trishnaji

My spouse and I are planning on going to New Zealand the week of and week after Thanksgiving in 2019. We have the points to do round trip business class. Qantas reward flights appear to have disappeared when searching for availability. While the dates we want to travel aren't on sale yet, everything I can find, even the day it goes on sale, appears to be a mixed reward redemption with the long flight being in coach. Does anyone have any thoughts on the odds of Cathay rewards flights working? Or any tips for finding non-mixed travel availability? Or any other ideas for warmer weather destinations that time of year that might have better awards availability? Thanks for your help.

flytoeat

If you can snag the HKG-AKL segment, that's the tough leg on Cathay. The North America - HKG leg will likely become available. Otherwise, check Korean by searching for individual legs with the possibility of an ICN layover.

Mwenenzi

From where?
You need to look at the AS award chart to see what airlines you can use.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...s/award-charts
AA fly LAX-AKL, but 2 business class awards will be extremely hard to get
QF fly from a range of USA airports to BNE SYD & MEL. Then to many NZ airports on QF
Do not overlook Fiji Airlines, to a range on NZ airports (not just AKL)
Business class awards USA - Aust/NZ are hard to get, with any ffp. Star Alliance seems to be a little easier. 2 people makes it 4 times as hard

Another option is to Australia and then a paid flight to NZ (~3:30hr)

AS thread Consolidated Qantas (QF) Awards Availability/Booking/Routing Thread

trishnaji

Thanks for your help. We're flying from the US.

minz56

I am looking at an award ex AKL to ORD in early 2020 and have been looking at options like you.

Looking at 330 days out AKL/HKG generally seems possible in J on a Thursday on CX but not other days of the week (based on looking at QF and BA). Unfortunately I couldn't see any availability HKG/AKL in any class on CX.

Therefore you might get AKL/HKG/USA on Thursday, 28 November or Thursday, 5 December when that opens up in the next couple of weeks. As you don't mention where in the USA you will be flying from I can't comment on the TPAC sector on CX, but that will probably be easier than the AKL/HKG sector

QF doesn't seem to regularly release seats at 330 days and in any case J is hard/impossible to find. I have however seen F seats ex LAX via SYD but it is going to be a matter of luck for 2 seats to open up on the day you want them. FJ is similarly random in J.

Good luck and I would be interested to know if you are able to get anything.

minz56

Just to follow up:

There are currently 4 J class seats (per BA) on CX HKG/BNE on 19 Nov 2019 (330 days out). This suggests that you might have more luck getting CX into Australia than NZ. You can then buy a Trans Tasman ticket or get an award redemption somewhere else.

Mwenenzi

QF release's award seats starting from 353 days out (as with cash bookings). A post in another thread stated QF were releasing at 297 days out. A few months a go I booked business class DFW-SYD-MEL at 227 days out when a bunch of USA Australia awards appeared.

QF ffp awards:--. https://www.qantas.com/fflyer/dyn/fl...flight-rewards
.

minz56

Yes I agree that QF award seats can be booked via QFF and other partners up to 353 days out, but this does not seem to be case with AS. From what I can see the last date you can book a QF award seat via AS is 3 Sept 19 (today being 24 Dec 18) which is 253 days out. Perhaps the 100 day difference is no coincidence?

If I was the OP I would try and get something on CX as award seats will become available in the next couple of weeks.

Mwenenzi

The point I was making is QF & some other airlines( including BA) do not start reservations at 330 days like AS, AA and some other airlines. The 353 vs 330 reservation system seems to annoy some AA freq flyers when it comes to awards.

minz56

Yes, I agree

THR

Qantas release F and J at 297 days out for Partners, and Bronze/Silver members, is my understanding. Only economy get released at 353 days for all.

353 days for F and J is for their own members that have higher status.

Perhaps you can try JAL from NRT to SYD or MEL - they release 2 seats per flight at 10am Japan time each day, and generally easy to obtain (especially on the MEL flight) - and then you can just book the short trans-Tasman separately.

EDIT: BA shows two seats as available on 19 November (later dates not yet released), but Alaska doesn't seem to show that as available... perhaps you can call to check availability

EDIT #2 : NRT-MEL definitely showing 2 seat availability for multiple days up to and including 19 November. You then just need to get to NRT, assuming NRT-MEL is bookable with Alaska.

EDIT 3# (final): That original link posted above suggests you can't book with Alaska.

FWIW, you can use AA miles (which are currently on sale as well) - 40,000 per person (each way) for business.

BarryAZ

Perhaps the easiest alternative warm weather destination would be Hawaii. That is readily doable using Alaska miles.

This past year we did a trip which included NZ -- but used a combination of Hawaiaan and American miles to do it.

For us this was the 'big trip'. Used Hawaiian airlines miles from Phoenix to Honolulu - coach -- we could tolerate that.

Stayed there for 2+ days.

Using American Airlines miles we flew on Hawaiian AIrlines to Sydney -- overnighted at the airport hotel and continued to Cairns on Qantas -- that was 65K AA miles. Stayed 3+ days in Cairns

Then using Alaskan miles, we flew Qantas from Cairns to Melbourne and stayed there for a week.

The Qantas flights were business class.

Our plan was to use Qantas from Melbourne to Auckland (using AA miles) but they changed flight times and rather than awake way too early in the morning, we paid for Air New Zealand premium economy to Auckland.

We did a tour of NZ for two weeks. Then, using Hawaiian Air miles few business class AKL-HNL-KOA. We have a time share on the big island and stayed there for week.

Then we used AA miles to fly direct from KOA to PHX -- paid a few bucks for economy plus seating.

Yup -- 5 weeks -- "the big trip". It was easier to arrange flights from HNL to Australia and from AKL to KOA with miles and that broke up the overlong flights.

Speaking of overlong flights -- if you had infinite miles -- you could fly to AKL via Dubai in a first class/business class oddessy -- 225K miles one way. <smile>

rustykettel

VegasGambler

I see F availability for LAX-AKL on Qantas (LAX-SYD in F; SYD-AKL in J) for August, up to Aug 31. There are even some days with two F awards on the same flights. That is 249 days out.

minz56

Yes, and DFW/SYD/AKL has a fair bit of availability in F in August as well, suggesting that QF F (at 70K points one way) might be an option to consider.