Originally Posted by
stulincoln
I am planning to fly with three other family members (4 total) to Australia in September, October or November (very flexible). I am trying to work out what are the best options as I have 355K miles, 4 GPU's and also 110K Singapore Air Miles. I am prepared that I will have to still pay out of pocket and was thinking I would at least do my own ticket at a full business to maximize miles/PQD etc. So, I am wondering what peoples thoughts are on the best way to do this? Full Award tickets, GPU's or Upgrade awards?
Note we can do any exit port from the US and into SYD or MEL in Australia.
I don't see much availability for full award tickets at the Saver price right now, can I expect more as it gets closer?
Thanks
I would look for GPU space in one direction and then awards in the other, or even 2 of each in each direction. I just did this for four people, ended up having to use LAX-SYD on the outbound and SYD-SFO on the return. I searched every date on every route in both directions for a 45 day period, and the two dates we booked were the only two that had R4 (one was R9 and one was R5). There were many dates and flights with R1 and R2. Splitting 2x2 would be powerful here. Awards are much tougher IME.
If you want to route differently, I found really good business class fares going through Taipei (separating into two tickets). This was several weeks ago so YMMV.
Good luck!