Carl Christensen

This is what is laughable. This used to be the case. Not any more. As I detailed earlier, in another AA thread, even if there are Milesaaver seats available they won't give them to you as they are married segment. We have a HNL-PHX-MSP routing for 4 in J/F with 9 hour layover in PHX with 4 seats available hours earlier. Nope, AA won't let us move to them.

PATITA12345

Hello,
I know this question has been asked before.
and I hope I am not bugging anyone. but I am at a lost.

Is it me or business award from any USA airport ( i have tried LAX, SFO and DFW) to SYD, BNE or MEL are no longer in existence?
I have been looking for days for next year around March... but I can't find anything on Qantas or AA
should I just give up and try to find something using CX or JL ?
I was able to get 2 business award last year for March 2019 at about 333 days out but for personal reasons was not able to use it and had to cancel ... Now I am ready to go to Australia but I cannot find any business awards.... : (

guv1976

AA will let you move to them if, and only if, the better connection should become available as part of an available SAAver award for the entire itinerary. That's the point I was making. Even if the better itinerary becomes available just one day before departure from the award's origination airport, you can make the change for free.

taxatty56

We looked for 330 days and couldn't find one business award seat to any Australian airport from the US on QF or AA over a 6 week period. We instead booked economy awards on QF A380 DFW-SYD-DFW and snagged 35J/K in the small upstairs economy section and they were very worth it.

wco81

I searched on Qantas this morning and the only J awards which shows up is on MU transiting through Beijing or Shanghai.

For February.

They even list the bogus J awards with like first class for SFO-LAX and then Y for LAX-SYD, charged at J prices.

So I booked a CX award to BKK and HKG.

I can understand Oceania being very coveted but more than BKK?

millionmiler

From the airline's standpoint, absolutely.

wco81

I would imagine greater demand to go to Thailand, including from Europe for the more value-conscious travelers. So greater overall demand or passenger volume but maybe not as many people willing to pay for premium cabins as there would be going to Australia or New Zealand?

SFO777

Well that explains all the SFO-BKK and LAX-BKK non-stops.

iluv2trvl

This is “Mrs. iluv2trvl” and I have been reading flyer talk for a number of years and have gained a lot of knowledge. Please let me know if there is a thread already addressing my question. Using points for this trip is complicated and I am running into difficulty.

Hubby and I are planning a 5 week trip to Australia and New Zealand Janurary/February 2020, stopping in Honolulu on our way from Philadelphia and then stopping in Dubai on our way home. I have our flights from PHL to HNL booked with American miles and then our flights booked from Dubai to PHL on Lufthansa.

Here is my problem. I have to get from HNL to SYD on about January 22, 2020 and want to use my remaining 85,000 American miles for 2 economy seats. We are taking a cruise from SYD on the 25th and would like to arrive a day or so before. I have been watching the American awards chart since mid January. Other than Jan 1 and Jan 31, the entire month of January shows no flights for any awards. I check almost every day, call AA weekly, and have signed up for Expert Flyer with no flight alerts sent to me. About 2 weeks ago, they showed 2 dates with 65,000 miles for a business class seat flying through Brisbane and staying there overnight. I decided to keep watching because I am hoping to get 2 economy seats for those points. Also, there is wide open availability for economy saver awards next February and March.

Both Hawaiian (HA451) and Qantas (QF4) fly a direct flight from HNL to SYD for 37,500 points. When I look at earlier months this summer, it looks like there are many other dates that have wide open availability. Any idea on why next January isn’t showing anything? I went on the seat map on Expert Flyer and HA has a lot of empty economy seats for that flight. But Qantas strangely has about 90 blocked seats for a lot of dates in January.

I chatted with HA and they said that I have to call AA to use American miles. I just called AA again and even though I see HA451 available for an award on HA site, they do not see it in their system. The agent clarified that I have to book on the AA site. She said that maybe January is a high travel season and I should just keep checking. Is there something I am doing wrong or do you have any other ideas? It is still 9 months away so maybe I am starting too early.
Thanks in advance!

JJeffrey

January is one of the (if not the) busiest travel month to Australia. Unless you get really lucky, award availability in general will be very hard to come by during this time.

So no, you're not necessarily doing anything wrong, but it's not really surprising that other months may be open but nothing in Jan. Not much you can do other than to keep checking back (you have tons of time) or just buy the tickets.

jridge

As mentioned in the previous post, this is peak season for travel to Australia. You are going towards the end of summer school holidays, and 26th January is Australia Day (rough equivalent of July 4th). The fact that you are going via HNL makes it more difficult, since QF4 doesn't even operate daily, whereas if you go from continental North America you'd have around 7-8 flights per day nonstop to Australia (connecting flights are less popular).

If you are looking for nonstop HNL-SYD then you are really restricting your options. You probably also need to consider FJ (HNL-NAN-SYD), or HA into other cities (e.g. HNL-AKL, HNL-BNE) and then buying a cheap-ish local flight. If you don't have to go to HNL on the same trip, looking for PHL-SYD may be easier. Jetstar tend to sell quite cheap one-ways so buying a ticket is not ridiculous.

In your favor is that you're looking for economy, so there's some chance.

Dave Noble

Given that the one way fare including taxes is $469 on Jetstar on 21 Jan, unless desperate to use the miles now, I would save them for a trip where will get a better saving

Awards for US-Australia are hard to come by and you may not get availability between now and January ; the week that you are looking at is the last week of school holidays

skimthetrees

I just looked at Jetstar. The base fare gives you 7kg of carry on baggage, no checked baggage, and no seat selection in advance. Checked baggage can be purched for extra cost separately. They also sell bundles with seat selection and baggage included but an international traveler probably will not get by on 7kg of baggage allowance so be prepared. Given OP is looking at flying economy anyway this still looks like a decent option.

Dave Noble

20kg luggage is $39 and seat selection is $7 - so an extra $46

Even at $515 , it still seems much better value than an award booking ( if it was available ) . For $45 rather than $7 can get extra legroom seats ; I recall that Qantas's rates for extra legroom seats from USA-AU are a lot more than $45

Mwenenzi

And given the JQ/QF flights leave in the morning and arrive ~ 15:00/17:00 (current timetable) economy with extra leg room is a good option.
Or even JQ business class, which is sort of like PE on other airlines

On Monday 27 Jan thousands of people will go back to work after the summer holiday break. Schools & universities start the new academic year about that time. So week of Wednesday 22 Jan is a peak time for travel.

Australia New Zealand AA forum--->AAdvantage award to / from Australia, New Zealand (master thread)

HA---> Earning and Redeeming AA Miles on HA / Hawaiian Airlines (master thread)

QF---> AA miles awards: using / redeeming AA miles on Qantas (QF) & related (consolidated)