Originally Posted by
wco81
Surprisingly, I see QF J saver award availability for LAX-SYD in January outbound and one SYD-LAX in mid February.
But routing through SYD with a real long layover both ways result in 32 and 40 hour trips at a minimum, outbound and return from SFO/SJC.
I also tried SFO-BKK in January as well. No J or F savers at all but the Y savers had similarly long trip, 35 hours outbound with a long layover in HKG. I know CX is an option but I guess aa.com doesn't show CX availability at all? So would CX's site show availability that AA miles holders can access and redeem?
There are attractive miles offers from Citi but it seems pretty hard to redeem unless one can really endure long layovers in both directions after a TPAC segment.
Honestly long connections are not the problem at all. For awards to Australia or New Zealand, the problem is finding any availability at all at the sAAver level in F or J on the QF or AA nonstops.
If you've successfully found a round trip award in QF business then I'd be thrilled, forget about a long connection. Many other members here would probably kill for that award space
.
That said, you have verified that you have business on all segments, yes? AA.com has a nasty glitch that appears often when searching TPAC awards on QF, whereby it shows business sAAver as available however when clicking through you'll find the short connecting segment in business, with the longhaul flight in coach.
For CX awards, sign up for an account at BA then search there. Make sure you search segment by segment, then call AA to book anything you see.