Flights within Australia - Use AAmiles or Avios?
 

I scored 2 Business Class tickets for our trip Down Under in December on United but now I need to book flights within Australia.

I was going to use AA miles for Qantas flights until I saw the Amex transfer bonus offer for Avios points this evening.

However, when I went on BA website and tried to calculate the points needed, the airport we are flying to from SYD came back as " We do not fly there". Even though I know Qantas flies there. Would calling them help?

Also, our ultimate destination is PNG. Air Niugini code shares with Qantas, does anybody know if I can use AA miles to get to POM?

Use Avios! This is what they're best for. After getting the message that British Air doesn't fly there, press the link to parners and book Qantas.

This is what comes back :

Error

British Airways does not currently fly to this destination, so we are unable to find a price on BA.com. We may be able to quote a price if you contact us for the destination: Rockhampton

Try looking for Sydney -> Cairns -> POM. Better yet, go to Qantas' site, look for award availability, then plug in those segments into BA.

edit: Actually, BA's site doesn't recognize POM. You can call in and avoid telephone fees by saying that the site doesn't recognize it. I'd use QF's site for award availability, then call in to BA or AA depending on which one is cheaper (most likely BA).

I had all the flights figured out on Qantas site. Then tonight I read about the Amex - Avios bonus transfer offer...and got all excited about saving some points...

How much does AA charge for flights? BA Avios are 4500 points for less than 650 miles. Great deal!

Great until you bleed the fuel scamcharge

BTW, AA will not allow its miles to be used on an Air Niugini QF codeshare. Why do you even need to bother with the Air Niugini codehare? You can use the 20k one way intra S-PAC award from anywhere in the Pacific (theoretically including from IPC) to POM via CNS on the flight operated by QF itself.

Note however that if you are connecting the same day with Air Niugini, they will not protect you in case of an irregularity on the QF segment if bought as separate tickets.

I flew Air Niugini from BNE to Rabaul last year. My first flight was delayed and in anticipation of the misconnect, they upgraded me to business and thus also allowed me to use the QF lounge.

Then when I did end up misconnecting in POM, they put me up for free at the Holiday Inn (around US$250-400 per night) with all meals. All this wouldn't have happened if I were on separate tickets.

QF is usually on time but just be warned.

There's no fuel surcharge on domestic QF flights.

Definitely go with Avios, we used them for all of our domestic Australia and SYD-AKL travel for our trip next week. In some cases Avios are cheaper than AA and it's only a nominal amount of airport taxes.

But sometimes you do have to search segment by segment, especially if you're getting that error even with a known valid route. Once I kept getting the error for some segment, but on the exact reverse of the route it went through fine. Just BA.com "quirks"

Now that's Greek to me....lol. What is an "intra S-PAC" ?

So it's either bite the bullet and pay for the BNE - POM - Hoskins return which is about $ 1300 per person. OR use AA or Avios points for QF flights into POM, then pay for the POM - Hoskins part and risk getting delayed and having to take care of possible expenses like hotel etc on our own.

Where you able to book this online or did you have to call in?

Sorry to go off-topic, but I'm still trying to figure if award miles from a single carrier can be used for POM to Japan or Korea.

Segment by segment also means separate awards for each segment with Adios, while AA is one award for origin to destination. So there is no simple answer - it depends on distance. For shorter distances and direct flights, Adios can be better. For longer distances with connections, AA might be better.

And this is the accepted truth of avios, however it is not, at least for domestic australia flights. For example Avios will charge you 4500 point for SYD-MEL r/t + $12 in coach which sounds great right? Wrong, Jetstar sells tickets for $44 r/t all-in. Making the "great" short-haul redemption of avios useless as they are essentially worth less than 1cpm. Tiger airways can get you there even cheaper at times. Avios are horrible for the domestic australian short haul market on a cpm basis, no two ways around it. The Avios devaluation is by far the worse ever of any major FFP.

I agree - especially for NA West coast FF's. That is why I call them Adios (not my idea, but I love it).