AS frequent flyer miles to Australia/NZ
Apr 12, 2013, 2:51 pm
#16
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 2,838
I cannot echo this enough. It takes a special kind of patience to book a premium cabin QF award ex-USA. I routinely search for QF premium cabin awards LAX-SYD. The usual results, when I specify complete schedule flexibility to fly ANYTIME in the next year:
LAX-BNE-SYD in J: "best" availability. Usually around 10-12 total days available with 1 seat each, mostly at ~11 months out.
LAX-SYD in J: next best. Usually around 5 or 6 total days available, 1 seat each, mostly at ~11.5 months out.
Anything ex-LAX in F: joke availability. I've never had an agent find availability, and I have never even encountered an agent that has ever booked a QF F award. Some claim that they have heard it has been done, but it's the stuff of folklore.
I have largely given up on QF premium cabin awards. If you want reasonable availability, CX J through HKG would be my next choice, but as pointed out above, you'd have to book the intra-AUS/NZ flights separately.LAX-SYD in J: next best. Usually around 5 or 6 total days available, 1 seat each, mostly at ~11.5 months out.
Anything ex-LAX in F: joke availability. I've never had an agent find availability, and I have never even encountered an agent that has ever booked a QF F award. Some claim that they have heard it has been done, but it's the stuff of folklore.
Apr 13, 2013, 10:42 am
#17
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,392
What was your source of miles? AS, AA/oneworld partner, or QF?
Apr 13, 2013, 2:17 pm
#19
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Between BLI & PAE.
Programs: Nada of note these days….
Posts: 1,287
It's been a few years but we booked QF Business Class LAX to AUK and a return via SYD back in early 2009. I had made several futile phone calls until I got lucky one Sunday evening and caught a CS agent who was able to book the outbound for us and than advised us to call back routinely until we got our return trip tied down. It only took about two phone calls to complete the trip. It was well worth the time as it was a fabulous vacation and one of the best uses of Alaska FF miles ever.
Apr 13, 2013, 4:27 pm
#22
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2011
Programs: American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest
Posts: 296
Just to sort of close the loop. We ended up with an 'Australia only' option. We had the miles and really wanted, this time, to sample Cathay 1st class.
We got outbound LAX/HKG/Brisbane, and then return Sydney/HKG/LAX.
I'd note that search tools and availability have seemed to improve -- we could have done a RT to Sydney from LAX using 105K miles instead of 160K miles for Cathay Pacific with Delta. It might be in future we'd consider that option -- as I understand that Delta has just about completed its migration from lie 'nearly' flat to full flat beds for the long haul flights. Delta is now readily searchable on the Alaska site for this.
I realize the most direct options would have been Delta, Qantas, Fiji, and that the more indirect flight options are Cathay and Korean. Further, Delta is just about the only option you can check directly from the Alaska site.
That being said, I know from reports that Cathay 1st class (especially the LAX/HKG leg) is something special so we're willing to experience that.
Also, from experience (16 months ago) on Air Pacific (now Fiji) I really wanted to avoid them -- even though they are replacing their aging 747-400's for the LAX/Nadi leg with new and seemingly well appointed A330-300's - with actual lie flat seats), their customer service and customer awareness has been (and from other reports remains) well below standard. We might place them back in the mix in a couple of years should their customer service become acceptable from reports of others -- especially since with them we'd be able to include NZ more easily.
Oh, and a note to Jpat -- Qantas killed off the direct LAX/NZ flights over a year ago. One could in theory use them routing from LAX to Sydney or Melbourne and on to NZ.
At the moment, no Alaska Partner flies direct to NZ. With Korean, you can get there from Seoul (but only using business class and Alaska doesn't have arrangements for first class). With Cathay, you can get there from Hong Kong (but it seems that they don't open frequent flier access for the HKG/Auckland leg) -- also, the flights from Hong Kong to either Australia or NZ are Business class (though an excellent business class from what I've been told). The only other relatively direct route would be Fiji via Nadi -- with the additional plus for them being the option to arrive in either Auckland or Christchurch.
We got outbound LAX/HKG/Brisbane, and then return Sydney/HKG/LAX.
I'd note that search tools and availability have seemed to improve -- we could have done a RT to Sydney from LAX using 105K miles instead of 160K miles for Cathay Pacific with Delta. It might be in future we'd consider that option -- as I understand that Delta has just about completed its migration from lie 'nearly' flat to full flat beds for the long haul flights. Delta is now readily searchable on the Alaska site for this.
I realize the most direct options would have been Delta, Qantas, Fiji, and that the more indirect flight options are Cathay and Korean. Further, Delta is just about the only option you can check directly from the Alaska site.
That being said, I know from reports that Cathay 1st class (especially the LAX/HKG leg) is something special so we're willing to experience that.
Also, from experience (16 months ago) on Air Pacific (now Fiji) I really wanted to avoid them -- even though they are replacing their aging 747-400's for the LAX/Nadi leg with new and seemingly well appointed A330-300's - with actual lie flat seats), their customer service and customer awareness has been (and from other reports remains) well below standard. We might place them back in the mix in a couple of years should their customer service become acceptable from reports of others -- especially since with them we'd be able to include NZ more easily.
Oh, and a note to Jpat -- Qantas killed off the direct LAX/NZ flights over a year ago. One could in theory use them routing from LAX to Sydney or Melbourne and on to NZ.
At the moment, no Alaska Partner flies direct to NZ. With Korean, you can get there from Seoul (but only using business class and Alaska doesn't have arrangements for first class). With Cathay, you can get there from Hong Kong (but it seems that they don't open frequent flier access for the HKG/Auckland leg) -- also, the flights from Hong Kong to either Australia or NZ are Business class (though an excellent business class from what I've been told). The only other relatively direct route would be Fiji via Nadi -- with the additional plus for them being the option to arrive in either Auckland or Christchurch.
Apr 13, 2013, 4:29 pm
#23
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2011
Programs: American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest
Posts: 296
One thing we considered after the Australia only flights with Cathay was to arrange air from Sydney to NZ and back. We decided to simply focus on Australia for this trip (since we'd been to NZ back in 2011). Focusing on Australia for the entire vacation reduces 'pack/repack' efforts as well and means we can even include 'rest days' in our vacation.
Apr 13, 2013, 11:31 pm
#24
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Silicon Valley
Programs: Alaska, Delta, American
Posts: 4
Thanks the feedback. I realize we are way to early, which is why we are planning and trying to understand options.
We had planned to use 270k Marriott Reward Points for a travel package, which would equate to 120k miles and a 5 night stay in a Marriott hotel. Including these miles and our current AS miles we would have 220k AS miles for 2 business class seats on Qantas. However, it sounds like we wouldn't be able to get 2 round trip business class seats from LAX to Sydney. I spoke with an AS rep and it sounds like one can get coach seats pretty easily. We plan to pay for the Australia to NZ flight.
I will look into BA as well.
What does QX stand for? Being new here I am not familiar with the acronyms.
Thanks again
We had planned to use 270k Marriott Reward Points for a travel package, which would equate to 120k miles and a 5 night stay in a Marriott hotel. Including these miles and our current AS miles we would have 220k AS miles for 2 business class seats on Qantas. However, it sounds like we wouldn't be able to get 2 round trip business class seats from LAX to Sydney. I spoke with an AS rep and it sounds like one can get coach seats pretty easily. We plan to pay for the Australia to NZ flight.
I will look into BA as well.
What does QX stand for? Being new here I am not familiar with the acronyms.
Thanks again
Apr 13, 2013, 11:33 pm
#25
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
Programs: AS, AA, UA, AGR S (former 75K, GLD, 1K, and S+, now an elite peon)
Posts: 23,194
Thanks the feedback. I realize we are way to early, which is why we are planning and trying to understand options.
We had planned to use 270k Marriott Reward Points for a travel package, which would equate to 120k miles and a 5 night stay in a Marriott hotel. Including these miles and our current AS miles we would have 220k AS miles for 2 business class seats on Qantas. However, it sounds like we wouldn't be able to get 2 round trip business class seats from LAX to Sydney. I spoke with an AS rep and it sounds like one can get coach seats pretty easily. We plan to pay for the Australia to NZ flight.
I will look into BA as well.
What does QX stand for? Being new here I am not familiar with the acronyms.
Thanks again
We had planned to use 270k Marriott Reward Points for a travel package, which would equate to 120k miles and a 5 night stay in a Marriott hotel. Including these miles and our current AS miles we would have 220k AS miles for 2 business class seats on Qantas. However, it sounds like we wouldn't be able to get 2 round trip business class seats from LAX to Sydney. I spoke with an AS rep and it sounds like one can get coach seats pretty easily. We plan to pay for the Australia to NZ flight.
I will look into BA as well.
What does QX stand for? Being new here I am not familiar with the acronyms.
Thanks again
QF=Qantas.
While we don't have an AS-specific glossary (yet), the general FlyerTalk glossary can sometimes help: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/glossary.php Also, we use two-letter IATA abbreviations for airlines and three-letter IATA abbreviations for airports. In general, Googling "XX airline code" or "XYZ airport code" will turn up what you're looking for, too.
Last edited by jackal; Apr 13, 2013 at 11:42 pm
Apr 13, 2013, 11:46 pm
#26
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: TUS, SEA, OTP, OMR
Posts: 868
I strongly encourage you to consider Emirates (EK) as an option. Yes, you'd fly through Dubai (DXB), but Emirates ROCKS and they may (or may not) have availability (we'll see how that goes).
As far as getting to your point of departure from the USA, many partner awards allow you to book a certain number of AS flights in the USA to get to the partner's gateway. Furthermore, these seats are automatically first class on AS, if the seats are available and the partner award is a business or first class award.
As far as getting to your point of departure from the USA, many partner awards allow you to book a certain number of AS flights in the USA to get to the partner's gateway. Furthermore, these seats are automatically first class on AS, if the seats are available and the partner award is a business or first class award.
Apr 14, 2013, 7:55 pm
#28
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,392
Apr 14, 2013, 8:44 pm
#29
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Treasure Coast, FL
Programs: DL Diamond, Marriott LT Plat, HH Diamond, Avis Preferred Plus, National Executive
Posts: 4,578
As someone who has flown first on CX and first on DL from LAX-SYD on the 777-200LR I couldn't imagine not taking the DL flight if available.
The plane on this route is lie flat and although nowhere near CX service (I found it to be just fine but am not very picky) the direct route and time saved is well worth the it.
The plane on this route is lie flat and although nowhere near CX service (I found it to be just fine but am not very picky) the direct route and time saved is well worth the it.
Apr 14, 2013, 9:41 pm
#30
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
Programs: AS, AA, UA, AGR S (former 75K, GLD, 1K, and S+, now an elite peon)
Posts: 23,194
As someone who has flown first on CX and first on DL from LAX-SYD on the 777-200LR I couldn't imagine not taking the DL flight if available.
The plane on this route is lie flat and although nowhere near CX service (I found it to be just fine but am not very picky) the direct route and time saved is well worth the it.
The plane on this route is lie flat and although nowhere near CX service (I found it to be just fine but am not very picky) the direct route and time saved is well worth the it.
I'm sure it's fine if you view the flight as just "transportation," but I can't imagine that DL's BusinessElite (they don't have a three-cabin First product like CX) is a memorable experience in and of itself like CX F seems to be (at least from all the trip reports I've read on it).