Why is a particular Etihad flight option not showing as available?

I have been trying to get options for a flight Syd-auh-ist-auh-syd in November. I know EY454 is available but it is no longer appearing. Is etihad trying to fill the earlier flight which is not an a380 first? When I first started searching a few weeks ago it was coming up but with an absurd price difference: $36,000 vs $10,000 for F. What is this voodoo?

Are you looking for revenue flights (paying with cash) or reward/award flights (paying with points/miles)?

I’m looking to pay for it myself.

If it is not showing on Etihad website, when you are doing a revenue flight search, it might be sold out. Unlikely in First Class, I know but possible as I have heard stories about middle eastern families booking out all apartment seats.
Try searching for other dates or other classes for the same dates, or even reducing the number of passengers to check whether the flight is on. I checked for 30 Nov and the flight is showing so there shouldn’t be a schedule change.

The interesting thing is that when I do a straight SYD-IST-SYD search or just the AUH-SYD sector search EY454 comes up as an option. It’s when I do the multi city search SYD-AUH-IST-AUH-SYD to accommodate the two AUH stopovers that it stubbornly doesn’t appear. Weirdly I did this exact same trip Oct/Nov just past and didn’t have this issue. Maybe I’ll just give them a call to clarify. Thanks for your suggestions though.

Hmmm, sounds like potential married segments.

Good luck!