Trying to Get to Australia This Winter
 

Hi, everyone,

I need help from you experts here so I can get to Australia sometime in November or later. I am trying to get three free seats in Business Class.

Background information: I have about 330K in a CO OnePass account, 140K in a UA MileagePlus account, and about 130K in a Delta SkyMiles account. I also have access to 60K in Amex Membership miles that can be transferred to DL or CO but not UA.

My preference is to use the MileagePlus account because most of the miles in it expire at the end of 2000.

DL told me that the only possibility using SkyMiles to get to Australia is via KAL, which requires 180,000 miles (2 awards).

CO told me they cannot confirm a trip on Qantas; they have to write them with the request, and it takes 10-14 days to find out if the award has been granted.

(1) What are my chances of getting Business Class seats on UA or Qantas (CO partner) this late?

(2) Does anyone have any ideas how I can get a quick 40K miles on UA so I can book two seats on them instead of one?

(3) Would anyone here be interested in trading a 90K award on DL for one on UA?

(4) Is the information on DL accurate - is there really no way to get to Australia with SkyMiles other than through Seoul? Any possibilities on Singapore Airways to fly somewhere and buy a cheap ticket into Sydney?

(5) Given the above, are there any possibilities that I have not thought of?

Thanks in advance for your help?

To turn Amex miles into UA miles, deposit them into your Hhonors account, then transfer your Hhonors points to UA miles...

Or (someone please confirm this) I heard you can move your AMEX miles to Delta, then Delta to Hhonors, then Hhonors to United for maximum return on your AMEX points...

dgolds- I have been told by several ff reps from several airlines that the Biz Class ticket to Oz is one of the toughest to come by. It is odd that CO could not confirm a ticket on Qantas. I booked a free Biz Class to Australia using US Airways miles for next month and the US Airways agent simply put me on hold for about a minute and came back with the seats. If I were you I would try and use CO miles on Qantas. They have just redesigned their First and Business Classes so their service is probably the best to Oz right now. Additionally, both Qantas and United have just announced new services from Melbourne to LAX so there will be more capacity coming on line later this year at about the same time you are planning to go (see the threads under United). Connecting through Korea seems absurd. Remember, if you go in November, you will be going in summer... the seasons are opposite below the equator. This is also, unfortunatly, peak season to OZ. I will post a trip report next month for my trip on QF... Cheers. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Open Account with E-Trade, $1,000 deposit gets you 5,000 miles (You can then cancel the account and get your $1,000 back, with interest) You can do this with mutiple accounts, different ways, ie. Joint, Trust etc. First Card Visa gets you 10,000 miles for $60 annual fee, Dinners Card gets you 12,000 miles, $80 fee. MCI will EVENTUALLY get you 25,000 miles. Of course, all these actions need advance planning, probably too late for your trip in Nov. However, The fees involved are a cheap way to get a Business Class tckt. I rarely accumulate mileage through flying, but eagerly read all the tips on this board and do advance planning for International Business or First Class tickets. (Healthy Choice is comming out of my ears just now!) We are flying Delta Business/First (3 tickets) July 1, to London without any actual flights on Delta, but planned this for a year prior! Good Luck!

I think that your best bet is Qantas from CO. You already have enough miles and if you put the request in ASAP, the sooner you will get an answer. The CO writes to them is because CO buys the seats from Qantas at a wholesale price.

If you want to go on UA, find $25,000 and open an etrade acct.

Reward chart for Qantas from CO:

Travel Area: FROM North American gateway cities TO Australia or New Zealand, and on flights within or between Australia and New Zealand

Code Class Miles
P3QF Coach 80,000
NP4QF Business 105,000
NP5QF First 135,000

You said that you're open to flying somewhere in Asia and buying a cheap ticket down to Sydney. Look into flying into Singapore from the USA on UA, SQ etc. From there, it's possible to get to Sydney return for under $400 USD. Check out http://www.tiss.com for cheap flights. At this stage, I think you'll have more choice of flights (therefore more chance of free ff seats) into Singapore rather than into Sydney directly. Hope this helps and let us know what you decide to do ...

Folks, thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

ReneeMoss: I did think about opening an E-trade account, but thought there might be too long of a time lag between when you open the account and when the miles are credited. Do you know how long it takes E-trade to credit MileagePlus miles once you open the account?

Matt Wald: Excellent suggestion about transferring miles into/from a hotel program. I looked into the details of the transfer AmEx->HHonors->UA but found that I could only yield 16,000 Mileage Plus miles from 64K AmEx membership miles. But then it occurred to me that I could use my points in Marriott Rewards to get the miles I need on UA, which I had not thought about until I read your suggestion. I think I have enough points in Marriott to get me to the total I need on UA.

I'll try to book the other award on Qantas with my CO miles.

Has anyone here exchanged Marriott points for UA mileage? Just wondering how long it takes for the miles to show up in my Mileage Plus account from the time I initiate the transfer.

dgolds, in my case, it took e*trade about 3 months to credit the miles to Mileage Plus. I'm still waiting on miles for a second account.