Originally Posted by
Mary2e
Considering that you're talking about returning home after the Thanksgiving holiday, it doesn't surprise me you're having difficulty.
At this point, you might want to consider an award booking service. I believe there is a list in the Travel Tools area.
I actually tried one but I did not like the experience. They didn't really listen at all to what I asked for and in some cases ignored it completely.
Originally Posted by
Romelle
While I sympathize with your problem, and have struggled for award seats in the past, you do need to keep telling yourself this is a 1st world problem.
Maybe something more positive for your title like "Please help me get lucky" or "Any chance of achieving this dream" or ....
Beyond all your other blessings, you are fortunate to be receiving some good advice and ideas on this site. With a little help from your friends here, you might even be able to make it work. Or make something close and also really nice work.
Romelle
You're 100% right. Perhaps that was a bit dramatic, I fully understand that honestly if this is the biggest problem I'm dealing with I'm in good shape (I still have a wedding to plan!). All kidding aside I fully agree, it's just frustrating as this is my first time trying to book an award like this.
Originally Posted by
dukerau
OP, did you look for plain MIA-MLE (rather than assuming you'd need to get to a gateway like JFK/LAX)? I know you already have something you like for that leg on hold, but there are (IMO) better options than what you have. Like:
11/15: MIA-ZRH-IST-MLE on Swiss/Turkish, business, 80k UA
12/7: MIA-IST-MLE on Turkish, business, 80k UA
11/16: MIA-IST-MLE on Turkish, business/economy, 80k UA (hope business opens up for IST-MLE later)
If you're interested in a day in Abu Dhabi, there's pretty solid availability on Etihad for MLE-AUH in Y connecting to AUH-MEL in F or AUH-SYD in J (on the A380). Unfortunately that's a route that just went up from 45k/60k to 80k/100k for J/F. EY only has 1 flight per day MLE-AUH and it arrives at 10:55pm, so you'd have to (/get to) overnight in Abu Dhabi. One of the AUH-SYD flights (the A380) leaves at 10:05pm, perfect if you want to spend a day in AUH.
As for getting home, that's going to be tough undoubtedly. High season premium class Australia-US. If you're comfortable with the risk, you may want to book the rest and cross your fingers. Air NZ has been releasing business class seats about 3 months out lately, so you could get lucky with that (they fly to LAX, SFO, and IAH from AKL).
I did look at those options although Business class to IST didn't look at nice at QR JFK>DOH, and I had BA miles that could get us MIA to JFK. However I think this might be a bit too much and if we want to do Sydney the BOB is our best bet.
Re: Air NZ, that's an interesting thought...would I be able to book them on united miles transferring UR points?
Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
A couple of things are working against you.
Not trying to hijack your honeymoon plans (congratulations, by the way) but what if you considered alternative locations than the South Pacific or Indian Ocean? (The Maldives are, by the way, under a great deal of scrutiny with respect to jihadist activities there.) What about South America or SE Asia?
Or - to ask an obvious question - what about a combination of award tickets to some "staging" point, then revenue (paid) tickets after that, or vice-versa? For example, fly to Europe on paid tickets and redeem miles for business class awards to South Africa or Mauritius? Or look for business class awards using AA miles to Europe and use United miles to get from there to Africa or maybe the Seychelles. Sometimes using different mileage programs for different destinations is more successful than going with one.
Keep working at it and good luck!
Appreciate it! I think the reason we zoned in on south pacific was because we've both always wanted to go to australia but with out work schedules it's difficult to get the time off. We figure our best chance is for our honeymoon where we can actually take 2+ weeks off. I've suggested South Africa (been to Cape Town for work and loved it!!) but the fiance is pretty set on tahiti and I have no stronger opinions either way. South America came up but because we live in Miami we figured it would be easier for us to get there another time in terms of days off for a week or so.