I'm a first-time poster, but have learned so much from this site, for which I thank you all. My husband & I want to take our first trip to New Zealand in Feb or Mar of 2006. We will have enough AA miles to redeem for business class tickets on Qantas, although we hate to fly that far and get no mileage credit. We really don't want to fly United to Sydney (although we could probably accumulate enough points to upgrade a coach ticket by then). I don't know what other options we would have, other than to either sit in coach for a very long flight, which I would have trouble with, or buy business class tickets, which are very expensive. Do any of you have any suggestions? Can a flight in coach from the west coast to New Zealand be a pleasant experience? Thanks for any advice you can provide.