Help with award flights to Australia
Feb 11, 2012, 9:48 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 278
Help with award flights to Australia
Hi all,
I'm planning a trip for 3 to Sydney, Australia flying from LAX. I am hoping to fly in Business. I am hoping to make the trip late December. I have 480k Delta Skymiles, but awards are only available at the medium price level. I believe that I can make the additional 240k by opening a few credit cards and maybe a points.com transfer or two. I was expecting to fly V Australia, but it seems awards are only available at the high price level making Delta my last choice. I also have around 300k AAdvantage miles, but Qantas has no availability even 331 days out. How good is Delta BusinessElite on this route? Do I have any other options that I may have overlooked?
I'm planning a trip for 3 to Sydney, Australia flying from LAX. I am hoping to fly in Business. I am hoping to make the trip late December. I have 480k Delta Skymiles, but awards are only available at the medium price level. I believe that I can make the additional 240k by opening a few credit cards and maybe a points.com transfer or two. I was expecting to fly V Australia, but it seems awards are only available at the high price level making Delta my last choice. I also have around 300k AAdvantage miles, but Qantas has no availability even 331 days out. How good is Delta BusinessElite on this route? Do I have any other options that I may have overlooked?
Feb 11, 2012, 9:51 am
#2
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Houston, TX, USA
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Feb 11, 2012, 10:11 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 278
I have been checking Qantas award availability for a while as my original plan was to fly this February and I have been checking availability for the past 11 months. Unfortunately, the most seats open at a time by Qantas was 2. The only way for 3 people to fly together was through an additional 2 stops.
Feb 11, 2012, 10:52 am
#4
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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
You might consider booking the two Business Class seats on QF, and one Coach seat. If QF should subsequently make an additional Business Class seat available on the flight, AA will let you upgrade the Coach award to a Business award simply by paying the additional miles.
Or, you could see if three Business Class seats are available by routing via Tokyo in one direction, and using an AA multi-partner "oneworld" award. LAX-NRT-SYD-LAX would cost 130K AA miles in Business as a oneworld award.
You should also check one-stop availability via HNL, NAN, and PPT, since AA also partners with Hawaiian, Air Pacific, and Air Tahiti Nui.
You might consider booking the two Business Class seats on QF, and one Coach seat. If QF should subsequently make an additional Business Class seat available on the flight, AA will let you upgrade the Coach award to a Business award simply by paying the additional miles.
Or, you could see if three Business Class seats are available by routing via Tokyo in one direction, and using an AA multi-partner "oneworld" award. LAX-NRT-SYD-LAX would cost 130K AA miles in Business as a oneworld award.
You should also check one-stop availability via HNL, NAN, and PPT, since AA also partners with Hawaiian, Air Pacific, and Air Tahiti Nui.
Feb 11, 2012, 2:40 pm
#6
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,737
I think you are going to have a hard time finding 3 award seats with any airline on the same flight. You could always pay someone like the Points Pros to try and get difficult award tickets for you.
The Delta business product is very overpriced. They do have lay flat seats, but it is the same product as Air Canada who charges 67.5k miles each way and are easy to come by. You could try the coupon connection and see if you can find someone with miles on a Star Alliance airline. I've heard there is decent availability on V Australia, but have heard it can be difficult to get 2 award seats in business and very very difficult to get 3 award tickets on the same flight.
The Delta business product is very overpriced. They do have lay flat seats, but it is the same product as Air Canada who charges 67.5k miles each way and are easy to come by. You could try the coupon connection and see if you can find someone with miles on a Star Alliance airline. I've heard there is decent availability on V Australia, but have heard it can be difficult to get 2 award seats in business and very very difficult to get 3 award tickets on the same flight.
Feb 11, 2012, 4:11 pm
#7
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 68
remember you can use those American miles inside Australia for flights between the major cities. Also, BA Avios are a good option. E.g., 9000 avios return between SYD and MEL.
If you wanted to get more creative/complicated in your routing, you could try look for rewards to Asia, then pay for flights between Asia and Australia.
If you wanted to get more creative/complicated in your routing, you could try look for rewards to Asia, then pay for flights between Asia and Australia.
Feb 11, 2012, 4:36 pm
#8
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 198
what are you using to search for flights? Many agents don't know what V Australia is. I just booked a trip to MEL from JFK and I leave next week. I'm going on KE and MU. VA will still charge you fuel surcharge, but every flight they have should be low availability when booking ticket. It's just the matter if they have seats or not.
Others have mentioned it already...it will difficult to get all 3 people on the same flight, but it is possible. Just keep calling Delta/searching on Expert Flyer for availability. Good luck!
Others have mentioned it already...it will difficult to get all 3 people on the same flight, but it is possible. Just keep calling Delta/searching on Expert Flyer for availability. Good luck!
Feb 11, 2012, 4:53 pm
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 278
@emmygofly I don't need any inter-Australia flights as the purpose of the trip is to see family.
@ned I am looking for something around December 22 to January 5th. (+/- 3 days)
@Astrophsx How hard would it be to find Air Canada availability? I have about 200k United miles but could do a points.com transfer if necessary. I understand that I would have to connect through Vancouver.
@ned I am looking for something around December 22 to January 5th. (+/- 3 days)
@Astrophsx How hard would it be to find Air Canada availability? I have about 200k United miles but could do a points.com transfer if necessary. I understand that I would have to connect through Vancouver.
Feb 11, 2012, 5:03 pm
#10
Join Date: Oct 2010
Programs: Jetblue Mosaic, Delta Gold, AAdvantage Gold, Bonvoy Gold, HHonors Gold
Posts: 54
Hi all,
I'm planning a trip for 3 to Sydney, Australia flying from LAX. I am hoping to fly in Business. I am hoping to make the trip late December. I have 480k Delta Skymiles, but awards are only available at the medium price level. I believe that I can make the additional 240k by opening a few credit cards and maybe a points.com transfer or two. I was expecting to fly V Australia, but it seems awards are only available at the high price level making Delta my last choice. I also have around 300k AAdvantage miles, but Qantas has no availability even 331 days out. How good is Delta BusinessElite on this route? Do I have any other options that I may have overlooked?
I'm planning a trip for 3 to Sydney, Australia flying from LAX. I am hoping to fly in Business. I am hoping to make the trip late December. I have 480k Delta Skymiles, but awards are only available at the medium price level. I believe that I can make the additional 240k by opening a few credit cards and maybe a points.com transfer or two. I was expecting to fly V Australia, but it seems awards are only available at the high price level making Delta my last choice. I also have around 300k AAdvantage miles, but Qantas has no availability even 331 days out. How good is Delta BusinessElite on this route? Do I have any other options that I may have overlooked?
Feb 11, 2012, 5:11 pm
#11
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Canada
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Posts: 23,293
edit: never mind - found 1 seat in F/J for 120k UA miles - didnt see you were looking for 3
The only 3 seats I see are LAX-SIN-SYD on SQ A380 in Y on Dec.22, then SYD-PEK in Y on Jan.4, and PEK-LAX in J on Jan.5 for a total cost of 277,500 UA miles for 3 tickets.
check continental.com using multicity search LAX-SYD, SYD-PEK, PEK-LAX
The only 3 seats I see are LAX-SIN-SYD on SQ A380 in Y on Dec.22, then SYD-PEK in Y on Jan.4, and PEK-LAX in J on Jan.5 for a total cost of 277,500 UA miles for 3 tickets.
check continental.com using multicity search LAX-SYD, SYD-PEK, PEK-LAX
Last edited by rankourabu; Feb 11, 2012 at 5:21 pm
Feb 11, 2012, 5:19 pm
#12
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 297
Since noone has really given you any concrete answer, here you go:
Transfer your miles between UA and CO (free)
then:
Multicity search on continental.com
LAX-SYD Dec.22
SYD-PEK Jan.4 or 5 (it doesnt have to be PEK - any Asian city will do, you can even stopover for a day or two if you wish)
PEK-LAX Jan.5 or 6
A mix of first class and business - 140,000 miles and $158
You can always switch for free if anything better comes up, but I would take this option of Air China (their F suites look really good!!!) and Thai first class in a heartbeat.
You really wont do much better around Xmas, SkyMiles are useless.
Transfer your miles between UA and CO (free)
then:
Multicity search on continental.com
LAX-SYD Dec.22
SYD-PEK Jan.4 or 5 (it doesnt have to be PEK - any Asian city will do, you can even stopover for a day or two if you wish)
PEK-LAX Jan.5 or 6
A mix of first class and business - 140,000 miles and $158
You can always switch for free if anything better comes up, but I would take this option of Air China (their F suites look really good!!!) and Thai first class in a heartbeat.
You really wont do much better around Xmas, SkyMiles are useless.
From experience, I can tell you that getting out of Australia during that time will be much harder than flying in. This Christmas I was able to find award availability in on Qantas (I was going from Tokyo) on December 21st but no matter how hard I searched, couldn't get any award space coming out of Australia (I checked all the major cities) to basically anywhere in Asia. If you have something, like what rankourabu just found you, I'd take it, and quick! It might not be what you want EXACTLY, but look for an Asian city you are interested in seeing and maybe even throw in a day or two there to make it more enjoyable.
Feb 11, 2012, 5:43 pm
#13
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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
"If you are opening credit cards anyway, just get aeroplan points and fly united or get BA points and fly AA (no surcharges and they codeshare with QA)"
The italicized language is incorrect for two reasons:
1. You cannot book an AA codeshare operated by another carrier with BA Avios. You can book the flight with its QF flight number, but then hefty fuel surcharges will be assessed.
2. BA redemptions on flights operated by AA are surcharge free only if the flights are within the Americas. BA redemptions for AA flights to/from other regions are subject to fuel surcharges because on those routes, AA incorporates fuel surcharges with its published fares.
"If you are opening credit cards anyway, just get aeroplan points and fly united or get BA points and fly AA (no surcharges and they codeshare with QA)"
The italicized language is incorrect for two reasons:
1. You cannot book an AA codeshare operated by another carrier with BA Avios. You can book the flight with its QF flight number, but then hefty fuel surcharges will be assessed.
2. BA redemptions on flights operated by AA are surcharge free only if the flights are within the Americas. BA redemptions for AA flights to/from other regions are subject to fuel surcharges because on those routes, AA incorporates fuel surcharges with its published fares.
Feb 11, 2012, 6:28 pm
#15
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,737
I would just use the Continental webpage to look for Air Canada availability, it will be listed under partners with stops. I'm not seeing any Air Canada award flights listed for late December, so they may not be loaded yet? I do see some Air China first class availability for 80k each way when looking for single seats, which is only good if you'd like to do a stopover in Beijing.
The downside of flying Air Canada or Beijing, is that these are not direct flights. December seems to be high season for tickets.
The downside of flying Air Canada or Beijing, is that these are not direct flights. December seems to be high season for tickets.