How do you spend miles on Quantas? I know many ways to spend miles on Qantas the Australian flag carrier ;:

HKG-NRT (or NRT-HKG) for 20,000 Y AA miles on JL or CX! AA has screwed up their Asia 1 and Asia 2 classifications which raises it to 40,000 AA miles, unless they change it back to June 30th's classification.

JL AWARDS maintains HKG-NRT (or NRT/HKG) for 20,000 miles awards in Y on JL or CX, under correct Asia 1 and Asia 2 classifications.

I always like CX90A, BTW (my personal favourite) in J!!! Booked one before the July 31st change because I can't stand watching AA scratching their heads. Fly now, figure out a better deal later.

SHADO

"Yes, but there is still also no special premium award on SQ or TG! Same miles like ever in the *aliance chart! I understand under a special that I need less miles for the award !"

bertheike, you misread this statement. AC used to have separate charts for each partner carrier, and the awards for SQ and TG were considerably higher than they now are on the STAR chart.

My choices are oneworld multicarrier awards, esp. those issued by AA.

Star Alliance multicarrier awards issued by SQ.

Both allow date changes free of charge, in addition to the ability to have several stops and a variety of choices for carriers (including SQ for SQ-issued awards).

AA miles are so cheap, compard with CX's AsiaMiles.

[This message has been edited by Chiangi (edited 07-05-2003).]

LAX-MUC/FRA-SIN-??? return, stopover in Europe, ~ 24,000 flight miles, 90k UA miles in C/120k UA miles in F, using LH, (and possibly SQ).

??? = BKK, SGN, MNL, CGK plus others

My favourite old award was the 30,000 Ansett points for a "round Australia" PER-MEL-SYD-CNS-AYR-ADL-PER.

Now my favourite is to use United 15,000 miles award, Asia/Aus-USA uprqrade from coach to business.
In conjunction with a very cheap RTW ticket (booked in B) from Australia, as the fare allows stopovers so the award allows a free stop. Therefore travel within USA can be upgraded to First class.

AS - 5000 upgrade award

DL - 30000 miles for anywhere in Europe in C class on any SkyTeam carrier, those flights can get pretty pricey in Y, so this value is great

SU - 20000 in Y between SVO and VIE, CPH, HEL, SVO-VIE and SVO-CPH can be particularly expensive, plus getting 20000 miles on SU is not difficult

This is a great thread! I've learned a lot.

My favorite award, if you still have some old DL FF miles (and have elite status) is 25k first class RT anywhere in North America, including Alaska, the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico. No blackout dates and if I remember right, no capacity controls.

Unless a miracle occurs, this will be my last year on DL as an elite so I plan to use up my remaining FF program miles this year.

This is only from my experience and I am pretty sure some awards have changed since...

My favorite- OneWorld multi-carrier awards with unlimited stopovers < 24 hours
AA- Swiss 25k J intra-Europe awards
- CX Fall Sale for AA members with US-
Asia for as little as 45k in Y
100k in J US-South Africa/India in J, 140k in F (probably has gone up)
BA- one way awards, ie. 20k ORD-LHR in Y, (note- now possible on partner awards too)
KL- again one ways, 45k US-Asia on KL via AMS! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
KL- or...90k RTW in J on KL/NW JFK-NRT-AMS-JFK
DL- 30k in Y to Hawaii
US- 30k in Y to Caribbean
- the discounted monthly cities for 15-20k
UA- ?!? do not know of any

And of course, the 5k intra-Hawaii hopper is great to burn orphan miles instead of magazine subscriptions!




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Going back to the bAAsics
Feed the world for FREE! One click at a time- www.thehungersite.com

WN fully transferable ticket available on any flight with an empty seat for 4 R/T's has got to be the best. Not to mention the drink coupon book that comes with it.

I would say #2 is WN's Companion Pass where your companion fly's free even on an award ticket after 100 segments.

Reviving this thread to add:

AS partner award: BA First class between North America and Australia or Asia via London. Includes a free stopover in London or an open jaw for just 150,000 miles.

I used it last summer to fly SFO - LHR [stopover] [nested KLM Y class (paid) LHR-IST-LHR ] - BKK [nested CX J class (award) BKK-NRT-BKK] - LHR - SFO. Not bad for a total of 195,000 miles and about $250.

Re: OP. This one will probably divide sharply between the upgraders and the free-ticketers (an old debate). I'm in the latter camp, having spent some 1.5 million or so lifetime miles but none on upgrades.

From the free-ticket side, I'm especially partial to awards that let you go around places like the South Pacific that are otherwise notorious for sparse service and high fares. I like the 20K on NZ through *A that spans Australia, NZ and the South Pacific, as well as CO/NW's Asia/Micronesia/Bali/Cairns at 25K. If, that is, you can get a standard seat. Also helpful to be able to do stopovers and see 2 places rather than one.

*A's 20K intra-Southeast Asia also isn't bad, especially with carriers like TG and SQ flying. But LCCs are on some of the routes now, so paid tickets are more of an option.

In general, if you're a free-ticket type who loves to travel, you look for destinations that would be way overpriced on paid tickets, often due to remoteness and/or lack of competition.

Don't forget the 2 first class tickets to Hawaii for 75K - at least till the old chart goes away this year.

My vote for the best award is the 40k miles ,Y class , N. America - SCL - IPC.
BA award on LAN.
BA considers IPC as part of south america . ( from SCL it is a 5 hr. flt. into
the South Pacific ) . This award is good all year long .( not seasonal ).
Easter Island is an amazing place.( one of those " ONCE IN A LIFETIME ",
must visit.)

Michael

I think the AA/Citibank reduced mileage awards are good. 22,500 miles U.S. - Peru The regular 40,000 AA/TAM award to Brasil is also a great award to see NE.