Originally Posted by
Aphrodite91
With the Qantas business class flights disappearing almost as soon as they hit inventory, I am trying to work out my contigency plan to use *A miles.
I've decided to go with the UA miles. Even though 110k US is much cheaper, I would need to transfer SPG points and the value of 60k SPG should technically be higher than the additional 70k US I need. Moreover, it is likely I may want to change to do a stop in Asia or spend a few nights in Hawaii and my 1k status will let me do this for free.
You're probably going to have MUCH better luck finding a stop in Asia than in Hawaii at that time of year (it's peak season for Hawaii = little award inventory). You're also going to have problems getting onward travel from ICN if you choose OZ, FWIW, because OZ blacks out all non-North America awards during late December/early January (the trick I've used to get around that is TG has an ICN-HKG fifth freedom flight that has good availability). Oh, and OZ does not have lie-flat on ICN-SYD. The good news is OZ has decent award space available out of North America that time of year (you may be able to get their lie-flat).
Your best bet to get award space on the Asia-Australia leg will likely be TG (slanty-flat unless you get their A380), though sometimes SQ will have some award space on their regional planes (A333), which is also slanty-flat, not true lie-flat.
Also, if it's strictly
seat you care about (as opposed to soft product)... UA shouldn't be off your list. Their C seats should be all lie-flat by late 2013. OZ, TG and NH won't be.