Originally Posted by
Garth511
So using AA Award engine to book trips to AUS/NZ, Book the outbound and return as separate trips? Looks like it's easy enough to do on 330, but since the wife and I are planning 3+ weeks there, getting J on the return isn't a problem, getting J (or better HA!) on the outbound is a PITA.
Here's the most likely itinerary
SJC/SFO-LAX-CHC(via MEL/BNE) then 2.5 weeks in NZ
AKL-SYD (3 day stop)
SYD (or MEL/BNE)-LAX-SJC/SFO
Maybe an explorer is the way to go?
I have both an Expert Flyer account & a Qantas FF account, the latter being a big tease because you can see 353 days out vs. 330 and the ExPlat desk is of almost no help. Grrr.
If you are doing this in business class, then using partner awards it will be 137.5 k vs 150k as an explorer. Where the explorer award may help is with availability options. Using the partner awards need to go directly from North America to Australia on Qantas. This is of course the best route but can be hard to find availability. Using the explorer award it opens up many more options such as going via Asia in one direction or even via Europe
Getting to CHC can be a bit tricky due to there not being many flights there, but if happy to pay the small cost for a domestic NZ flight, options increase with the greater number of flights to AKL ( e.g. SFO-HKG-AKL on CX ) plus options to include stopovers should the need or desire arise