US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Looking for some help getting to Australia using US miles? Please?

I know this is a bit of a reach, but here goes:
I am a US CP and have built up a substantial amount of miles, even while using a lot of them just last year. I would like to send my parents to Australia sometime around Christmas for roughly a week and a half, and then a couple days in New Zealand on the way back. I personally have never been to either, but they are so excited about going that I want to do anything I can to get them there so they do not have to pay (thus decreasing my potential inheritance. . . JUST KIDDING!! :D ). My little brother will be moving there, so I thought it was a great present for them to see him.

OK, enough background, now for the plea. To those of you that travel to that part of the world:
have you used miles to get there?
I'd like to send them Biz Class, are the chances good for getting seats?
Do you go through international res desk and see what *A routes/times/dates will work for you?

All and any advice is sincerely appreciated. Though I have travelled a great part of the world, this one is definitely foreign to me. Thanks so much!

I have done PHL-LAX-SYD-CHC-AKL-LAX-PHL on Qantas in Business Class using Dividend Miles (105k each, cheap!). I had no problem with the dates around Easter with some flexibility 10 months out. You can expect very little availability around X-mas, unfortunately. You can also use United to Oz, so call the Intl. Awards desk, they're usually very helpful. Good luck!

Wow. They let you have all those stop-overs in Business Class for a mere 105K? That is a deal!!

The only way to book these tickets is to call the international desk. They can check availability on the *A carriers who fly there (UA to Australia and NZ to NZ and OZ) and QF as well.

If you can get the QF award, this is the way to go since it is fewer miles. However, if I'm not mistaken, they'd make your parents fly in Y to the QF gateway at LAX (unless you could figure out a JFK option). This is why a *A award on Air NZ and UA is a better option -- you can fly F or J domestically -- but it will be more miles.

At the end of the day, you'll be at the mercy of what is available, and by this time the early birds will have claimed seats that were released far in advance. But be persistant, call every day, and you just might get lucky.

All,
Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I did call the international desk and was told everything is taken in first and biz from 12/15-12/25, but I will definitely keep trying!!
We'll see if persistence does actually pay off in this case. Thanks again!

QF has a daily flight AKL-LAX so no need to go back through oz. NZ has direct flights AKL-SFO, AKL-LAX, CHC-LAX (also AKL-HNL but not sure you'd be allowed to take that one as quite a long detour). NZ also has flights from LAX to AKL via south pacific islands - a longer flight but maybe more availability?

On the whole, NZ has good award availability compared with some other airlines; but December is peak season. From 10 June 2005 NZ no longer has first.

I did a similar trip in 2004 on a Qantas Business award. I flew PHL-LAX-SYD-CHC-AKL-LAX-PIT-PHL. (I did pay for the CHC-AKL flight. US$45 coach e-ticket from the QF NZ website)

A couple of things to be aware of for a Qantas Biz Class award (assuming things haven't changed since 2003).

Biz/First Class awards are very difficult to get on Qantas since they open them up to their frequent fliers 350 days out. We started calling in April 2003 and it took a few weeks of calling before we found availability for Feb 2004.
US Air will fly you to LAX or to another Qantas gateway in First Class (on US Air metal) on a Qantas Biz award
Qantas awards have a rule that states you can only cross the Tasman Sea once (you can only have one Australia - NZ or NZ-Australia flight segment)


The last rule is the problem. We didn't have any problems finding availability doing round trips to Australia, but once we added NZ it became really difficult. Since we couldn't fly back to OZ for the return to LAX (we would be making a second trip across the Tasman Sea which is against the rules), you have to take the QF AKL-LAX flight back to the USA and it was always full. After a number of calls, we finally found a date in which we could get 2 QF Biz seats from AKL-LAX. Once we found that date, we were able to plan the rest of the trip around that flight without any real problem (the trip was 3 days longer than I was planning for but I took the dates anyway).

My advice is to keep calling, be flexible, and plan around the AKL-LAX flight.

Wow. They let you have all those stop-overs in Business Class for a mere 105K? That is a deal!!

I think it is an awsome deal. It's now coming back to me that we did pay to fly CHC-AKL (about US$100 each), b/c we already had two stopovers in SYD and CHC. In any case, still a screaming deal. Oh, and btw, we got to fly in QF FC cabin AKL-LAX before they reconfigured that route to all business. :D

I think it is an awsome deal. It's now coming back to me that we did pay to fly CHC-AKL (about US$100 each), b/c we already had two stopovers in SYD and CHC. In any case, still a screaming deal. Oh, and btw, we got to fly in QF FC cabin AKL-LAX before they reconfigured that route to all business. :D

I think the official rule is one stopover and one open jaw (LAX doesn't count as a stopover if you stay less than 24hrs), I have a PHL-LAX-AKL-AYR // CNS-LAX (via SYD)-PHL booked for August. Had to buy/use QF pts for the AYR-CNS segment but still an incredible deal.

I think it is an awsome deal.
It was even more awesome deal a year or so ago when it was just 90K points. And, an even better deal when I cashed in 125K for Qantas First class award tix: PHL-LAX-MEL-BNE <open jaw> SYD-MEL-LAX-PHL. I nabbed the tix exactly 331 days out, booked F outbound and C return. Then called 10 days later(the length of my trip) and found F for the return. Then I had it ticketed.

So, if you find Biz (or F) for the outbound leg and only coach for the return, book the award but don't ticket it. You have a few weeks to have it issued. Call back and try getting something better for the return 10-14 days later(or how ever long the trip is)

So, if you find Biz (or F) for the outbound leg and only coach for the return, book the award but don't ticket it. You have a few weeks to have it issued. Call back and try getting something better for the return 10-14 days later(or how ever long the trip is)

And you may get lucky even after the award is ticketed. Ms. DivMiler and I ticketed MDT-PIT-LAX-SYD-AKL-LAX-PIT-MDT over Christmas 2003 into January 2004. I used two Business class awards, but just couldn't get the AKL-LAX in business. So after calling every day in late January 2003, early February 2003, I went ahead and ticketed them. I would call every once in awhile to US Reservations to see if the AKL-LAX portion was available in business, to no avail.

Finally, while in Sydney, I called US's Sydney office, and the agent said she'd look into it. I called the Sydney office from Auckland, and got business class seats. I promptly walked down from the hotel to a Qantas city ticket office and confirmed from the horse's mouth that my wife and I did have the seats and that they were together. :cool:

It had been my goal since the early 90s to go back to Australia in business class. It took awhile longer after I met my wife ;).