metzby

Hey,

I'm still a newb to AAdvantage, and I just don't understand the whole kerfuffle. I'm considering going to Sydney for business, and I'd like to take my girlfriend with me, and I have a few questions.

1) I'm AA PLT, and based in NYC. I'm fine with Coach for TCON, but if I want to be in Business for the TPAC flight, I need to buy a ticket in business, right? Because the flight will be a codeshare from QF, and AA stickers only work on AA metal. I've heard that on UA, business is often empty enough that if you show up early they'll upgrade you for $300. Does that happen a lot on QF? If you're OW ff instead of QF per se?

2) How many miles would it take to get my girlfriend there on AAward? The cahrt is weird to read, and I'm not sure if I need to buy one AAward for JFK->SFO(or LAX) and another for SFO(or LAX)->SYD, or if they're one AAward. I only have 71k miles. If I can get her ticket for 100k miles, that's probably doable (would take $725 to buy another 29k miles, or there's some way that she could share the miles she does have to me, and then I can use them all?). But 200k is probably too much.

Thanks,
-Metzby

[Edit: just to clarify, I'd be fine with premium economy even if it's called economy, so long as it's not as small as US TCON economy, so if I can get that scheduling through BA's or QF's website but get EQM's to my AA account, that'd be fine too]

og

Not at all. Thats why UA is going out backwards and QF is profitable. QF will fly with empty seats if necessary - and if so, they'll probably add an extra 100 kg to the belly freight and make more money.

If you want to upgrade on QF Trans Pac, you'll have to pay the difference between a Y fare and a Biz fare (thousands) or request an upgrade with your QF points (confirmed at T-24 hrs). Failing that, just buy a PE ticket.

Edited: Its more than $300 on UA! Just to move from Biz to F on UA SYD-SFO I was asked for about $700 and I declined.

Dave Noble

If you would like to travel in a premium cabin for most of the trip, if you route via HNL for the trip, you can upgrade using electronic upgrade credits or AA miles. The QF flight to SYD would be in economy

If you would like comfort for the whole trip, book a r/t to HNL and upgrade that using AA miles. If you book Jetstar Star Class for the HNL-SYD-HNL you can get a seat like QF domestic business class for a reasonable price.

HNL-SYD r/t in starclass is approx USD2400 inc taxes
Add the r/t to HNL on AA from around $850 plus upgrade credits ( or miles plus $300 to confirm if available ) and a total cost for a trip to SYD in a premium cabin that isn't too expensive


Dave

gemac

Since your other questions have already been answered, I'll just chime in on this one. The award to Australia is valid from any point of origin that AA or its partners service in the 50 United States, so it would be only the one award from JFK-SYD. This award would be 37,500 miles one-way in coach (75,000 miles round-trip), or 62,500 miles one-way in business (125,000 miles roundtrip). You can do coach one way and business the other way if you like for 100,000 miles.

metzby

Thank you! How do I book Jetstar? Is it oneworld? Would miles count as EQMs on AAdvantage? QF miles are EQMs for AAdvantage, right?

Mwenenzi

www.jetstar.com Jetstar Au is 100% owned by Qantas but is not a OneWorld airline
Check the AA web site to determine if you get miles. Will be a balance between class of travel, cost in $ and miles.

Dave Noble

You book jetstar by going to www.jetstar.com . You cannot earn AA miles on the jetstar flight but, if desired, you could earn QF miles and Status Credits. You would earn approximately 12,610 QF miles for the r/t which is enough for a 1 way flight on AA of up to 1,200 miles

You could book on QF in Premium Economy which , looking at the fares, would likely be cheaper with a fare starting around USD3000 plus taxes

AA 1st to HNL plus JQ to SYD will , ime, have better service and comfort ( if you go via DFW on the 763 ) than QF Premium economy but the QF Premium Economy will be more comfortable

Another option might be to buy an economy flight to London and then purchase BA World Traveller Plus to Sydney. The WT+ T fare ex London is USD2059 plus $310 giving a cost of USD2369 plus taxes . This would be a longer journey though

Dave

chfenton

I just used two award tickets when I did JFK-SYD a couple of years ago. Went JFK to HNL (via LAX) on an AA domestic FC award and then did HNL to SYD on a Hawaiian Air FC award. I think it was 125,000 in total for the two award tickets but there was no problem with availability at all.

mvoight

Not really "most"

JFK-HNL is 4984 miles
HNL-SYD is 5066 miles.

Unless, you add distance to make the US part "most".

qwe9999

Deleted. Guess I don't know what I'm talking about.

Dave Noble

That sentence was incorrect; it should have said more rather than most ( more compared to via LAX ). I just made the rash assumption of going to HNL via DFW to get the 763 which would have made it most .

Do AA with upgrade to HNL ( or use an xUP fare) and then StarClass to Sydney and it is a pretty decent journey.

Dave

metzby

QF Premium Economy sounds fantastic. But I don't see that on aa.com. Do I book it on qantas's website? If so, can I get the miles towards my AA account? Is it the same itinerary, so that if the QF flight is delayed, they'll still get me to my connection?

Again, thank you so much for your help.

Dave Noble

Just go to the Qantas website and you can book a Premium Economy JFK-SYD quite easily. You will earn FF miles to AA with a 10% class of service bonus and will earn 1.5 qualifying point per mile flown plus, having platinum status, will earn 100% bonus

With a booking of JFK-SYD , there is no risk of missing a connection as long as you take QF108 all the way from JFK-SYD. Although there is a stop in LAX , it is the same aeroplane all the way to Sydney

Dave

DMPHL

I don't believe AA.com shows you Premium Economy availability, and there is also no way to book a premium economy award with AAdvantage miles.

You can book the ticket on qantas.com. Qantas flies to JFK, so you can book the entire ticket with them.

If for some reason you wanted to go from SFO or wanted to use American for the leg from JFK to the west coast, you can (1) book a separate ticket, or (2) Call Qantas and have them book you on the American flight and then QF to SYD.

Both of these guarantee that it is on the same ticket. In case of a misconnect, you are really protected only if it is one ticket, which is why I would not go with the first alternative.

But, as I said, you can go to qantas.com and book the entire itinerary, JFK-SYD (stops in LAX), all on QF metal. And you will get AAdvantage miles for the flights.

EDIT: What Dave said, much more clearly and concisely than I did

Gamecock

How does QF Y+ stack up to the same on BA?