Benster

After saving my Delta miles for many years, I tried to use them only to learn that we would need 480,000 miles for 2 RT Business Class to Sydney, Australia (Denver-Sydney RT for 2 persons). Instead, we are using them for LAX-Maui, First class RT for 3, and then, for some strange reason, found availability of RT for to to Caribbean in January for 35,000 PP RT, which we jumped on.
Having said all of this, we need a new strategy to come up with "usable miles" for business class to Australia, since, as I know NOW, Delta is at the bottom of the list for redemptions. Any suggestions? Delta is now on my official "S+#t" list, so we will be looking elsewhere.

Thanks!

ma91pmh

Air New Zealand has a great business class product and decent availability. Check out all the different star alliance carriers to see which has the best redemption. I remember looking at this a while back and concluding Air Canada Aeroplan looked good at 100k in business.

You can transfer Amex Membership Reward points. Actually you can buy up to 500k MR's per year for 2.5cpp. So you could spend $2500 get 100k Aeroplan points and have enough for one round-trip. I am sure there are plenty of folks who pay more than for coach from USA-AKL round trips

divemistressofthedark

Read this thread for some ideas:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ium-cabin.html

Generally, Amex' Membership Rewards program is a good way to get points you can transfer with maximum flexibility. Also, their PR Gold card earns you 3:1 for airline tickets...something that's always handy.

This one will tell you how to buy economy tickets on United, then upgrade with cash - warning: it's long:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...pile-here.html

Finally, I hear you can buy M tickets on Delta and then upgrade to business for 40K MR. Apparently the M tickets don't come cheap, but at least it's not a million miles and apparently there's some availability. (I'm digging around trying to find the thread in which I read this...will post a link if I can find it.)

Happy

Not true at all.

If you sign up for deal alerts with both Air NZ and Qantas - you would be surprised how cheap a coach ticket can be - the lowest I have seen is below $750 all-in. The more usual range is $800 to $1000 that would let you visit BOTH AKL and SYD, and may even another city in Australia thrown in. And that is not just for the low season but also in shoulder season as well. For those who have visited Downunder many times, most would agree that the Spring and the Fall are far better than their Summer (our Winter) for traveling in the region.

Matter of fact, DL currently has a fare r/t IAD-SYD below $850 all in. Sure you need to add the Trans Tasman Sea r/t between SYD and AKL, but that is only a few hundreds extra.

But of course coach to Downunder is brutal so it is better to find ways for business class awards.

Counsellor

Have you thought about AA miles and redeeming them for the SYD trip on Cathay Pacific? 72,500 miles each way in First.

That's what, about 4 or 5 credit cards?

Splittin' Aces

I'm not up to speed on AA's All Partner awards, but you can't do a stopover in HKG with this, correct? It'd be great if you could do a stop over - it would be a very, very long trip without one.

TomRI

I few first class UA /Asiana from PVD to SYD then bought a coach ticket to AKL (US$250). I used USAirways FF miles for this trip and planned it 11 months in advance. US offered the lowest points using the Star Alliance Network. On leg of the trip was business class but US adjusted my miles because of that.

There are not many FF seats available to SYD, never mind AKL where there is even less because very few airlines even fly there.

seanp7

While you are right about the sale fares (which are becoming more aggressive), I still think ma91pmh has a valid point that there are probably still plenty of folks who don't know any better (or think Australia is so far away it no doubt costs that much), business folks through their corporate travel agent, last-minute fares, or folks wishing to upgrade that pay for higher-priced economy fares.

I frequently paid $2200 to $2500 for Aus-USA fares a few years ago when my company had to send me over. Right now Australia is going through winter (hence the cheap fares) - Nov-Feb (especially around Christmas / New Year / Mardi Gras) can be a different story.

So 'not true at all' is a little bit too strong, IMO.

To the OP: Delta indeed isn't great for mileage redemptions on this route, unless you try a last-minute lottery. UA have been better for me. YMMV.

Happy

I have seen $1000 below fares during Spring/Fall seasons which is actually the better time to visit Australia and New Zealand. Summer is too hot in many parts of Australia, and is rainy season in Northern Queensland.

X'mas / New Year is only good for visiting SYD for the firework. It is no good to visit Queensland if you are into any water sport. Deadly jelly fish season is also between October and May.

You just need to sign up sales alert with NZ and QF - the fare sales would come to you the minutes such are available.

As for the situations you mentioned about paying high fares - corporate travel (where no consideration about the cost before the downturn of economy), last minutes travel, upgradable fares - they should not be used to compare with the cost of award in the context of discussion, imo.

seanp7

Well a few things I'd argue against that rather broad statement: Lots of folks (myself included) want to see my family at Christmas, Mardi Gras is very popular with tourists in March, not everyone wants to visit SYD (NSW highlands / Tasmania / NZ are beautiful that time of year), and jellyfish are usually confined to the shores - the Great Barrier Reef islands have great snorkelling and diving late summer...need I go on?

Downturn of economy is a little US-centric these days. With Australia one of the first out of the recession, plus some suggested award routing via Asia within this thread, the OP would be competing with some potentially many non-US travellers also - but your opinion is noted and welcomed; I simply added mine!

Happy

Since you like a good argument, I will entertain that.

Summer is rainy season in Great Barrier Reef.

Personally I prefer to visit that region in Dry Season because the water visibility is much better without the runoff.

We have visited that part of the world half doz times among different times of the year and found the Spring / Fall seasons the most pleasant, all things considered.

OP does not mention he has families / relatives to visit during X'mas / New Year time, why go that time when the lodging prices are very high in SYD?

Mardi Gras in New Orleans probably is more traditional Mardi Gras than Mardi Gras in Australia - after all that is a Creole thing. Unless of course, you are referring to the Australia Gay and Lesbian Parades during Mardi Gras time. From what I read, OP does not seem to have this attraction in mind.

Remember, we are trying to answer OP's questions hence the discussion should be relevant to OP's interests and concerns, not someone's own needs (visit families in X'mas time) or interests (Gay and Lesbian Parade in Mardi Gras time).

Rom Sac

Unfortunately it doesn't look like CX flies down under in First any longer. Though I suspect their J is quite nice also!

pianoperson

CX don't have any F class from HKG to Australia anymore though their J class is very decent if you don't mind the herringbone layout etc
As for AA awards - I"m pretty sure you can't get from US to Syd for 72,500 via HKG - you would have to have 2 awards for that - ie one US to HKG and another HKG to SYD

ma91pmh

with aa partner awards you can't even touchdown in hkg if you are redeeming to australia. you have to take one redemption to hong kong, another to australia. the direct oz redemption has to be qantas from the us. aa awards don't allow you to connect "out of zone" so if you are going from north america zone to say south-pacific zone you can't touchdown in asia zone.

thanks seanp. i too agree the response was somewhat over the top. i did a quick check for random dates in september and found coach fares varying from 1500-6000! air nz c availability on *a was pretty open, so my point still stands that for the average traveler you can get there in c for similar price to whY

sure you can set up fare alerts, go off season etc but that is not how MOST people travel. people travel for biz meetings, because joey & sheila are getting married, to see family blah blah blah. i bet if you did a survey on the anz flight to akl and asked how much everyone in coach paid, very few got it under $1k. i mean by very definition those fares are restricted so probably only 10 or 20 on any flight, meaning the other 2-300 people paid more.

tkelvin69

http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/oneworld_awards.jsp OneWorld awards do allow stopovers and are based upon COS and mileage.

If you can keep it under 20,000 miles it would be:

Distance Zone 6
Total Trip Miles = 14,001 - 20,000 Miles Required
Economy Class 100,000
Business Class 130,000
First Class 180,000

LAX-HKG-SYD-LAX = 19329

Take advantage of the triple RDMs on Advantage - see the AA forum.