Considering award trip to Down Under
 

Hi all,

I'm considering doing an award trip to Oz/NZ from LHR (not quite enough miles to go from North Am) next May/June, 2007. At this point, I'm considering the following itinerary (all points stopovers):

LHR-SYD (QF) (1 stop flight)
SYD-AKL (QF)
<land/air trip to CHC, ticketed separately>
CHC-BNE (QF)
BNE-SIN (QF/CX)
SIN-HKG (CX)
HKG-LHR (QF/BA/CX)

The above are the stopovers--my total itinerary would probably look like this:

LHR-(SIN)-SYD-AKL/CHC-BNE-SYD-SIN-HKG-LHR (although I may try to throw in couple of extra connections, like CHC-AKL-BNE, CHC-SYD-BNE, or even CHC-AKL-SYD-BNE).

I'm open to the idea of visiting other places instead of BNE though. Total trip counting flights between stopovers only is almost 25K.

I'm trying to decide whether I'd do this in business (OW150C) or first (OW230F). I do have enough AA miles for OW150C, and with conversion of some of my *points, I can get another 90K miles to get OW230F. But given that the difference between C and F is not as big as the difference between C and Y, I'm wondering if I should save my points for hotels or other trips. I have flown CX F and loved it! I've also flown BA's J and it was quite nice (esp as I was op-upgraded from WT+). Another factor is the ease of getting award seats on these flights--does anyone have a rough idea of how difficult or easy will it be to get seats for that time of the year on these flights?

Any thoughts on my proposed itinerary, including any potential problems, etc?

Thanks!!

LHR-Oz rewards can be difficult
 

Have you looked at award availability ?? (Phone AA) Getting a business class or F class reward LHR-Oz can be difficult (even purchasing F or C can be difficult on weekends). Going via HKG is a possibility.
SYD-AKL, CHC-BNE & BNE-SIN will not have first class.

Hi,
No, I haven't looked into the availability yet--I only just started thinking about it. Thanks for the tip re the availability of seats on the OZ run.

As for not having first class, yeah, I know some shorter flights won't have first class, but they do have business class, which I'd be downgraded to if I was on F award--not a problem for those shorter flights. And I plan to route through SYD when traveling to SIN.

Hmm--looks like you're having an Oz Fest in May 2007--I'll have to try to work that into my trip. :)

Thanks for the help!