stevens397

First of all, Air New Zealand has 2 seats available on many days in October for Business Class upgrades. Delta has a number of days available for Business Class seats. My sense from a cursory look is that you'll have no problem.

There are too many options. My recommendation is that you go to www.expertflyer.com and sign up for a free five day membership. I purchase and renew each year as I find it to be very valuable. Then once you are a member, you can search a number of airlines for rewards seats. One caveat is to search from a major city - in your case, I used Los Angeles. Not only did you not tell anyone where you live or where you are flying from, it is easier to find flights from major airports. And if you can't get a connection as part of the ticket, it is probably still worthwhile to pay for that ticket and just be happy you're in the front of the plane for the long haul to Australia.

Good luck - but expect to do some of your own legwork here. You find the flights, you transfer miles to that airline or to a partner in the alliance, you have them ticket your flights and then you look in a mirror and smile - sounds complicated but it's only hard the first time. Air New Zealand is part of the Star Alliance so you can transfer to either Air Canada or ANA. Most people on FT seem to like Air Canada more. Again, good luck.

miffSC

Sorry - I wasn't as clear as I intended. You are right, Mia, transferring the points after you know the upgrade is available - in the case of the OP. I read it that they already knew the upgrade was available and needed information on how many miles/points would be needed for the actual upgrade.

Again, I agree - and would think the OP would only transfer the points needed which is why I provided the award information links.

Since I have never transferred my AMEX this way, I was unaware that it was an instantaneous process. I'll file that away for future reference in case I ever need to do the same.

Surgee

Its by far one of the most valuable aspects of AMEX Membership rewards.

Important Note: Transfers are not immediate for ALL partners.

For example, ANA takes 2-5 days. I can confirm CO, DL, AC, BA, AZ, WN, and VS are all practically instantaneous.

ffI

Sign up now for accounts in ANA, AC, CO, DL, BA if you do not have them.
Use them in this order.
Link all your accounts to Amex, BUT do NOT transfer ANY points.
These accounts take 2 weeks at times to get linked for the first time.

Search ANA for star alliance awards
search for flight search, which allows you to search many options - upto 8 in 1 query.
You can put in e.g., IAD-SFO, IAD-LAX, LAX-SYD, LAX-AKL, SFO-SYD, YVR-SYD IN 1 SEARCH (or you search them one by one day by day)

make a sheet detailing C inventory for 2 people
Construct the trip you need.

Call AC and book 2 awards in C - give them specific flight numbers;
ask them hold tickets for 3 days
THEN
transfer 230 k points to AC and call them to pay for your trip in 1 day.

Don't worry, 6 of us went in C & F (even before I knew about Flyertalk) and I was able to look up united inventory on their website for 2 people and book with US miles with little help.
215 miles + 15k miles advance will get you there on AC.

You are allowed one stopover so we went to AKL and had a stop over in SYD as well on the way back.

Surgee

Wise advice, though linking accounts is usually instant IME.

AC will not hold awards unless you already have the appropriate number of miles are in your account. If you find what you need with AC and don't have enough miles, you have to transfer and book immediately.

CO will hold awards without miles in the account, but its a higher redemption to Australia.

Points advance is a great feature to top off accounts if you are just short of an award. Amount you can advance depends on what card you have with AMEX. 5K, 15K and 60K are typical.

AC allows 2 stopovers. One in each direction.

Ozchinois

The US-Oz route on Qantas is very popular and it is extremely difficult to get classic award seats in biz or first unless it's 10-12 months' ahead. I don't think you'll be able to get 2 biz class tickets with your points. With the QFF scheme, it's minimum of 192,000 points per biz class ticket ie SYD to LAX return. It's easier to get an award flight on BA to Oz via the US.

divemistressofthedark

Also, bear in mind you have to buy a certain class of seat to be eligible for an upgrade. DON'T buy tickets first, thinking you can easily upgrade them - the bare bones economy tickets are usually not upgradeable.

ffI

Thanks for the info. If you can not do the points advance, I would also suggest buying miles if needed, also quite fast to top up account. In the overall cost / value of the tickets, 10k points at 2.5 each =250$ well worth it.

bandelson

what is the best way to use Am Ex points to fly business or first class from Los Angeles to Australia?

sanjay1

Probably transfer them over to Continental or ANA to book a flight on Air NZ.

You might want to check out this link:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...+from+the+Wing)

Tim O'Brien

air canada's aeroplan has very good redemption options, can transfer to aeroplan and fly Singapore, AirNZ, etc

you may find this of interest

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...d-itineraries/

sbm12

Find the seats you want on V Australia. Transfer the points to DL for redemption and take the bonus that comes with. One of the best values for a premium seat to Oz.

Tim O'Brien

sbm12

when you say find the seats you want on V Australia, are you referring to award seats or any seats?

sbm12

Award seats.

bandelson

thanks for all of the good suggestions. Are there travel agencies that specialize in doing this (transferring points) or is this something best done yourself?