My wife wants to go to Australia sometime sooner or later. Our home airport is ATL. We'd want to fly something better than coach for that distance and this would be next December at the earliest (she starts nursing school in the Summer, so this would be during her December break).

I currently have the following points and status:

Delta SkyMiles: 250,000 / No Status
Chase UR: 205,000
Starwood SPG: 105,000 / Platinum

I'm assuming the points alone would not pay for the trip, but I figure that I could transfer points out of UR and SPG to maximize their value elsewhere. Starwood's hotel options in Australia are disappointing, to say the least, so I would likely pay out of pocket for lodging. I figure I could do a temporary status match with one of the hotel chains that gives the elite perks during a challenge/match period (Hyatt, Marriott, IHG, etc.) and take advantage of the benefits from another chain. I also read about flying on Cathay, but I'm not really sure what the options are now and there seems to be a lot of outdated information or inconsistent tricks involved with transferring points into that program (by way of BA, OW, etc.).

Anyhow, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm used to doing what I know best (flying Delta, staying at Starwood), so this is a bit out of my comfort zone and I look forward to learning something new.

You can use 150K per person to fly Delta to Australia on Korean Air (via Seoul) or on Virgin Australia (via LAX). The problem is getting to the gateway domestically, since Delta rarely releases low level award space on many domestic routes. It will take some hair-pulling with the award calendar. Korean Air also has blackout dates for their awards.

You can also transfer Chase points to United, which will let you redeem on Star Alliance to Australia. While a direct flight may be tough to find on United/Air New Zealand. It will be tough since you'll have to double-connect between ATL and LAX/SFO to get to the international gateway anyway. However, you can route via Asia on partners like Asiana, ANA, and Thai. UA charges 135K pp roundtrip between the US and Australia, so you'll need about 65K UR more.

You have a lot of time and a lot of miles already. Since you have no status on Delta, in your shoes, I would be looking for ways to get enough miles to fly Business. Without at least Gold status, travel to Australia in coach will be miserable. With Gold, you can get a pass that cuts you to the front of the line at customs, lounge access with showers (etc.), better seats, and so on. But for no status, I think you are correct to assume that coach is not an option. The mileage charts have been (and probably still are) changing, so assume you will need more miles than you think you will need and make a plan to bulk up your account. I do not think getting low level awards ex-ATL will be anywhere near as difficult as it is for those of us who don't fly out of a hub, based on some experimental searches I have tried, so your location may be an advantage to find the awards when you are ready to book.

There are lots of ways to get affordable hotels in Australia besides chasing chain hotels -- such as upscale hostels with private room for couples -- so that would be FAR back on my list of priorities if I had limited spend to use chasing points. In fact, staying in upscale hostels is what I did. There's also priceline, airbnb type equivalents, and so on. So that's how I would optimize my spend -- focus on the miles and worry about searching for hotel, B&B, or whatever bookings once I have tickets in hand and the dates firmed up. People who focus on these chain hotels always gripe about expensive SYD is but IMHO it's their own fault for not looking at how real Australians travel.

I think delta miles are probably your best bet for trying to oz. in addition to virgin and korean, you can also use china soon to connect. So you would need 50k max delta miles.

Virgin Australia space to Australia is phenomenal. Last week I was adjusting an award redeemed using SkyMiles and there were at least three biz award seats available on LAX-BNE. LAX-SYD was also available on the date I was looking at. The fuel surcharges are also gone now, so it's a great option. Transfer 40K SPG to 50K DL and you've got the 300K needed. Alternatively, sign up for a DL AmEx if you don't already have one, which should get you a good chunk of the way there.

Another benefit to flying VA (as opposed to KE/CZ/MU via Asia) is that you don't have weird routing restrictions on visiting other places in Australia. For instance, you could fly ATL-LAX-SYD(stop)-AYQ, take the train or some other transport to ADL, maybe drive to MEL, and then return MEL-(SYD/BNE if needed)-LAX-ATL. You're going to have trouble finding fares with suitable routing rules to get to AYQ (or any number of places beyond SYD, MEL, and BNE) in Australia via ICN/CAN/PVG.

Thanks for the tips on flying VA. I had a look for fares in November 2013 (last dates open for now) and it comes out 150K for each of us from LAX-SYD. I'll need to work on the ATL-LAX leg, but that's an easy pill to swallow with cash, if needed. We'll likely adjust our flight to stay in LAX for a day to see some sights (my wife has never been) and to avoid any chaos at the airport. I still need to work on the itinerary for AUS, but we'll likely do a combination of SYD-CNS-MEL. This is the trip I took about 10 years ago with my father (MEL-CNS-SYD) and I fell in love with the areas we visited. I'm really looking forward to this trip, so I thank you for your assistance... you really made this a realistic possibility for late next year!

I've flown, and will be flying in a week, DL and VA LAX-SYD. The DL J seat is better, but the VA J seat is a lay flat bed. VA does have EXELLENT availability, unlike DL metal. Personally I much prefer New Zealand, but connections are harder.

Bottom line, if you find space on VA in J, take it! Good product, decent food, and friendly FAs.

You can always transfer some of those UR points to southwest or united to get to LAX but that probably isn't the highest value and you don't sound cash poor so I wouldn't do it. I have heard amazing things about the Sydney Hyatt so I'd recommend transferring some UR points to stay there for a few days.

I think this is precisely what we're going to do ... transfer UR into Hyatt and ask for a status match/challenge during my time there (who knows, I may decide to complete the challenge, but SPG value is much better for me being in ATL and not doing much business travel). We'll probably spend our time in SYD and MEL at the Park Hyatt in each.

I may attempt to extend the trip to cover a brief excursion to NZ as well.

Awesome work, guys! My wife says a big thanks! ^