Hi everyone, I'm planning a trip to Melbourne, Australia next January and haven't been able to find any availability for my dates. The return trip isn't a problem, I have miles on American and there is availability on those dates.

However on the outgoing flight, very little. For that I have Amex points that transfer to a number of programs, just no availability: Delta, BA, United, American, ANA, Flyingblue, etc. Cathay is waitlist only. Emirates has availability but for far more miles than I have.

Wondering if anyone has ideas on other carriers I could try, cities, partner programs, websites to use, that sort of thing. My ideal outgoing airports would be XNA, TUL, or FSM. Can get to various hubs pretty cheaply, depending on the exact day.

Please let me know if y'all need any more info.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

I think the key is to determine whether the availability problem is for the international leg(s), the domestic (U.S.) legs, or both. I would start by checking aa.com for availability out of DFW and LAX to MEL. If nothing, try delta.com out of LAX (Virgin Atlantic is a DL partner), and united.com out of LAX and SFO (NZ is a UA partner). If you find "Saver" seats at united.com on Star Alliance partners, you should be able to book them after transferring MR points to Aeroplan. But be aware that Aeroplan imposes surcharges on award travel on all carriers except the following:

Air China
Brussels
EVA Air
Egypt Air
Ethiopian
Scandanavian
Singapore
Swiss
Turkish
United

And you may never find a USA to Australia award in January

A peak time, as Aussie summer vacations are January.
Schools & universities start the new academic year late Jan/early Feb.
The Australian tennis open is in Melbourne late January.
Airlines will be expecting to sell every seat for $$$ at this time

You need to be flexible with departure & destination airports. Look at DFW SFO LAX – MEL SYD BNE


Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from Australia (most from LAX) are
- United (LAX SFO – SYD MEL & GUM-CNS) [Star Alliance]
- AA (LAX SYD) from Dec 2015 [OneWorld Alliance]
- Qantas (LAX JFK DFW HNL – SYD BNE MEL) SFO from Dec 2015 [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner)
- Jetstar (HNL – SYD BNE)
- Delta (VA & AS partner) (LAX – SYD) [Skyteam Alliance]
- Virgin Australia (DL partner) (LAX – SYD BNE)
- Hawaiian, via Hawaii (AA & VA partner) (HNL – SYD BNE)
- Air NZ, via AKL [Star Alliance]
- Fiji Airways, via Fiji (AA & AS partner)
- Air Tahiti Nui (last segments on codeshares) (AA & DL partner)
- Air Canada [Star Alliance]
And others via Asia & Middle East


Some forums have threads on awards to Australia
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...es-2012-a.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

Thanks very much for the responses. Have been able to find a few possible routes...through SFO, Seoul, & Singapore via Singapore Air; through DFW, Seoul & Brisbane via Delta & Jetstar; and through SFO & Beijing via Aeroplan. None of them ideal but all workable and better than the nothing I had earlier.