Is there any way to earn SkyMiles going to Sydney for a very expensive ticket?

On delta.com, it only lets you search to AKL but none of the Austrailian cities as far as I can tell.

Also, their "offseason" is suppose to be our summer but the fares don't seem any cheaper then.

Yeah...AF & KE. But remember to check those fare classes carefully, especially on KE to make sure they earn skymiles. @:-)

So you'd have to search for fares on KE's web site rather than delta.com (or nwa.com or continental.com)?

What fare classes should I be looking for to make sure I get the MQMs?

While there may be things that s*ck about delta.com, there is a ton of good information there that will answer many, many questions. Try this page and this page as well and don't forget to read the fine print at the bottom. @:-)

Burn 220k for sure!
 

I recently booked a RTW Skyteam trip in Biz (via NWA), and while it was pretty hard to find the rules, it can be done. If you don't want to do all the flying at once, you can easily break it up into 2 or 3 trips by flying back inbetween.

So I'm going LAX-ICN staying a day (not counted as a stop), then ICN-SYD for 10 days, then SYD-ICN-BKK. I'll fly back from BKK on a cheap ticket, and then fly back to BKK a month or two later to do some European and African legs.

The 220k Biz class award is great. I'd recommend getting the Skyteam flight schedule software.

http://www.skyteam.com/EN/travelPlan...bles/index.jsp

It took me a couple of weeks of research to find decent flights that had Biz or FC (on 2 class planes) in them. Remember you can only fly on one of the 9 Skyteam partners, and not on any other metal.

Seeking Australia Award travel advice
 

I want to take my family (party of 3) to Australia for a few weeks of vacation next Spring (May-June time frame). I have almost 600,000 DL miles and want to travel in either J or F in seats that lay flat and are comfortable. We would like to go from TUS-CNS as directly as possible, but see little going to CNS so we would settle for BNE. I spent 2 hours + on the phone with DL SMS yesterday and the best thing they could come up with for me was PHX-SEA on Alaska in F, SEA--SEL--SYD on Korean in J (it looks like SEA-SEL has good seats, but the second segment I could not tell what they have) and the return is SYD--SEL--LAX--SLC overnight in SLC then PHX.

This seems like a ridiculous itinerary! Going to Seoul adds a lot of extra flying time. I had her check on going via LHR on Virgin in upper class (my wife would like a stopover in London), but there was no availability (and I don't have the points for that anyway, though I could maybe scrape them up).

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas? I am considering delaying the trip a year to give myself time to earn the miles to do it on Virgin and hopefully to get seats by booking right when they open the dates, but given the uncertainty of the industry at this point, I'm not sure if that would be a wise choice.

I also have 600K BA miles and could use those instead, but I did not find availability for the dates and routes I wanted on Qantas and I consider the BA miles more valuable to hold than the DL miles. If anyone here can suggest creative solutions for us, I'd be very grateful! Stef

No easy way. The Korean routing is about the only way unless you want to swim. Swimming might be faster.

There are many possibilities, especially if you COMBINE two awards on different carriers. Think outside the box for routings like US-JNB-SYD on SA. You have a lot of miles, and with only 3 pax, you should be able to do something. Look here on delta.com and use your imagination. Then call the great people at international partner awards desk. Be very nice to them and let them work their wonders.

I would strongly caution you to thoroughly investigate the CO Micronesia flights to CNS before you use them for an award. Although they have F and Y class, it is configured like domestic F and Y, not international. That means to sit up front, you must have an international F award even though the seats are inferior to biz class. Additionally, the flight times are horrendous. Who wants a 2 hour layover in Guam at 4:30am? :td:

Thanks for sharing the SA info ecaarch. I'm guessing a stopover in JNB would also be allowed, making this a really good award option. I'd never considered looking for anything other than travel to JNB or CPT.

SA does not fly its own metal into SYD. It code-shares with QF from JNB to SYD - probably making it ineligible for DL awards. There was some talk some time ago about DL signing a frequent flyer deal with Air Tahiti Nui - not sure if this fell through, but they would be your best bet if it is starting anytime soon. If you really want to use DL miles, you could also fly SQ/MH to SIN/KUL and buy a separate ticket from there.

Using your BA miles may be your best bet - you can use QF, CX or JL to fly down under.

[QUOTE=ecaarch]There are many possibilities, especially if you COMBINE two awards on different carriers. Think outside the box for routings like US-JNB-SYD on SA. You have a lot of miles, and with only 3 pax, you should be able to do something. Look here on delta.com and use your imagination. Then call the great people at international partner awards desk. Be very nice to them and let them work their wonders.

ecaarch, thanks for this link. I never found that page at DL and it's useful. I have the Korean itinerary held and I have nearly 2 weeks so I am going to try hard to find something better.

I am going to see if I can make something work with SA from LAX-SIN. I just tried BA though and it's 300,000 miles and $530 in taxes for 3 award seats in J from SIN-SYD. The schedule is wide open, but this does not seem a good value for the miles. It looks to me as though QF would be the same number of miles for that itinerary also.

Another attractive option is the Virgin award which is 180,000 miles for upper class from US to HKG via LHR according to that link. This is starting to be an RTW rather than a simple beach holiday in Oz, but stops in London and Hong Kong would be quite appealing. Anyone have ideas how we'd best get from HKG to BNE or SYD using DL or BA miles?

Thanks Leroy. I will have to call DL to see if they have awards with Air Tahiti Nui. I din't find anything about that on the page that ecaarch linked me to with the DL partenr awards listing, but maybe it is something that is in the works.

How are the seats though? The J seats on Air Tahiti Nui don't look that great to me. I sure like the look of the Raffles Spacbed seats on Singapore!

Isnt Singapore a partner of Delta? Still a long way (whether through New York or through Los Angeles) but at least its a great product.

Assuming there is availablility on Singapore, which I have not checked yet, there are very affordable coach flights from SIN to BNE if we are willing to fly in coach. Some of them are on Emirates which is a DL partner, but I don't see any award either for free tickets or upgrades that would apply on a SIN-BNE routing--all the Emirate awards appear to require origination in the UAE.

It appears that SQ does fly their own metal from SIN to BNE. But the tickets are pricey and this is not listed as an award that is available from DL unless it's considered to be a "Within Southeast Asia" award, which would be great if it is.