Dont book through Amex. Use resources such as point.me, seats.aero, awardlogic.com, roame.travel or seatspy.
These resources will help you find good deals.
Search for international business class or international first class. But try to start your trip at major airports such as lax, dfw, ord, Orlando, Atlanta, etc.
If you are from Utah, catch a cheap positioning flight from SLC to a major airport and then go from there.
Also, delta points suck. Virgin, Air France, British airways, KLM, Air Canada and others have much better point values. You can transfer Amex points to all the others I just listed for better deals than with delta points.