Originally Posted by
LarkSFO
I agree at a fundamental level that flexibility is the key.
But, the OP (yesterday) was looking for travel 330 days from now... Indicates that they want to travel to Sydney when everyone else wants to travel to Sydney - during their Summer!
What are you going to do in Sydney in August?
(We - family of four - are travelling SFO - SYD next December and have looked at every alternative for award travel in C or F using AA or UA miles... No luck with anything. We are going to SYD at the peak times, and have little flexibility with our dates, so we are going to fly Y or buy C if we want to travel in business...)
Flexibility in timing
or routing is key, and if you're looking for premium seating, a willingness to break up your party helps. I think too many people look at direct QF flights, find no availability, and give up. I've used miles to get a family of three to Australia twice. One useful option is a oneworld award through HKG or NRT. For 150k miles from the west coast, business class availability is fairly decent. I have a trip coming up this year and one way awards made it possible to book three J seats DFW-SYD, but with a return via HKG. So cost is 152.5k miles, routing is SAN-DFW-SYD-HKG-LAX-SAN.
Incidentally, I've been to Sydney in August. It can be cold, but it's still a fun city.