matrim33

Hello. I would like to fly RT from Seattle to Perth (business class for long legs) using points. I spend about $40k at Costco monthly (using US Bank Altitude, 3x travel rewards), and $15k per month with Fedex shipping using Chase Ink and Amex Gold.

I am looking for advice for the best deal to get to Australia with my spend by either transfering points/miles or using a different credit card. I can use Chase points or US bank to buy flight directly but I would like to do better if possible. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Mwenenzi

This question USA to Perth has been asked before. And many threads about business class awards USA to east coast Australia (BNE SYD MEL)
USA to Australia business class awards have a reputation of being very hard to get, especially on Oneworld airlines

When do you want to travel? You need to be very flexible with dates & routes.
Also consider ex Vancouver and flying to Singapore with a separate cash ticket to PER
What ff miles/status do you have with airlines ffp's now?

SEA--> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattl...tional_Airport
PER---> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Airport
Routes---> http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=SEA-PER...SU=kts&RS=best

Credit card transfer links

• Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Programs forum
• Amex MR Transfer Membership Rewards points to which airline or hotel program?
• Chase UR Ultimate Rewards - Airline and Hotel Transfer Partners, Rules, Timeline, etc (2017)

matrim33

Thank you so much for the thoughtful reply!

I am hoping to go in June/July 2019.

I have an Alaska Air Visa and a miles account with them. No special status with any airline. I can fly from Vancouver, I did last month. Nothing really built up with Alaska but I could start spending on that card at 1x.

Mwenenzi

Now to 30 June is ~180 days. Awards can start to become available at 355/330 days out to being available much closer to departure. Hoping for an award at say 60 days, can be a gamble. Or it may work.

AS is a partner with SQ QF AA CX JL and several other airlines.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...rline-partners.
The AS ffp is very good as it allows stopovers and the ff miles needed for awards is lower than many other ffp's. However the award chart is very prescriptive on what airlines can be used on specific routes.
Getting premium cabin awards on QF is hard/very hard.
AS forum QF thread-->Consolidated Qantas (QF) Awards Availability/Booking/Routing Thread

But look at other ffp's and as well as buying via the cc points.

Will not be easy

matrim33

Thanks again for the help.

I have been reading up a bit.

I get 1 point per $1 with my Alaska Visa. With Amex Gold I get 4 points and with my Chase Ink I get 3. I can't move those points to Alaska, but it appears I can move them to Krisflyer (singapore airlines) points which partner with a lot of carriers. Do you think this could be a good option? I wouldn't mind economy from Singapore to Perth.

It gets a little complicated on calculating costs with Krisflyer points. I'm still trying to work that out. I have about 400k Chase points currently that I could move over.

Mwenenzi

For SQ ffp have a read of the SQ FT forum--->https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/sing...krisflyer-500/
SQ ff miles have a 3 year hard expiry. Use them or loose them

SQ does not fly from SEA or VYR, so need a connecting Star Alliance flight (UA or AC or ?) or another Star Alliance airline, like EVA using the SQ ff miles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancou...tional_Airport

++++++++++++++++++++
You do not need to use the same ffp both ways. Many/most ffp's allow one ways.

With credit card to a ffp award you need to the calculation
Credit card $X spend = Y cc points = Z ffp miles.
And W ff miles needed for an award. The ff miles needed for an award varies by ffp, even on the same operating airline.
So $ credit card spend needed for an award AAA to BBB using a specific ffp

General guide for ff miles for an award (Not all ffp's & award rules vary:- check the ffp)
---> Awardhacker SEA PER business class
---->Awardhacker SEA PER business class (UR & MR filter)
But availability is the big unknown

Some ffp’s have awards zones and some work on distance. If a multi segment award check the rules/cost carefully. With some ffp’s it can be 2 or more awards or cost more ff miles/points than a direct flight. If the award is on partner airline it may cost more miles/points than an award on the ffp airline.

With ffp's (saver/off peak) award availability may/may not be the same for all, including ff partners. In practise it does vary. Some airlines release more award space to members of their own FFP, particularly first class or to those with high status. Many airline ffp’s now have “anytime” awards only for members of their own ffp with a ff mile cost a lot more than a saver award. Usually better/easier to get an awards on the airline of the ffp.

Some ffps/airlines/routes can have cash surcharges on an award flight, in addition to real taxes. Some carrier imposed surcharges can trigger small additional real taxes when the flight changes from non-revenue to revenue. Real taxes/regulatory fees are the same for all airlines on the same route/class.

guv1976

I think that you're doing this backwards.

Finding the program that offers the cheapest points redemption from SEA/YVR to PER will do you little good if you cannot find those cheap awards for when you actually want to travel. I would start by searching at aa.com, delta.com, and united.com to see if any of those airlines or their partner carriers offer low-tier Business Class awards for when you want to travel. If you find anything suitable, you can then start looking at which of the Amex and Chase transfer partners offer the best redemption value for those flights, taking into account not only miles, but also carrier-imposed surcharges, if any.

Watch out for the notorious "mixed-cabin" awards, which might have you in Business/First Class for, say, the SEA-LAX leg, and in Economy for the trans-Pacific leg!

matrim33

For the Awardhacker site I looked to confirm some of their numbers on Alaska's site. I got that it would cost 110k point with Alaska (flying QF) on Awardhacker from SFO, w/ business class. That's not bad. But when I went to Alaska's site all of these deals had business for the short leg, not the long overseas flight.

Is is safe to assume all the award hacker flights with multiple stops will only be business class for the shorter legs?

guv1976

No, you can't assume anything in this game. People are able to redeem for low-tier all-Business-Class awards between the U.S. and Australia, but finding those awards can be challenging.

How many miles does AS want to fly to PER on CX? I believe that you have to call AS to book award travel on CX; I don't think that you can check CX award availability on the AS website.

matrim33

AS and CX? Sorry I don't know all the abbreviations.

Mwenenzi

Awardhacker is guide only of ff miles needed for first/business/economy award. It just takes info from the ffp's . It is not availability or the detailed award rules. Really only works on a direct route. Where multi segment and/or multi airline operator award you need to check the ffp rules & cost very carefully.

The "mixed class" first/economy award AS offering is very common===> lack of business class award availability on the long haul.
The chances of finding business class award SFO/LAX BNE/SYD/MEL with AS ff miles (or AA ff miles/QF ff points) is extremely low (that's being optimistic). I have been looking for Australia USA business class award for late May/early June for months. Have secured a business class award USA to Australia.
With AS ffp you may get better chance with CX or via HNL or some where else.

Note that depending on the ffp not all partners may show on line. You need to phone. Each FT airline ffp sub forum will have threads on that.
AS forum--->Cathay Pacific (CX) Award Redemption, Booking and Availability – 2017 and Later

As post 7 above, the quantity of ff miles needed is irrelevant if no award availability.
But availability is the big unknown

But look at other ffp's and as well as buying via the cc points.
Will not be easy

If desperate consider these Award booking services - a list and some reviews

Edit
AS Alaska
CX Cathay Pacific
QF Qantas
AA American Airlines
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/glossary.php

guv1976

AS is the airline code for Alaska Airlines; CX for Cathay Pacific.

Duke787

No idea how award space will be but ANA is launching NRT - PER in September 2019.

From SEA that could be potentially attractive with UA miles though the timing doesn't look ideal (SEA - NRT arrives at 310pm and NRT - PER is leaving at 1110am so you'd have to overnight in Tokyo). Timing is a little better on the return, PER - NRT arrives at 825am and NRT - SEA leaves at 625pm so at least no overnight required.

You could also explore SEA - SIN - PER. SQ is launching SEA - SIN next September as well and they have a number of SIN - PER flights. SQ flights require SQ miles (easily transferable from Chase / AMEX / Citi / Marriott / Capitol One) and the timing on this would be pretty good.

UA and SQ are both transfer partners of Chase and you can check award space before booking. Chase transfers to UA immediately and typically takes 48 hours to SQ.

Gardyloo

SQ has announced SIN-SEA service beginning in September. https://www.travelcodex.com/singapor...s-destination/

matrim33

Thank you all for the great insights.

If I disappear on the conversation I apologize, I have a limit of 5 posts per day. Hopefully that will fall off soon so I can chat up the threads on each of these airlines.

To be clear, I am flying from Seattle. I have been searching other west coast cities just to see if there is a better deal. SFO has a direct flight to SIN which I would like to get on but it is spendy with miles (176k Kris miles). I have signed up with NH but can't get the SQ flights to show up. Awardhacker has NH at 136k for business.

I signed up for SQ and NH mileage programs to check everything out. SQ doesn't like a lot of legs for rewards and asks me to call their office, not sure if this worth doing. NH has a lot of availability through Tokyo with business at good values and so far I think they would work for me. I have a lot of MR coming in that is transferable to NH. And I have a lot of in-laws in Japan so if I get miles stuck with NH it won't be the end of the world.

I like the idea of spending a day or 2 in SIN as I have never been. Perth and Melbourne would be the other 2 places I want to see on this trip. A day or 2 in Tokyo wouldn't be terrible either as I have a friend there. But the thought of navigating Tokyo and NRT for a day sounds daunting.

So far I am not seeing many good QF options. SIN seems a lot easier to get to than direct to Australia.