Coach award flight to SYD; which AA partner / oneworld airline?
 

Yes, I'm yet another person looking to fly to Australia with AA miles in Dec07/Jan08 timeframe. HOWEVER, I did search, and it seems most (all?) other threads are interested specifically in first class or business flights.

Whereas, my wife and I only have 75000 AA miles each (and barely haha), so we're going coach no matter how ugly it gets :).

Given that, which AA partner would be best? Qantas, Cathay Pacific, or Tahiti Nui? (I think those are our only choices?) And again, specifically for coach flight to Sydney.

p.s. Also, I'm guessing that with 75000 mileage awards, we won't be able to do things like make an additional stop in Cairns (Great Barrier Reef) or Auckland -- or both?! If not, we'll probably just pay for those flights while in Sydney.

Thank you all in advance!

Given that is a pretty popular time and you are booking a little late - I would take whoever you can :)

I have not heard glowing praise of CX whY service whereas there are common comments that the service in QF whY is more friendly than QF J.

Fiji's Air Pacific is another option.

You will not be able to fly Cathay Pacific to Australia for a 75,000 award. This would have to be as part of a OneWorld award or two separate partner awards, either of which would cost more.

You can have one stopover at a gateway city and one open jaw. So you could make Cairns your final destination with stopover (of whatever length) in Sydney.

Good luck! :)

I have taken both Tahiti Nui and QF economy, and would recommend Tahiti Nui... plus you will get a Papeete stop over... make use of that!

Book a chiropractor in Papeete now, for example.

Getting an award ticket to SYD this late might not be easy. If you must go by QF (the 75,000 award is transpacific only from LAX or SFO), try to get seats 70-73. There are only two seats on each side of the a/c as the fuselage narrows. On row 70, there is quite a bit of room between the window seat and the fuselage. This allows you to spread out some.

Given the IP has selected a very high season time to fly and the knowledge of oneworld members, I have flown this thread to oneworld Forum. I suspect award tix to Sydney this late in the game will be a "chAAllenge;" good luck, and be sure to look at combined airline flights using Hawai'i or Fiji, for example.

Thanks for all the responses. I didn't realize 6 months out was considered late in the game! I mean, for an economy award anyway, which I thought were readily available. I guess we'll have to book asap.

But the feedback is EXTREMELY helpful, and much appreciated!

Depending on the answer to my followup questions below, we will most likely do the stopover in a gateway city. If not, then the TN with stopover in Papeete will be our next choice.


So, quick followup question for ohioflyer:

Are you saying I can do the above if I got the oneworld award that you mentioned? Or was this in reference to my original request of using the AA 75000 partner award? I ask because it sounds exactly like what we would want to do.

And when you say make Cairns our final destination, does that mean I would have to buy a ticket from Cairns back to the US? Or do you mean it's the "final destination" for our flight there, on a roundtrip ticket.


p.s. Anyone actually know a good chiropractor in Papeete? ;-)

pacific, yes AA's 75,000 partner award allows you the stopover in a gateway city (and an open jaw, if you want one). So you can make Cairns your final destination, from which you would return to your starting point in the US as part of the 75,000 award. No additional ticket purchase necessary for that.

A quick check of award availability, and I only checked LAX-SYD-LAX on Qantas, shows all kinds of dates with 2 economy seats available early in December, and then Christmas Day. Return looked a lot tougher, unless you want to go on Christmas and stay a month. But I did not check any of the many other options, including Qantas flights from BNE and MEL, Qantas flights to SFO, or the other partners.

6 months is way too late for booking a SYD trip unless you are lucky. If fact, its impossible in almost any case or timeline.

Actually for Economy, 6 months is not too bad. e.g. Qantas flies SFO-SYD, LAX-BNE/MEL/SYD and vv.

To do a search for availability, join Qantas FF (it costs nothing for US residents) and do an award booking for 2 people for your preferred dates, say LAX-SYD/CNS/AKL (Use the Multi-Destination option).

It will show availability even though you will not have enough points. AAdvantage awards use this same availability.

Good Luck ...

I also don't think this is really a challenge, because he wants Y. The challenge is getting seats in J or F to SYD. Since I'm bored, I just found 2 QF nonstop awards 12/27 on my first guess. More options through MEL. I didn't bother looking for Tahiti Nui, Air Pacific, or CX.

pacific - I can't answer your original question since I can only speak for QF. However, you're permitted a stopover in your gateway city, so you can visit both SYD and CNS (which is what I did on my award to CNS). Check this link: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=440733

We flew that trip in 2005 for 75K each as an open jaw with a stopover and also two less than 24 hours convenience stopovers.

Routing was:
AA SFO-LAX, overnight at airport 8pm - noon
QF LAX-SYD, overnight in town 10pm - 4pm
QF SYD-CBR
drove CBR-MEL-ADL

return
QF ADL-MEL, FJ MEL-NAN
three days in Fiji
FJ NAN-LAX-SFO

This was booked about six weeks out but we were really lucky and it took about an hour and a half on the phone with the agent.

It helps to be fully prepared. Do your homework and have available at your fingertips every possible routing with flights if possible. Sometimes it takes a lot of trying and flexibility.