Just got asked to fly to MEL in 5 weeks - point me?
 

Just came up at a meeting today that I'm being asked to go to a tech meeting in Australia. I'm in Niagara, so flying out of YYZ (or Buff). I would MUCH prefer to get Aeroplan miles for this flight, so this restricts me on airlines. Also, VP has approved business class seats as long as they are <$5k return

A quick search from YYZ-MEL shows that I cannot find Aeroplan earning business seats for that price range.

I see Southern China Airlines for about $4k - but no miles. I'll take no miles over not sitting in a business class lay flat, of course. (reviews on Southern China seem OK if flying business - confirm?)

So, I'm jumping in here to see if I am missing something - or someone has suggestions I'm oblivious to.

I'm slightly flexible on dates, but it's looking like leaving YYZ on Feb 18, and returning on the 25th (not yet confirmed).

Would you be willing to pay the difference if >5K RT if it meant you could earn AE miles? If so, to what extent?

I did YYZ-MEL earlier this year...

YYZ->LAX (AC)
LAX->AKL (NZ)
AKL->MEL (NZ)

And back...

That said, it was $8500 (and that was a good price too). I am not aware of any possible way of getting to Australia in J for less than $5k. It's reputably bad for that.

You may look at doing it in Latitude or PE, then trying to upgrade out of pocket (eup or some other latitude magic). Do the YYZ->YVR->BNE or YYZ->YVR->SYD trips and do something local to get to melbourne.

Would you consider doing the outbound in J and return in PE? That might be cheaper than 5k on AC.

Would this work? It's two extra days in Melbourne (a wonderful problem to have) and a little over budget, but may be worth it for the comfort and the accumulated miles.

https://goo.gl/flights/kXWL

Only a little if his boss meant $5k USD. :)

CAN$5,000 for a Canada Australia return in business is a very low amount.
Also look for SYD. SYD-MEL is ~1:10hrs and can be about Au$150 (or less) in economy one way

Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from Australia (not from all airports to all airports)
- American Airlines AA (LAX - SYD) [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner)
- Air Canada AC (YYR – SYD, BNE from Jun 2016) [Star Alliance]
- Air New Zealand NZ (LAX SFO IAH YVR via AKL) [Star Alliance]
- Air Tahiti Nui TN (LAX via Tahiti. Last segments on codeshares) (AA & DL partner)
- Delta DL (LAX – SYD) (VA & AS partner) [Skyteam Alliance]
- Fiji Airways FJ (LAX SFO HNL via Fiji) (QF, AA & AS partner)
- Hawaiian HA (HNL – SYD BNE via Hawaii) (AA & VA partner)
- Jetstar JQ JQ (HNL – SYD BNE)
- Qantas QF (LAX SFO JFK DFW HNL YVR*– SYD BNE MEL) [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner) {* seasonal}
- United UA (LAX SFO – SYD MEL) [Star Alliance]
- Virgin Australia VA (LAX – SYD BNE) (DL partner) MEL LAX restarting 4 April 2017
And others via Asia & Middle East

Oh, right. That does make a big difference - sorry! :)

Seems like your in the 6K range for Business... if your in the market for AE points...

If you have to pay 1000$ out of pocket for 28k points.... Depends if you need status or not... many credit cards offer 25k points for free or very low annual fees...

China Eastern has flat beds on the 777 and a lot of the 333s, and comes in at 3600$...

Some good advice from other posters. If you are willing you can try PE with ANZ via AKL. Very good product that I have flown on with a free stopover in AKL. Or as someone else posted, you can try J one way and PE the other. You will earn AE points. I believe you also get lounge access but that may have changed. I think I paid $3500 rtn in PE.

Probably should add that I have 390,000 Aeroplan points in my account, but I am trying to save these if I can for an upcoming PPT vacation in 16 months. If this helps at all (no idea?) without using more than 100,000 of the miles, I'm game.

So, if I'm ok not earning miles (since I already have enough for my next big vacation to PPT), I'd love advice on the Southern China Air flights - YYZ-China(sorry, cannot remember the airport) - 6 hour layover, then Chine-MEL flight. For less than $4k - lay flat seats. Any thoughts on those?

So far, you seem to be all confirming what I thought -$5k is not very doable - with some nice flights coming in at the $7-9k range.

Even if SYD is not your Au destination, it can be hard to avoid SYD as that has a lot more long flights that other Au (or NZ) airports.
And an international to international transit at AKL is 10 times more preferable than a international to domestic transfer at SYD. UA & AA also fly into AKL. UA is struggling on that route (being reduced).

Great idea - I'll investigate.

Another quick question - what about these sites that say they deal exclusively with getting reductions on business class seats? I'm not sure I can mention the names here - but I submitted an online request on one of these sites, and got a call that I can get flights in lay flat UA and AC for ~4,700 (I'm assuming $USD), where the retail price is ~$7k. I'm skeptical, of course.

It shows as C$7123 from YYZ, but if you price it from YUL, it is only $5809. https://www.google.ca/flights/?sourc...=STAR_ALLIANCE

I am sure you can do YYZ-YUL r/t for less than $1314