Originally Posted by
Bondiboy
In my view it is currently a complete waste of your FF miles to use the for a trip to Australia because you can BUY a ticket from Air New Xealand for as low as $609 + $158 for taxes, etc.
While there have been some phenomenal deals between Oz and the USA lately they have mostly been from the west coast (OP is in NYC) and in the Y cabin. With just a little bit of effort the OP has a very real chance to fly the route in J or F, something that cannot generally be purchased on the cheap.