American Express Membership Rewards - Using Amex for LAX - SYD, b-class

This is my first time posting to flyertalk so please excuse me if I break any protocols. I tried searching for this topic but couldn't find anything.

Anyways so my question to you guys is trying to figure out the best way to book a ticket for my parents from LAX to Sydney for mid-april. Economy class tickets are pretty cheap right now thanks to sales on qantas and virgin, but I'm hoping to send them business class using amex membership reward points. Right now I think there are three ways to do this...I'd appreciate your feedback

1. Transfer rewards to ANA - business class on air new zealand or united

2. Book economy on united or air new zealand and then transfer points to ANA and purchase an upgrade. This has the advantage of allowing for double EQM accumulation.

3. transfer miles to continental and book qantas

I have a few concerns about each of the above...

I don't see much availability for true b-class award seats for SYD - LAX, so option 1 seems unlikely. Also, I'm concerned about how long it takes for miles to post from amex to ana. I know with continental it is instant, but ANA has a warning that it can take up to 5 days.

I've never used upgrade certificates before, can someone walk me through how this would work an if its an option for me.

As for option 3, continental tells me that qantas gives them very few award seats so it would be very difficult to find availability. I'd love to put my parents on the new A380 service, but I imagine this would be pretty tough.

I guess one final option if its available is to see if delta would allow use of skymiles to book flights on virgin, per their new interline agreement. I doubt they have this in place, especially since they are going to be competing on the lax-syd route, but if anybody has had any success I'd really appreciate your story.

Any other ideas guys?

The *A upgrade program is somewhat tedious and requires buying a Full Y fare, I believe, so that may not be an option for you really. Finding UA inventory and booking through AC or ANA are likely the best chance you have, but that will require finding the inventory.

You say that you are looking at mid-April for a trip. Do you mean next week? Finding reward inventory for next week would be pretty impressive.

...book a ticket for my parents from LAX to Sydney for mid-april.

There is also the new DL service starting in July that might be useful.

;)

ANA is a very expensive road to go down. Why not stick with Aeroplan?

If you're a risk-taker, or their schedule can be flexible...pay for C/F, book UA Y, and UA will open up seats on the day of departure when you can call and change the booking (and if they don't, you can do a date change). This works for both the outbound and the return, but is a risky strategy if your parents' schedule is fixed.

FYI a B fare to SYD on UA (minimum for a * upgrade) runs in excess of $5k per person nowadays.

I thought ANA tended to be the cheapest star alliance carrier. I'll look into aeroplan. Any sense for when availability opens up on flights?

Yes. The morning of the flight, at this point. When are they looking to go (specific dates, I'll look it up for you)?

im actually pretty flexible. they can either leave anytime next week and return about a week later (but no later than the 25th).

OR

they can leave after the 30th and return about a week later.

thanks for being so helpful!

how many amex points do i have to play with?

monday returning next wednesday, confirmable in biz, 100,000 points plus about $100 in tax per person...but requires two connections. is that acceptable? (fyi if nicer routings become available, you can change the tickets for around $75 per person).

i think you can assume sufficient amex points. 250k max i suppose for both.

i know they have a strong preference for limiting it to one connection. probably through auckland. if its a quick second connection, perhaps brisbane or fiji then that might work well.

the first confirmable single-connect routing is 5/7 returning 5/16.

again, just to stress my point. you can leave the double connection routing, and, when the united flight becomes available on the morning they are supposed to leave, you can call and change to the nonstop for $75 a person.

neither fiji nor brisbane is, practically speaking, doable. (at least not cheaply and not in a nice way).

the double connect is sfo + auckland.

oh that's not too bad. i was worried you meant a long connect out to singapore or hkg.

how would i go about booking that?

if this is through aeroplan, do you know how long it takes for transferred miles to post? my worry is that i transfer the miles and then the flight disappears and im stuck.

You might want to double check Continental for Qantas availability. I've been able to get Business in the past. Another possibility is Hawaiian Air which flies to Sydney. That isn't a direct flight though (1 stop in Honolulu) and only flies a couple of days a week.

You might want to double check Continental for Qantas availability. I've been able to get Business in the past. Another possibility is Hawaiian Air which flies to Sydney. That isn't a direct flight though (1 stop in Honolulu) and only flies a couple of days a week.

The HA service is a domestic F seat. If you're going to splurge for spending that many miles I'd want a way better product than the HA F will get you.

The HA service is a domestic F seat. If you're going to splurge for spending that many miles I'd want a way better product than the HA F will get you.

Right, thus my suggestion, also QF through CO is much more then 100k miles, too, and the NZ product is better (unless you can get a QF 380).

Hi,

I read this a couple of days ago and I now I have some ideas.

Idea #1) Can you use some Amex points to get a ticket on Air Tahiti Nui via Tahiti, LAX-PPT-SYD directly with Amex?

Idea #2) Can you transfer Amex points to AC-Aeroplan and then book to SYD using the YVR-SYD flights that AC has now?

1) Yes, but more expensive and a terrible product relative to the others.

2) Yes, but good luck with availability, and the fuel surcharges, one of the greatest benefits of using Aeroplan, are a real killer.

You can try QF using MX. 160K for each ticket in C - but they will allow a hold on the ticket (just create an account and call) while you transfer the points.

You can try QF using MX. 160K for each ticket in C - but they will allow a hold on the ticket (just create an account and call) while you transfer the points.

Still waiting for someone to explain to me why any of the options that cost in excess of 150k plus fuel fines make more sense than the 100k with no fuel fines, for a better product.

Still waiting for someone to explain to me why any of the options that cost in excess of 150k plus fuel fines make more sense than the 100k with no fuel fines, for a better product.

If NZ has availability that's what I would do too - but if not MX is an alternative (though expensive).