Originally Posted by
thehawk75
Since I believe BX9B requires AA metal, and AA has been extremely (I mean
extremely extremely!) stingy with releasing space on it's own metal, I would not redeem for that.
How often do you fly AA or Qantas? Perhaps an Admirals Club membership might be of use?
https://www.businessextra.com/awards/toc.htm?awardId=17
However, since you're not domestic to AA you'd likely have to use a lot 'partner lounges', so, check if the partner lounge access policies work for you:
https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...p#southpacific
Or consider if you have no oneworld status, get yourself (or someone else) 'Ruby' by redeeming for AAdvantage Gold status:
https://www.businessextra.com/awards/toc.htm?awardId=14
My redemption patters would be different than you since I'm based in the US, but, I usually redeem on a mix of BXP1's (single segment North American upgrade) and 1-Day Admiral club passes.
AA EXP (I flew them a lot before coming to Oz) - so most of the other redemption awards don't do much for me, unfortunately. I'm thinking I may just cash out 2 domestic tix and give them to family....but was hoping something better would be available...