So what about all the candy?

During this trip, I earned the following candy from AA:

AA Miles Earned: 96,522
AA Elite Qualifying Points Earned: 56,738
AA Elite Qualifying Miles Earned: 37,823
AA 500 mile Upgrade Credits: 12

6000 of those AA miles came in the form of a customer service bonus offered without prompting after my MIA-MIA-LAX delays. And add to that my 8offered50 that I started with before the trip, and I had 104,572 miles to spend on candy.

Mrs NM was wanting to take Minis#2 and #4 to AKL during the Christmas school holidays. So a quick check on ExpertFlyer showed there was availability BNE-MEL-AKL and AKL-MEL-BNE on suitable dates in January for 3 passengers in either economy (X) or business (U) class. So with Mrs NM being the extra special person she is, it was a no-brainer to book the business class option. I just have to see the photos of a 2 year old sleeping in a Skybed between MEL and AKL .

But 3 x business class awards on Aus/NZ region cost 105,000 miles. So I phoned AA Platinum Desk in the USA and asked if they could convert some of my upgrade credits to miles so I make the booking. The AAgent told me that because I was within 500 miles of the total miles needed, there was no problem and she could book it for me.

I could hear the surprise in her voice when asked for 3 business class reward seats in January on specific flight numbers and dates, and when she looked it up there were actually available on those days and flights! Well, it pays to do your own research first .

The only problem was that she could not process the tax payment on my Australian credit card. So we agree that she would hold the reservation for up to two weeks (something QF would not do on an award booking) and I would call AA's Sydney reservation centre to pay using my Australian credit card.

The next day I called AA in Sydney and was told the taxes were going to be $74.81 per person. I queried that since two of the passengers are under 12 years old so the $38 AU Passenger Movement Charge would not apply. She said AA award flights just have a tax component and no difference for adult or children, but I insisted she check, which she did. She came back and apologised and revised the total taxes to $148.43 for all three return tickets.

So this is what I call stealing my candy (AA miles and status) and eating it too (redeeming flights).

If this same journey had been credits to QF FF program, I would have earned 1510 Status Credits and hence renewed Platinum (OneWorld Emerald) status for another year. I would also have earned 80,300 QF FF points for the trip. Those points would not have even earned me one return business class award BNE-MEL-AKL (there was no availability on the non-stop BNE-AKL route, let alone for my desired 3 seats in any class).

The QF FF program cost for 3 award seats in business class BNE-MEL-AKL and AKL-MEL-BNE would have been 300,000 points plus $710 in taxes!

So not only did I enough AA miles to redeem 3 business class seat, but I also saved $562 in cash for the same award seats had I used QF FF points! That is a lot of candy.

Oh yes, and I ate the mars bar I "stole" from the F galley on my AA Platinum (lack of) Challenge flight.

My thanks to the 10-star Dave Noble for his assistance in planning my candy theft.