rewards to SYD
 

So how can I use 140k points to get a one way business class ticket for 2 to or from SYD out of JFK

Low-level awards are extremely hard to come by on LAX-SYD (particularly on DL metal). I see three days next week with 80K OW awards on Virgin Australia, but even then you're 20K short.

For whatever reason, DL.com is blocking JFK-LAX-SYD J searches. You'd have to price it as separate awards, which further increases the costs.

I'd say, on average, the minimum per person you'd need is 150K miles. I'm seeing OW awards later this year and the beginning of next year for 110K, LAX-SYD. JFK-LAX in transcon D1 is 32.5K miles, at a minimum.

I am trying to look at 1/29-2/10

Going to use United miles via Air China for SYD-PEK-JFK for 80k per person (2/10)

Then currently I can only see Economy from JFK-LAX-SYD for 45k a person (1/29)

Economy tickets appear to price as one award, but business class awards often won't.

I did finally get JFK-LAX-SYD to price in business. I'm seeing the lowest possible at 177.5K

You can't get two J tickets to SYD for 140k. I believe 160k is the lowest possible, and I believe that it may now be 190k for 2 one-way J tickets.

I got some amex points I can transfer to the Delta account.

Actually using chase points to transfer to United.

For travel before 10/1, the lowest possible is 80k per person, one-way. On/after 10/1, the lowest increases to 95k per person, one-way. Also, you will likely never find such awards out of JFK, because of Delta's married segment logic and the new prohibition against routing via Asia. Chances are you would only be able to find such an award out of LAX, and would need to have some other way of handling travel between there and JFK - whether paying more miles or a cash ticket (with all the risks that separate tickets carry).

If both tickets are on DL, agents have told me that I'll be taken care of if IRROPS occur. Not sure whether that was due to my status, but I asked since my recent trip to HKG was on separate DL tickets (saved me about $500).

If you book separate tickets for this, I would heavily recommend that you stick with DL for that reason, and because you'll be able to check your bags all the way to SYD (DL doesn't interline for separate tickets on other carriers anymore).

Was ~6 years ago, but I booked BOS -> LAX on an award ticket and LAX -> SYD on a cash ticket.. Flights to LAX were late due to MX then WX... Missed the flight to SYD by about an hour.

I had absolutely no status at the time. next flight DL could get me on was two days later. They set me up in a nice hotel in LA, and gave me 3 meal vouchers per day. I was very impressed.

They did lose my luggage (which was checked through) for almost a week though...

Meanwhile, on UA or AA...

well, you get the picture. ;)

Just check the award chart. It'll tell'ya how many miles are required for a particular trip.














;)

You funny man. Should try a career in stand up. :p

Would expertflyer be able to alert me when availability opens up?

I believe EF's award alerts would be flummoxed by married segment availability. You could set an alert for DL metal LAX-SYD and then call DL to add the JFK segments, successfully or not. EF doesn't support Virgin Australia for award alerts, however, so frequent searching on delta.com JFK-SYD may be the best technique.

I recently noticed that this may not work with DL metal due to the dynamic and market based pricing for awards. I was searching SEA-LAX-SYD and just LAX-SYD to see if anything better has opened up since I booked LAX-BNE on VA and for one of the dates I looked at, SEA-LAX-SYD was 175,000 miles while just LAX-SYD was 225,000 miles.