the301man

If I am posting on the wrong forum please move to the right place. Friend told me about this forum.

I am new to this forum. I have been collecting miles over the last year in hopes to use them for travel in Buisiness/First class.

I have 110K Chase Ultimate Rewards
I have 130K Aadvnate miles
I have 270K SPG rewards which can be used to trasfer to almost any airlines

I am trying to FLy from DFW to ZQN and back from Dec 22nd to Jan 2nd

I have never booked an award travel before. When I search online on AA website for award travel it shows no availability. When I look to Qantas which has tons of flights available but not sure how to book it as I know I can transfer points directly to Qantas from SPG.

Also, would like to use my Chase and Aadbvanteg if possinle as they expire next year. Both american and United have flights that way but I am not searching right or somehing.

This is great forum and trying to educate myself as much as possible for this so I can book this flight this week and get time off from work. Hope to learn a lot and contribute to this forum down the line.

Yoshi212

AA will not show all partner availability. If you see Saver level award availability in Qantas' program call up AA to see if they can book that award space. You can also call up to see about availability on other partners.

Award bookings open up generally 330 days ahead of time and get swept up quickly especially if you wish to travel in a premium cabin. You may do better flying to a city (SYD/MEL/AKL for example) and doing a paid flights to ZQN as that may be a hard award to get especially since you wish to fly so close to today's date. As FT is not a travel agency nor award booking site, if you continue having issues or are overwhelmed you can turn to one of these services Award booking services - a list and some reviews

the301man

Thanks Mate for the heads up. I will work on that and do some research. I appreciate this info. I am just opeing myself up to the complicated world of award travelling.

guv1976

AAdvantage miles need never expire: you merely need to earn or spend miles once every 18 months to keep all your AA miles alive.

Also, note that AA and UA each offer one-way awards, so you might end up using AA miles in one direction, and UA miles in the other.

ExpatSomchai

Hi 301Man and welcome to FT. Have you considered transferring your SPG to Marriott and using them on one of their travel packages?

http://www.marriott.co.uk/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi

the301man

That would be best of both worlds and then would SPG points left as flexible awards. I will look into keeping AA points alive by aquiring some of those points.

the301man

This is more of a road trip on the south island of NZ with 3 of my buddies, coming from other countries, so hotel plus package would be a waste, just having safe and easy travel to destination useful. Now if I was going with my gf, different story then that package would be useful.

ExpatSomchai

You wouldn't have to use the hotel award during the trip it can be used individually but what it gives you is flexibility in terms of airline miles that you may need. You can see that they have many different partners.

Jasper2009

An award ticket from the US to NZ over Christmas/NYE is among the toughest awards to book.

Your best odds will be to look for availability on all three major alliances And then decide which FFP(s) to use. Having SPG and UR points definitely helps. As mentioned above, booking two (or more) one-way tickets can be an excellent solution.

Are you planning to fly economy class or business/first class? The former would obviously be much easier to book.

Duke787

This one is a good challenge.

As mentioned by Jasper2009 class of service is key - what are you looking for? Also how much flexibility do you have / are you willing to endure both in terms of destination and dates.

It'll be a lot easier to get to AKL/SYD/MEL/CHC on an award ticket and then pay to get to ZQN (~$250-300 on Jetstar / QF / NZ) versus trying to get to ZQN on an award since there are few flights and QF and NZ are rather stingy.

Mwenenzi

the301man Welcome to FT

Depending on you airline experience you have a very steep learning curve. Frequent flyer programs & value from credit card points is not simple.
Another (over optimistic) ff newbie thread here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...my-points.html
There are many threads on trying to get awards USA to Australia or New Zealand

Your dates are peak of peak. Airlines to/from Australia NZ at this time will expect to sell for cash every seat. You chances of getting a premium cabin award this close in and in a premium cabin are very low tending to just above zero. However 2nd Jan will have low demand for paid business (corporate) travel (not the cabin)

Have you booked accommodation at ZQN and other places? New Years eve in Queenstown is a big all night party

• What research have you done yourself on airline ffp's that could get the trip you want?
• What ffp's are you a member of now? How many ff miles/points?
• What airlines are transfer partners of your credit card? (It does vary by the country of credit card issue)
• You seem to be a frequent spender and not a frequent flyer
• FF miles are not equal to earn or burn. They are not 1 to 1. Award cost can/will vary
• Some ffp's allow one way awards. So you could uses 2 or more ffp's
• Frequent flying is not the same as frequent spending.
• Awards flights are never guaranteed. The first rule when using miles/avios/points in any program is "book what you can find" i.e. you can't expect there to be availability on every flight. If you need to get from A to B on a certain time, using points is not always a viable option.
• If a seat is for sale for cash it does not mean it is available as an award. Many (non USA) airlines will fly with empty premium seats
• Awards to/from Australia NZ – USA in premium cabins can be hard to get.

Credit card transfer links
Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Programs forum
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l-program.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...mes-rules.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-...-partners.html

As above FT is not a frequent flyer award search booking service. Nor do we have secret access to awards or cheap flights. Consider these http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...e-reviews.html

Awards assistance tools
Use at your own risk. These may not be up to date. (These are not recommendations)
If a multi segment award check the rules/cost carefully. With some ffp’s it can 2 or more awards.
Some awards/airlines/routes can have cash surcharges, in addition to real taxes.
-AwardAce: Compare Award Redemptions Across Airlines In Seconds -->http://www.awardace.com/
-Economical Excursionist's Tools to compare Frequent Flyer Mile Redemptions --> http://www.flyermiler.com/
-http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ast-miles.html --> http://www.awardhacker.com/

For AA look at
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ssistance.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...es-2015-a.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...er-thread.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html