800...and then using SPG points (which I have plenty of) to use mileage to take another carrier home in F. Saw the LH would cost me 135k miles and I would route TLV-FRA-LAX. Is that even easy to do with M&M (I don't have an account)?

I even looked at NH to see if they flew the route (TLV-NRT-LAX) as I'm not opposed to flying them after all the awesome TR's I've read...but they didn't. Point being, I could fly either direction.

What's your advice? This trip has been driving me CRAZY!

Thanks.

[Savage25]

Have you considered taking a discounted/award C ticket to Europe (for example FRA) and then buying a separate roundtrip (eg FRA-TLV)?

I've looked into burning some of the NW miles I have (which pull from the same pool of seats as CO's), but am told I'd be on a waiting list and I'm not about to get into a crap shoot of whether I get the seat or not, so that's not an option.

As of a few months ago, you couldn't waitlist for a CO BF upgrade using NW miles...you'd have to have call and it could only be done if upgrade inventory was available at that time (or maybe you could set an Expertflyer alert to see when it becomes available and then call). Has this changed?

[HUGE AL]

Have you considered taking a discounted/award C ticket to Europe (for example FRA) and then buying a separate roundtrip (eg FRA-TLV)?

My outbound can't be changed (long story there)...

As of a few months ago, you couldn't waitlist for a CO BF upgrade using NW miles...you'd have to have call and it could only be done if upgrade inventory was available at that time (or maybe you could set an Expertflyer alert to see when it becomes available and then call). Has this changed?

Not sure on that one...just quoting what the travel agent told me...though she's kinda clueless...