Mylisa

I’m a senior and have no idea how to get the best use of my Delta frequent flyer miles for my husband and I to go on our Dream trip from Atlanta to Australia and return from Auckland to Atlanta.

We have to arrive in Sydney on January 13, 2023 (some depart on the 11th) and return on January 31, 2023 from Auckland, New Zealand.

I have 311,643 miles and my husband has 118,638 miles. All on delta.

We would like to fly business class (Delta One) for at least the longest part of the travel due to our age and my husbands bad back.

Please help me!!

chococat

This could be a tough order- SkyTeam (which includes Delta and Korean Air) has notoriously poor coverage in New Zealand, so you might need to buy a separate ticket with another alliance to get from AKL-SYD on your way home. But that's doable if you're willing to pick up your luggage in SYD and re-check it with Delta.

The bigger problem is that getting a D1 award seat from ATL-SYD roundtrip will require 765,000 miles... per person, so more than 1.5 million miles for both of you.

You can try booking the open-jaw flight with Korean Air (which has some flights to AKL) but it will still be close to $8000 per person. United also has flights into/out of Australia and NZ for around $8000 in Polaris or $5000 in Premium Economy.

Have a great trip! What a marvelous adventure.

guv1976

If the OP will be taking a cruise from Australia to New Zealand, I suggesting contacting the cruise line to determine whether it is offering any discounted Business Class fares for cruise passengers.

Mwenenzi

Mylisa Welcome to AU/NZ
USA<--->AU/NZ business class award help is *very* common question. For those dates 2 x business awards will be very hard
DL fly LAX-SYD.
Suggest you look at DL LAX-SYD return cash paid ticket and AKL-SYD one way. A 3:30hr flight on several airlines
Best to have 1 or 2 days between flights and the ship, to allow for delays. The ship & aircraft will not wait for you if late.


Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from Australia.
Following the pandemic, routes are being re-established and some new routes. Schedules can change. Route restart dates subject to change.

• Air Canada AC YVR – SYD BNE. [Star Alliance] .
  
• Air New Zealand NZ LAX SFO IAH YVR via AKL. [Star Alliance]
  
• Air Tahiti Nui TN LAX – via PPT Tahiti & AKL. Last segments on QF codeshares. (AA & DL partner)
  
• American Airlines AA LAX-SYD due to restart 29 Oct 2022 [OneWorld Alliance]
  
• Delta DL LAX – SYD. [Skyteam Alliance]
  
• Fiji Airways FJ LAX SFO HNL – NAN - BNE SYD MEL ADL. (OneWorld Alliance connect. QF AA & AS partner)
  
• Hawaiian HA HNL – SYD. Pre CV19 also used to fly to BNE (AA & VA partner)
  
• Jetstar JQ HNL – SYD. Pre CV19 also used to fly to/from BNE & MEL.
  
• Qantas QF SYD - LAX DFW HNL YVR*; BNE - LAX ; MEL- LAX. {* seasonal}. MEL-DFW due to start 02 Dec 2022 (new route). SYD – SFO due to restart 30 Oct 2022. SYD-AKL-JFK planned from June 2023. Pre CV19 also had SYD-SFO & SYD-JFK(via LAX). [OneWorld Alliance]
  
• United UA MEL-SFO, SYD-LAX SFO. BNE-SFO from 31 Oct 2022 (new route). MEL-LAX and SYD-IAH due to restart 30 Oct 2022. [Star Alliance]. (VA partner)
  
• and others via Asia & Middle East
  

Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from New Zealand (not from all airports to all airports).
Following the pandemic routes are being re-established and with some new routes. Schedules can change. Route restart dates subject to change.

• American Airlines AA . DFW-AKL due to start 29 Oct 2022 to 25 Mar 2023(new route) LAX-AKL due to restart unknow. Pre CV19 AA was to fly LAX-CHC 3 days a week from Oct 2020. [Oneworld Alliance]
  
• Air Canada AC YVR – AKL Due to restart 12 Nov 2022 [Star Alliance]
  
• Air New Zealand NZ LAX SFO IAH YVR – AKL. JFK from 17 Sep 2022. ORD from late Oct 2022 [Star Alliance]
  
• Air Tahiti Nui TN LAX – PPT - AKL (AA & DL partner)
  
• Fiji Airways FJ LAX SFO HNL – NAN - AKL WLG CHC. (QF AA & AS partner).
  
• Hawaiian HA HNL – AKL (AA & VA partner)
  
• Qantas QF SYD-AKL-JFK planned from June 2023. LAX SFO DFW JFK HNL YVR* via SYD BNE & MEL. {* seasonal} [Oneworld Alliance])
  
• United UA SFO – AKL Restart from 01 Oct 2022 [Star Alliance]
  
• And others via Australia, Asia & Middle East
  

Airlines that fly trans Tasman routes Australia (CNS* MCY* BNE OOL SYD HBA MEL ADL PER) to/from New Zealand (AKL WLG CHC ZQN*) (not from all airports to all airports, * seasonal with some airlines). Pre CV19 were flight to/from NTL CBR & DUD

• Air Asia D7 SYD – AKL from 01 Nov 2022. Used to fly OOL=AKL for a time.
  
• Air New Zealand NZ [Star Alliance] Code share AU domestic tag on flights on QF.
  
• Emirates EK SYD – CHC due to restart 02 Dec 2022. Codeshares with QF. Report on AFF they are now not restarting.
  
• China Airlines CI BNE-AKL Oct to Dec [Skyteam Alliance]
  
• Jetstar JQ (low cost carrier owned by QF).
  
• LAN LA SYD - AKL
  
• Qantas QF Codeshares trans Tasman with EK and others. Code share NZ domestic tag on flights on Air NZ[Oneworld Alliance]
  
• Qatar QR ADL-AKL [Oneworld Alliance]
  
• Virgin Australia VA SYD-ZQN due to restart 02 Nov 2022. Restarting of other routes yet to be announced. Codeshares AC*. (UA & AC** partner)

Mylisa

Thank you so much for your response. So essentially we need to give up on using the frequent flyer miles. Oh boo!

Ive gone to google flights and are tracking the cost of several flights since it looks like we’re going to have to buy the tickets outright. Retirement fund just got a little smaller! Oh well. We’ll have great memories!

Mwenenzi

Premium economy can be a viable lower cost alternative to business. Is a class between business and economy. Generally more leg room and 1 less seat across the aircraft compared to economy
e.g. DL A350-900 Bus 1-2-1=3 vs PE 2-4-2=8 vs Economy 3-3-3=9 ---> https://www.aerolopa.com/dl-359

As time goes on more people will be booking USA<---->AU/NZ flights for our summer (Dec-Feb). Would not be expecting large decreases in fares. Airlines are hoping for full flights at that time of year.

Edit
The 3 Mar 2020 version of this topic by Mylisa. (We all know what happened in 2020 a few days after posting)
-->Cheapest Business Class Option From ATL to SYD, AKL to ATL

Jaimito Cartero

DL miles can sometimes be good for stuff. You just need to plan ahead, and be flexible. The whole “I have to leave on January 11th” is usually a bad sign.

Before NW and Delta merged, I used 240k NW miles for a RTW award, hitting 5-6 continents, including Australia over 11 months in business class. Back then, with some planning miles really worked out nicely.

MSPeconomist

I would also strongly urge the OP to plan to arrive TWO days early (standard advice was one day, but flights tend to be more messed up now) for any cruise.

bosman

If you have (or consider getting) a DL Amex, you can use your miles to Pay With Miles (PWM). I believe it's $.01 per mile, so your miles could reduce your out of pocket cash expense by ~$3,000. I don't think you can combine your husband's miles; others can likely chime in.

hotturnip

The helpfulness and generosity shown in these responses is Flyertalk at its best.

Mylisa, you're right to invest in experiences, not things.

xliioper

You could transfer miles to primary Amex cardholder account, but it would cost more to transfer than the miles are worth. Pay With Miles is now available to holders of any DL Amex card (including no annual fee DL Blue Amex card). So they could each get an individual Amex card to use miles out of both accounts, but the tickets would need to be booked on separate reservations. Note that Pay With Miles is only available on itins that consist entirely of Delta coded and operated flights (so they wouldn't work with an AKL return since Delta does not fly there -- although DL does not even appear to be selling codeshare itins out of AKL right now).

BamaGirl

If you have American Express Rewards miles (not the DL ones), I'd suggest looking via their site.

Mylisa

I have a Delta Platinum AMEX card (not business platinum) already.

So are you saying that I can transfer my Delta frequent flyer miles to my credit card and then just charge the flights on the card?

We are on a cruise. And flying out on the 11th gets us there on the 13th which gives us 3 days to tour Sydney and a nice padding in case of delays. The ship leaves on the 16th. It ends up in Auckland which is the reason for the return from there,

BamaGirl

No. This would involve Amex Platinum (not DL) or their other cards that earn Membership Rewards.

Mwenenzi

I still consider a separate one way AKL-SYD flight, at the end of the cruise, to pick up the return of a USA-SYD-USA ticket the most practical way. Or USA-AKL-USA return and a AKL-SYD for the start of the cruise.
Best to book sooner than later.