Help with award flights to Australia
Jul 26, 2017, 7:40 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 321
Help with award flights to Australia
Looking to go to Australia next Sept/Oct (2018) and would like to possibly do a stopover in NZ.
I've got the following miles:
Chase UR - 75,000
SPG - 130,000
Southwest - 60,000
Would love to fly J, but I've been reading that those are hard to come by. I was hopeful the Alaska/Virgin Australia SPG transfer would work, but sounds like that ends in 2018. (If I book in 2017, am I still OK?)
My starting point is CLT, but I'm willing to get somewhere else first, if needed.
What would be the best way to use my miles to get there?
I've got the following miles:
Chase UR - 75,000
SPG - 130,000
Southwest - 60,000
Would love to fly J, but I've been reading that those are hard to come by. I was hopeful the Alaska/Virgin Australia SPG transfer would work, but sounds like that ends in 2018. (If I book in 2017, am I still OK?)
My starting point is CLT, but I'm willing to get somewhere else first, if needed.
What would be the best way to use my miles to get there?
Jul 26, 2017, 8:16 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 321
http://www.godsavethepoints.com/2016...ustraliatrick/
You can't transfer to Virgin any longer, but perhaps transferring to Alaska will work?
You can't transfer to Virgin any longer, but perhaps transferring to Alaska will work?
Jul 26, 2017, 9:24 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,572
The best option is the one that involves award seats that you can actually find for your desired dates of travel. But be aware that SPG transfers to airline FFPs are not instantaneous; they can take several days, during which time award seats you have found might well disappear!
Jul 26, 2017, 9:30 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 321
The best option is the one that involves award seats that you can actually find for your desired dates of travel. But be aware that SPG transfers to airline FFPs are not instantaneous; they can take several days, during which time award seats you have found might well disappear!
Jul 26, 2017, 3:58 pm
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 21,010
Many to most airlines now do not allow stopovers on awards. AA does not.
Awards become available 355/330 days out depending on the ffp
Southwest miles are of little use, other than for a positioning flight to a major airport.
Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from Australia (not from all airports to all airports)
- American Airlines AA (LAX - SYD) [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner)
- Air Canada AC (YYR – SYD, BNE, MEL 1 Dec 2017 to 1 Feb 2018 ) [Star Alliance]
- Air New Zealand NZ (LAX SFO IAH YVR via AKL) [Star Alliance]
- Air Tahiti Nui TN (LAX via Tahiti. Last segments on codeshares) (AA & DL partner)
- Delta DL (LAX – SYD) (VA & AS partner) [Skyteam Alliance]
- Fiji Airways FJ (LAX SFO HNL – BNE SYD MEL ADL via Fiji) (QF, AA & AS partner)
- Hawaiian HA (HNL – SYD BNE) (AA & VA partner)
- Jetstar JQ JQ (HNL – SYD BNE)
- Qantas QF (LAX SFO JFK DFW HNL YVR*– SYD BNE MEL) [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner) {* seasonal}
- United UA (LAX SFO – SYD MEL) [Star Alliance]
- Virgin Australia VA (LAX – SYD BNE) (DL partner) MEL LAX restarting 4 April 2017
And others via Asia & Middle East
Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from New Zealand are (not from all airports to all airports)
- American Airlines AA (LAX - AKL) [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner). No flights 5 August 2017 and 5 October 2017
- Air New Zealand NZ (LAX SFO IAH YVR - AKL)[Star Alliance]
- Air Tahiti Nui TN (LAX - AKL via Tahiti) (AA & DL partner)
- Fiji Airways FJ (LAX SFO HNL - AKL WLG CHC via Fiji) (QF AA & AS partner)
- Hawaiian HA (HNL-AKL)(AA & VA partner)
- Qantas QF (via SYD BNE & MEL) [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner)
- United UA (SFO - AKL) No flights 16 April 2017 and 28 October 2017
- Virgin Australia VA (via BNE & SYD) (DL partner)
And others via Australia, Asia & Middle East
Jul 27, 2017, 12:26 pm
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Programs: DL PM, MR Titanium/LTP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 10,130
How many people?
This is my initial thought. At the moment Aeroplan is running a deal where you get a 35% bonus on points transferred from partners including SPG. US - Australia using Aeroplan (which gives you access to all *A) is 160k/person in J and 210k/person in F for the roundtrip.
You could take 100k SPG ---> 125k Aeroplan (accounting for the SPG 5k for every 20k bonus) and then you'll get a 35% bonus on top of that giving you 168k Aeroplan miles, aka giving you a RT J ticket for 100k SPG miles. Can't think of a better redemption value than that. Note there is a per day SPG ---> Aeroplan transfer limit so you'll want to take that into account. In addition as you probably know you only get the 5k bonus when you transfer 20k, so you'll want to transfer in blocks of 20k otherwise no bonus (which is why I propose using 100k SPG even though you end up a little of the 160k J price).
You'll want to sign up for an Aeroplan account first and poke around to find out what availability looks like and also taxes/fees (Aeroplan passes along taxes and fees on some but not all partners). You'll want to consider *A hubs to start out of in the event that you can't find something from CLT (ORD, JFK, EWR, IAD, IAH) and then you can just buy the CLT - XYZ ticket. Aeroplan will also give you stopovers (up to 2 stopovers).
Note this Aeroplan transfer promotion ends in August so you'll have to take some leap of faith that you'll be able to find a routing that works for Sept/Oct 2018 since you won't be able to book those dates before the Aeroplan transfer promo ends.
The benefit is you should be easily able to get New Zealand as a stopover assuming award availability since you'll be able to use NZ for the trans-tasman flight and have an itinerary that looks something like this:
CLT - ORD - NRT - SYD / SYD - AKL / AKL - BKK - NRT - ORD - CLT on UA / NH / NH / NZ / TG / TG / NH / UA
This is my initial thought. At the moment Aeroplan is running a deal where you get a 35% bonus on points transferred from partners including SPG. US - Australia using Aeroplan (which gives you access to all *A) is 160k/person in J and 210k/person in F for the roundtrip.
You could take 100k SPG ---> 125k Aeroplan (accounting for the SPG 5k for every 20k bonus) and then you'll get a 35% bonus on top of that giving you 168k Aeroplan miles, aka giving you a RT J ticket for 100k SPG miles. Can't think of a better redemption value than that. Note there is a per day SPG ---> Aeroplan transfer limit so you'll want to take that into account. In addition as you probably know you only get the 5k bonus when you transfer 20k, so you'll want to transfer in blocks of 20k otherwise no bonus (which is why I propose using 100k SPG even though you end up a little of the 160k J price).
You'll want to sign up for an Aeroplan account first and poke around to find out what availability looks like and also taxes/fees (Aeroplan passes along taxes and fees on some but not all partners). You'll want to consider *A hubs to start out of in the event that you can't find something from CLT (ORD, JFK, EWR, IAD, IAH) and then you can just buy the CLT - XYZ ticket. Aeroplan will also give you stopovers (up to 2 stopovers).
Note this Aeroplan transfer promotion ends in August so you'll have to take some leap of faith that you'll be able to find a routing that works for Sept/Oct 2018 since you won't be able to book those dates before the Aeroplan transfer promo ends.
The benefit is you should be easily able to get New Zealand as a stopover assuming award availability since you'll be able to use NZ for the trans-tasman flight and have an itinerary that looks something like this:
CLT - ORD - NRT - SYD / SYD - AKL / AKL - BKK - NRT - ORD - CLT on UA / NH / NH / NZ / TG / TG / NH / UA
Jul 27, 2017, 1:56 pm
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 321
How many people?
This is my initial thought. At the moment Aeroplan is running a deal where you get a 35% bonus on points transferred from partners including SPG. US - Australia using Aeroplan (which gives you access to all *A) is 160k/person in J and 210k/person in F for the roundtrip.
You could take 100k SPG ---> 125k Aeroplan (accounting for the SPG 5k for every 20k bonus) and then you'll get a 35% bonus on top of that giving you 168k Aeroplan miles, aka giving you a RT J ticket for 100k SPG miles. Can't think of a better redemption value than that. Note there is a per day SPG ---> Aeroplan transfer limit so you'll want to take that into account. In addition as you probably know you only get the 5k bonus when you transfer 20k, so you'll want to transfer in blocks of 20k otherwise no bonus (which is why I propose using 100k SPG even though you end up a little of the 160k J price).
You'll want to sign up for an Aeroplan account first and poke around to find out what availability looks like and also taxes/fees (Aeroplan passes along taxes and fees on some but not all partners). You'll want to consider *A hubs to start out of in the event that you can't find something from CLT (ORD, JFK, EWR, IAD, IAH) and then you can just buy the CLT - XYZ ticket. Aeroplan will also give you stopovers (up to 2 stopovers).
Note this Aeroplan transfer promotion ends in August so you'll have to take some leap of faith that you'll be able to find a routing that works for Sept/Oct 2018 since you won't be able to book those dates before the Aeroplan transfer promo ends.
The benefit is you should be easily able to get New Zealand as a stopover assuming award availability since you'll be able to use NZ for the trans-tasman flight and have an itinerary that looks something like this:
CLT - ORD - NRT - SYD / SYD - AKL / AKL - BKK - NRT - ORD - CLT on UA / NH / NH / NZ / TG / TG / NH / UA
This is my initial thought. At the moment Aeroplan is running a deal where you get a 35% bonus on points transferred from partners including SPG. US - Australia using Aeroplan (which gives you access to all *A) is 160k/person in J and 210k/person in F for the roundtrip.
You could take 100k SPG ---> 125k Aeroplan (accounting for the SPG 5k for every 20k bonus) and then you'll get a 35% bonus on top of that giving you 168k Aeroplan miles, aka giving you a RT J ticket for 100k SPG miles. Can't think of a better redemption value than that. Note there is a per day SPG ---> Aeroplan transfer limit so you'll want to take that into account. In addition as you probably know you only get the 5k bonus when you transfer 20k, so you'll want to transfer in blocks of 20k otherwise no bonus (which is why I propose using 100k SPG even though you end up a little of the 160k J price).
You'll want to sign up for an Aeroplan account first and poke around to find out what availability looks like and also taxes/fees (Aeroplan passes along taxes and fees on some but not all partners). You'll want to consider *A hubs to start out of in the event that you can't find something from CLT (ORD, JFK, EWR, IAD, IAH) and then you can just buy the CLT - XYZ ticket. Aeroplan will also give you stopovers (up to 2 stopovers).
Note this Aeroplan transfer promotion ends in August so you'll have to take some leap of faith that you'll be able to find a routing that works for Sept/Oct 2018 since you won't be able to book those dates before the Aeroplan transfer promo ends.
The benefit is you should be easily able to get New Zealand as a stopover assuming award availability since you'll be able to use NZ for the trans-tasman flight and have an itinerary that looks something like this:
CLT - ORD - NRT - SYD / SYD - AKL / AKL - BKK - NRT - ORD - CLT on UA / NH / NH / NZ / TG / TG / NH / UA
I had actually already signed up for an Aeroplan account since I saw the 35% bonus. Is there better availability with them, than the others?
Also, what does *A mean? StarAlliance?
Aug 18, 2017, 8:59 am
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Programs: DL PM, MR Titanium/LTP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 10,130
-DL is fine for SkyTeam though for partners you need to search segment by segment because some partners (like CI) they won't show as part of a multi-segment itinerary
-For OneWorld you'll want to use the BA website but search segment by segment as well - AA won't show CX/JL/QR/etc.
Aug 18, 2017, 9:18 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 321
-NH is the best for Star Alliance availability.
-DL is fine for SkyTeam though for partners you need to search segment by segment because some partners (like CI) they won't show as part of a multi-segment itinerary
-For OneWorld you'll want to use the BA website but search segment by segment as well - AA won't show CX/JL/QR/etc.
-DL is fine for SkyTeam though for partners you need to search segment by segment because some partners (like CI) they won't show as part of a multi-segment itinerary
-For OneWorld you'll want to use the BA website but search segment by segment as well - AA won't show CX/JL/QR/etc.
Once I find something do I call in for reservations or can I book from the site?
Aug 18, 2017, 9:43 am
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: AS 75K, DL Silver, UA Platinum, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Platinum + LT Gold
Posts: 10,496