Originally Posted by
shimps1
So, my wife is sitting on 215k miles, and I have 155k. We're trying to get down to Australia at some point next year, minimum J. I'm planning on booking AA one way, and DL the other way. Should I just book the first date I see that has sAAver available? I'm going DSM>XXX>SYD, or SYD>XXX>DSM. Would also be willing to do DSM>XXX>AKL or the reverse.
Problem I have found is the DSM<>XXX leg is nearly impossible, combined with needing to book two seats I'm having serious trouble. Almost to the point I'm going to pay a points travel service to figure it out.
If you just pay for the DSM-XXX, you would find it much easier.
The DSM-XXX is termed as position flight. From smallish places like DSM, it is exceedingly hard to have that segment incorporated into the award, but not that difficult to buy a ticket to get to XXX or return from XXX.
As you can see from the Wiki, DSM does not have a whole lot of options when it comes to flights. ORD seems to be your best bet. Then from there you get to a gateway city for flights to SYD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Mo...tional_Airport
The award travel booking service certainly would be helpful, but they too, could not find you a flight with award seat for DSM-XXX if there is none available. Chances are, for secondary airports, award seats are very hard to come by. The solution is a position flight that may even involve a connection at ORD or DFW or PHX to get to LAX if using AA, or if you are lucky to find QF DFW-SYD, then you only need DSM-DFW. QF also flies JFK-LAX-SYD, but then it is the "long way" due to backtracking. AA does allow you to do that but it is not easy to find QF seats. Or DSM-ATL-LAX if using DL.
Here is SYD airport info on which airlines fly from where to SYD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Airport
You can go thru the DSM and SYD wiki and figure out HOW you can get to the US gateways for the flights to SYD. As you can see, LAX is the primary US airport to use.
Not sure if DL allows you to go thru Seoul on KE, that can also be a possibility as KE serves quite a bit of US cities and then you go thru ICN to SYD.