Originally Posted by
pinkhighlighter
We switched our allegiance from United to AS a few years ago and haven't yet figured out how to maximize use of miles for business class seats like we had on United. Is there a good primer out there on this?
I'm currently thinking about a trip to New Zealand, so any guidance on the most cost effective way to get there on business would be appreciated! And I'm open to any other destinations that is a smart use of AS miles. My husband has about 150k miles and I have about 100k miles. And we have many hundred thousand more miles in the Chase account, if those are useful for AS?
We also do NOT have the AS credit card but have thought about getting it. Welcome thoughts on that, too!
Many thanks for helping this new AS flyer figure out how to maximize this loyalty plan.
The AS award chart USA to NZ is prescriptive. In the frequent flyer world business class awards USA-AU/NZ are one of the hardest to get. Need to be flexible with dates and routes. The most practicable is FJ & QF. AA was(is?) going to fly USA-NZ non stop, but the pandemic put an end to that.
You could book one way for both of you from 1 account and the reverse one way for both of you from the other account. No advantage for booking awards as return. One way business class is 55,000 AS miles on both QF & FJ. QF has several USA departures cities to BNE-SYD-MEL. Not just LAX. And to/from several NZ airports. FJ flys/did fly to AKL WLG & CHC. Not just AKL.
AS thread-->
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alas...ng-thread.html
The AA forum has QF & FJ award threads.
