Firstly, as an Australian, I'd say you're trying to pack in a lot to include Maldives or Tahiti with Australia. Unless of course you're away for a long time. Australia is big - same as the US, so you'll only see a couple of places.

That said, if you can get to SIN DPS BKK you can get to Australia on Jetstar. Not sure if AA can redeem as its not part of OW but is part of QF (QF FFyers can redeem). J on JQ is really only E+ so don't get excited and also you don't get lounge access on all fares. Go back up to Asia and fly back to the US from there and you'll have more options.

You can also pay for Air Asia into any major Aus port. Get UL into an Asian port and pay for your trip. Their J is lie flat and often goes for peanuts...but remember you get what you pay for in life.

Getting to and from Tahiti from Australia is hard and not cheap and as mentioned before, QF release seats 362 days in advance, the good stuff is gone 360 days out.

AKL LAX is an option on the new AA flight.

BTW I don't agree the QF J product isn't worth it. Compared to US airlines you'll be amazed at what you get

The problem with QF J is simply that's it's hardly ever available for booking with AA miles (at least USA<->Australia), in part because QF opens up availability around 12 months out but AA doesn't allow booking it until 331 days out and by then it's mostly gone. (Not only QF members, but BA members and others also are able to book awards 12 months out. So all of those get first stab at all QF J inventory, long before AA members get a chance.)

Hi all,

Thanks so much for everyone's help and all the suggestions. I've decided to go with the following plan that I was able to book at AA pre-devaluation

MIA>LAX Business
LAX>PPT Economy
PPT>AKL Business
AKL>SYD Business

Was able to get these for 115K each using AA miles. I know its not the best value, considering we had to book aanytime rewards for MIA>LAX in business, but it's a lie flat seat and the beginning of our honeymoon so I figured when else are we going to use them!?

I'm going to follow Dukerau's advice and book the united award for 80K each one-way and setup alerts on expert flyer for NZ>LAX availability. Although there's a part of me that would like to see asia on the back end of this, has anyone experience asiana or thai air's business product? I think it really comes down to getting the time off of work and hoe amenable the fiance is to that much flying around.

Would love to hear people's thoughts on these redemptions.

I'm really excited for this trip, getting to see bora bora, auckland (for a quick stock) sydney and possibly the whitsundays sounds like a dream honeymoon to us!

Thx.

I snoozed.

I loozed.

Except I didn't really have a trip to take.

That's an awful lot of ground you're covering, I hope you get to enjoy it. If you go to Whitsundays, try and stay at Qualia on Hamilton Island or at the very least, Beach Club.

I think I spoke too soon. So it looks like the original booking agen tacked on a cathay pacific flight from SYD>HKG on the 25th, which we don't need. They were supposed to book that separately. So now in order to book, they had to cancel the booking and rebook at the new award redemptions. Only costing 2500 points each, but still.

Now I have the following conundrum, do I pay $450 to transfer miles from my fiance to me so we have enough points to fly business class on the same record locator, or do I book LAX>PPT on one booking and book the MIA to LAX on her account.
The agent said that if anything happens to the MIA>LAX flight they won't be able to help get us onwards to PPT, is this true? Its the lie flat product and I've flown it before, it's nice but I feel like it's a waste to spend $450 PLUS 52,500 points EACH to fly that business class one way for 5 hours. But, it is our honeymoon...

Do not book separate tickets, keep it on one reservation. This is insurance that you won't be stuck in LAX if there is a problem with the inbound. You'll be protected and, most importantly, your return flight won't automatically be cancelled.

on any star alliance / one world / partner airlines?

How long is your layover in LAX? That can be quite risky - up to you if it's worth $450 to avoid any concerns with IRROPS. As LondonElite mentioned - if you miss the connection at LAX on the way out, the rest of your itinerary will be cancelled. But you may be booking this as a series of one-way itineraries (separate PNR?), so that may not be the worst thing. So it comes down to - 1) how long is your layover at LAX? and 2) what happens if the worst happens? If you have > 4 hours, I'd say it's pretty low risk. But don't forget you could be shelling out cash for a last minute flight. Tonight's LAX-PPT non-stop (6 hours from now) can be booked as part of a round trip (throw away the return ticket) for $4k per person. Tomorrow's 5:30pm non-stop is a much more reasonable $1230. So [probability of major IRROPS] * ([$8k OR {$1230 + missing a day of vacation + costs to stay in LAX overnight}] + hassle + costs due to later flights canceled if on same PNR).

I should note that I have booked a similar thing - CLT-LAX round trip and LAX-NAN-AKL round trip because it priced out ~$400 pp cheaper than booking it all as one itinerary. We had an 8 hour layover at LAX on the way though (originally was to be 5h, but they cancelled that flight and my choices were a 2.5h layover or 8h layover, and on separate tickets conservative choices win) and an overnight in LAX on the way back (would have been required on a combined booking anyway due to flight schedules). So I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. Just know what risks you're taking and how to minimize them.

Its peak School Holiday travel period ex Australia and New Zealand, schools are closed from Mid December through to Late January. Add to that typically most office retaliated businesses are closed from 24 December to around 5 January.

I was told by the booking agen that because they are all booked on American record locators they would be able to reaccommodate us if there were any problems with the inbound. We get into lax at 730 and our flight leaves at 1040 to ppt. I think we should have enough time but was the gate agent incorrect in saying they could rebook us on our ppt flight since its booked w an aa record locator?