Thanks everyone for the help. I'm a little late to the game with my replies, but here they are.
Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
SYD is not the only international airport in Australia, so consider BNE or MEL as well.
4 awards on the same flight makes it harder. Cash for 1 or more may open up more opportunities.
We definitely considered other airports, but the problem with BNE is that there is no UA service and we're trying to avoid AC if we can, although I suppose if the alternative means buying JQ tickets to get back to SYD then maybe BNE on one of the legs makes a little more sense. I'll probe this a little further.
Even though it has UA service, MEL is less appealing given that at the time of the year we're visiting (August), the preference would be to head north to warmer climes.
Originally Posted by
Altaflyer
Not sure I’d bother in Y. There have been fares as low as $900 from YEG to Australia in a few occasions. That’s incl tax. If AP includes any AC your “taxes” will be substantial.
Using Google Flights, the lowest Y fares I can see YWG-SYD are in the $1,200 range, and most of those involve multiple stops on US carriers. If I book UA flights on AE, I can limit fees to under $900 for the 4 of us so it's a pretty considerable difference, e.g. $4,800 vs. $850 for 4 pax.
Originally Posted by
rankourabu
Thats interesting. Looks like AC revenue flights dont have YQ to SYD anymore
Does that mean that they dont have YQ on Aeroplan AC flights?
Perhaps they got slapped by the Australian government?
What's interesting is that as far as I can tell, YQ is gone from AE rewards on AC metal to several Asian destinations including HKG. Yet even though revenue flights to SYD don't have YQ, AE rewards on AC metal most certainly do - to the tune of $3,412 for a family of 4.
I noticed a while ago there was a market fare deal where you could get Y rewards on AC from that category for a trivial markdown in AE points - something like 89,000 points vs. 90,000, but the YQ was down to something like $100 a person. But it was for spring travel, way before I was able to go. I was hoping something like that might pop up again, but it hasn't.