Fix-It

The skymiles PM agent indicated the only way to get from ATL to SYD on miles was with KE. I told her you couldn't pay me enough $$$ to fly KE.

AF only fly's as far as HKG and from there they code share with QF. I was told there was no way I could use miles on the QF leg (what a surprise).

What about a RTL award? I though about flying AF to HKG and then buying a ticket but I was getting prices of $1700, I can fly from LAX for that price.

Any suggestions?

What a global aliance ! I'm switching to STAR!

leroy11

The agent was right. In fact, the only way you get can to Australia from the USA using Sky Miles is using TWO Korean Air awards. There is no through award from USA to Australia. Instead, you have to redeem one from USA to Seoul and another from Seoul to Sydney.

AF code-sharing to Sydney - that's new to me! I think the agent must have been confused with ex-partner, SR, code-sharing with QF to Sydney. Even if AF did code-share with QF, it wouldn't do us much good since AF is stingy (especially when compared to DL) about giving miles on code-share flights. DL web-sites specifically states that you can not earn miles on AF flights operated on a code-share basis by another airline.

Your best bet may be to redeem an award on SQ as far as Singapore or Bali / Denpasur and get a cheap tix on from there - easy from SIN.

HOwever, if we're lucky, I'm sure they know that this is major weakness in their alliance, so let's keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow and hope they may announce a partner serving that part of the world or AF starting flights there again.

TexasFlyer

Sigh, and it used to be so nice to redeem Skymiles miles for a flight on Air New Zealand to Australia.

ATLFlyer

TexasFlyer: Don't even start on Delta's old partners! If they were a leader instead of a [i]follower[i], they could have created the first alliance before Star and OneWorld was even a dream. Delta, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Singapore, JAL, Swissair, Sabena, Austrian, Lufthansa, Varig (All DL partners at one time). That'd make a great alliance!

I love Delta, but they're not a leader!

Back on subject, I'm currently on a consulting project that takes me to Sydney about once a month, sometimes twice. I realized that Delta couldn't get me very far, so I fly my back-up United there.

opus17

If you don't mind flying a LONG way out of your way, I think you can get a couple of awards and go through South Africa on SA...

deltadave

Or, I think that slow boat to China stops in Sydney!

Droneklax

Not a very creative agent:

You can fly to Noumea on AF! It's very close to SYD. The flight stops in TYO.
From there you can buy a ticket on Air Calin ( with AF miles since they are an AF partner) to SYD!
I you buy your Air Calin ticket before leaving, you can qualify for a special rate, $220 for NOU-SYD. Check out their website www.aircalin.nc


[This message has been edited by Droneklax (edited 06-22-2000).]

leroy11

Droneklax:

That would still be an out of the way of doing it. AF's flight to Noumea goes CDG - NRT - Noumea. So, in order to get there from ATL you would have to combine two awards: DL USA - NRT and AF NRT - Noumea plus a tix to SYD.

jeffreyt

With all the flying that you'd have to do on the alliance partners to get to SYD, I'd have to get right back on the turn around to make it back to work in time if I was on a one week vacation.

So I am working plan b... every weekend when I fly to LA, I fly Quantas code share partner AS. And I already have 1 first class seat banked up.

msb

Do any of you very wise frequent flyers know why Delta doesn't fly to Australia or have a partner airline that flys there? I know a number of years ago, Air New Zealand was their partner (and you could redeem for ANZ awards). Did Delta just decide it was too small of a market to be involved in?

It would be nice if they started up some relationship, but I guess with ANZ in the Star Alliance ant QANTAS hooked up with AA, that's not liable to happen.

seawolf

KE flys there. Assuming you want to go all the way to SEL to make a connection.

HRGM

... and assuming you're willing to fly KE (I'm not, at least at this point).

paulr

This is sad, but true. When I went to Oz late last year I had to go UA since DL doesn't go there, and you can't earn DL miles on int'l UA metal.

zrs70

DL would need to reintroduce F class on these 14 hour flights.

Spiff

BizE is so full on all other international flights so there would be no problem filling F with paid fliers, right?

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Time..... is on my side.