My wife, daughter and I will be traveling to New Zealand (and hopefully also Australia) next May. Our hopeful routing is CLT-LAX-AKL-open jaw-CHC-BNE-LAX-CLT with a 4 day stopover in BNE.

I am hearing all these different stories on the "Trans Tasman" rule (only being able to cross the Tasman Sea once on an award ticket). I guess my question to those with the experience is - Is my routing allowable? Can I do the open jaw and the stop over on one award ticket? Will Qantas allow the CHC-BNE-LAX routing? I know they have the 1 CHC-BNE non-stop and the BNE-LAX non-stop service was just introduced.

I am a USAir Dividend Miles member using 105,000 miles to get each business class seat.

Thank you very much for your help.

You might explore the cost of tickets trans Tasman. There are good web fares in the order of AUD 350 return (eg MEL/SYD/BNE - AKL/CHC on QF, EK, TG etc. This may make the itinerary easier.

....
I am a USAir Dividend Miles member using 105,000 miles to get each business class seat.

As you indicate you getting the reward from US Air frequent flyer program , using US miles, the obvious people to ask is US Air. US Air rules apply, Nothing to do with QF

Hopefully the friendly folk in US Air will be able to help with this question - so I'll move it there.

After many inquiries, I have determined that there are almost as many interpretations of the one trans-Tasman rule as there are agents. However, the rule as expressed by 90% of them would allow your routing.

The most favorable way that they express it is that you can only cross the Tasman once on the award -- meaning you could cross it on your own dime the second time. Some of them express it more like this: "If your initial stop is in NZ and you cross to Oz, you must depart from Oz. If you initial stop in is Oz and you cross to NZ, you must depart from NZ."

Even with the more restrictive rule, you should be OK.

You are allowed to cross the Tasman sea once in your award itinerary. So either go from Oz to NZ or NZ to Oz. Since your itinerary goes only once from NZ to Oz, there is no problem at all.

As above :o