I have been trying to book air travel via American's One World program to Australia and New Zealand. I have been told that Quantas has no method for releasing seats. I'm trying to go with my husband around December 19th from LA to Sydney, then off to South Island in New Zealand then from Auckland back to LA...all non-stop and using miles for business class.

Does anyone have a tip or two on how to get information and/or book this? I feel so helpless and am afraid that, at this point, I have missed my opportunity to use miles to travel there.

Oh, and does anyone have a corporate address for the top exec's at Quantas?

Thanks everyone!

Deleted - reread OP's post!

Sorry...new to the site. Where can I find "OP"?

Sorry - OP is you! Original Poster, I think!

Australia in December is a popular destination. Qantas are infamous for being stingy (compared to other OW airlines) on some routes.

But you do have some options if you have enough miles. You could try booking with CX to HKG (from LAX, SFO, or YVR) and then on to SYD with CX or QF. ALternatively, try LAX-NAN and then NAN-SYD.

Others will have other routes/ ideas, but it's a start.

Appreciate your suggestions. I wish they (Quantas) would be more helpful. I have been trying to make this trip happen for so long...it's sucking the life out of me!

I believe the address for customer service in the US is:

Qantas Airlines
2801 E. Elvira Rd.
Tucson, AZ 85706

I've had mixed results dealing with them as they seem to have to check with
Sydney before acting.

It's also worth noting that Qantas releases Award seats to QF FF 365 days in advance, whereas AA (I think) only allows you to book 11 months out - so QF members get in first, then the rest will get snapped up very quickly when released

getting seats on the SYD-LHR, SYD-LAX routes is tough, but as other posters have said try via HKG, via AKL, maybe direct to MEL

Why would an airline be generous with you if you can't even spell their name?

That's a tough time of year to get ANY award seats trans pacific. It's very close to the Christmas peak season. This is true for Coach, let alone Business or First!

Thanks for the spell check but regardless, it still is lame to not have an absolute formula that their employees could guide customers on. It's bad business. And as an aside, maybe I'd spell their name right if they did business right.

If you flew QANTAS you would be able to get awards. You don't fly them so it is rather silly to think you deserve awards on them. Your complaint is with AA not QF.

What's the issue that you're having problems with?

My issue is that I cannot afford to spend $10,000 US Dollars per person to fly to Australia business class. When I knew I wanted to plan this trip, I contacted American's Advantage customer service and they instructed me to use my miles and build them so that I could fly on Qantas. I did and now I have tons of miles and cannot use them, even though they are a One World Partner. I have used miles for other One World partners with no issue. The more I call and talk to people, the more I learn that it's a miracle to even get a seat and that despite all of my persistance and planning, I'm at the mercy of Qantas who is allegedly known to travel agents and travelers alike as a very difficult airline to do business with.

So I am frustrated because next winter was the only time my husband and I could go and we're even trying to plan a family around this trip, so you can only imagine how discouraging this is.

In December it is usually possible to get seats via Japan ... fly AA to NRT (easy availability as AA has a dozen flights a day US to NRT) and then QF NRT-Australia (several flights to choose from). This is often available when LAX-Australia is not.