In December 2025 I am planning on traveling from the DC area to New Zealand around the 17th of December. Then I will be traveling on January 2nd from Sydney back to the DC area. I have about 600,000 cap one points and 220,000 amex, and 178,000 kisflyer. I am trying to book tickets for a family of five. What would be the best way to try and book business class tickets for all?

Pray. Fiercely.

If you have -- or can acquire -- the Amex Platinum card, you would likely save a few hundred dollars per ticket through the Amex International Airline Program; and you could use your Amex MR points to offset some of the cost of the cash tickets.

The sign-up bonus for the Amex Platinum varies, but can be as high as 150,000 MR points. Sometimes, you will get a higher bonus offer by visiting the application page more than once in a day.

5 on same flight? I have never seen so many mileage tickets on one flight.

Assume you have no status? Then you need to see which options will provide a refund and you can check and see if a reduction to cancel and rebook.
Guessing that 2 one ways. When booking opens keep in mind other airports in US to leave or return.

In meantime watch for bonuses to transfer your points to airline FFP to maximum your points.

Too early and gives you time to prepare for frustration. Summer is heavy season and you are going to a poorly competitive market. I made some bookings for this year and ended up booking with CX, UA, and QF (points).

I will leave it to others way more expert than me on the best ways to maximize the value of your points. But I would like to echo the point already made about it being high season. Not only are both New Zealand and Australia attractive to tourists at that time due to them going into summer, but huge numbers of expatriate New Zealanders and Australians return home from all around the world for Christmas with their families (a bit like how many Americans travel at Thanksgiving). So cash fares are always higher than normal around Christmas and airlines are not so likely to make large numbers of seats available for award bookings if they can sell them for cash.

Some carriers with "dynamic" award pricing might well offer five Business Class award seats on the OP's desired itinerary. Although the OP does not have AA miles -- or points which convert to AA miles -- here is what AA is charging for five Business Class award seats:

So

• DC, USA to AKL New Zealand on Tuesday 17 Dec 2024
• SYD, Australia to DC, USA Thursday 2 Jan 2025
• NZ to SYD by ship?

Note the time zone-date line change USA-NZ~AU. Some people do forget this.

As posts above the days Saturday 14 Dec to Wed 25 Dec is the peak time to travel to NZ_AU. And the ~7 days before Christmas, peak of peak.
In the days-week before Christmas will be less business class employer paid travel, but the airlines will be expected to sell *every* seat for money. For very good money at that.

For a very long time business class awards USA<---->NZ-AU have been one of the hardest to get.
Getting 2 or 3 (saver chart) business awards on the same aircraft will be hard. Most people would have been looking and booking awards months ago.
Air NZ (Star Alliance), a SQ Krisflyer partner, are know for *not* releasing awards to partners.


Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from New Zealand (not from all airports to all airports).
Schedules can change. Not all routes daily. Lists may not be up to date

• American Airlines AA . DFW-AKL Until 30 Mar 2024. From 05 Dec 2024 to Mar 2025. LAX-AKL. Pre CV19 AA was due to fly LAX-CHC 3 days a week from Oct 2020. [Oneworld Alliance]
  
• Air Canada AC YVR – AKL From 12 Nov 2022 [Star Alliance]
  
• Air New Zealand NZ LAX SFO IAH JFK YVR ORD HNL– AKL. JFK started 17 Sep 2022. ORD suspended until Oct 2024 [Star Alliance]
  
• Air Tahiti Nui TN LAX SEA – PPT - AKL (AS AA QF NZ partner)
  
• Delta DL LAX – AKL. From 28 Oct 2023 seasonable. Restart due 02 Oct 2024 [Skyteam alliance]
  
• Fiji Airways FJ LAX SFO HNL YVR – NAN - AKL WLG CHC. (Oneworld connect)
  
• Hawaiian HA HNL – AKL (AA & VA partner) Service suspended Apr to Nov 2024
  
• Qantas QF SYD-AKL-JFK from 14 Jun 2023. LAX SFO DFW JFK HNL YVR* via SYD BNE & MEL. {* seasonal} [Oneworld Alliance]
  
• United UA SFO LAX – AKL. SFO - CHC from 04 Dec 2024 seasonable[Star Alliance]
  
• And others via Australia, South America, Asia & Middle East
  

Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from Australia.
Schedules can change. Not all routes daily. List may not be up to date

• Air Canada AC YVR – SYD BNE [Star Alliance]
  
• Air New Zealand NZ LAX ORD SFO IAH JFK YVR – AKL – Australia various[Star Alliance]
  
• Air Tahiti Nui TN LAX SEA via PPT Tahiti & AKL. Last segment on QF codeshares. (AA AS partner) [SEA new route March 2023]
  
• American Airlines AA LAX-SYD. DFW-BNE from Oct 2024 - Mar 2025(new route) [OneWorld Alliance]
  
• Delta DL LAX – SYD. LAX - BNE 3 times per week Dec. 4 2024 to March 28, 2025. [Skyteam Alliance]
  
• Fiji Airways FJ LAX SFO HNL YVR– NAN - BNE SYD CBR MEL ADL. (OneWorld Alliance connect.)
  
• Hawaiian HA HNL – SYD. Pre CV19 also used to fly to BNE ( AA VA partner)
  
• Jetstar JQ HNL – SYD. Pre CV19 also used to fly to/from BNE & MEL
  
• Qantas QF LAX SFO DFW HNL YVR* - SYD. LAX – BNE. LAX DFW - MEL. {* seasonal}. JFK-AKL-SYD from 14 June 2023. [OneWorld Alliance]
  
• United UA SFO LAX – MEL. IAH* LAX SFO – SYD. SFO LAX – BNE*. {* seasonable}.[Star Alliance]. (VA partner)
  
• and others via Asia, South America & Middle East
  

Presuming this is not a typo, you have about half a year to figure out a strategy and then about 4 hours between when the award space starts opening and when it is all gone.

5 award seats to Australia/NZ? At Christmas? On specific dates? To specific airports?

Be prepared to be disappointed and pay cash.

You will need to be prepared to split the booking up into a 2+3 and book separately. Be prepared to fly into different airports and be prepared to fly each group on different dates.

Otherwise try to get millions of miles on dynamically priced tickets (QF also starting to do this).

Looking at OP history, does not usually engage after initial post.

December of 2025 is not a typo. I'm simply stating that in about a year and a half I will be going during that time. Which one-way trip would be better to use points versus cash?

The direction in which you can find five, reasonably-priced Business Class award seats. Somehow, I doubt that you'll find them in either direction.

My suggestions - I have researched a lot ) It's nearly impossible task since Cathy/etihad is no viable option any more ! We are going this year in December ( 19 dec from DC to Auckland and returning back on Jan 1 )

I had all miles ( AA , Chase , amex and cap one, Citi ) and had all options to transfer. I started looking in dec 2023 when award opened . We are two families each of 4 .

this is my what I did and your best bet is this if you are lucky

1. USA to Singapore either direct or via Europe ) - Book using Aeroplan points from Singapore to auckalnd/mel/Sydney when schedule opens up - since you book on flexible rates you can add more flight later on and keep flexible rate till end.
Then add ,nyc to Singapore at flexible rates ( either direct or via Frankfurt ) - usually 48 hours later - very short window - each flight usually has 4 seats.
If you cant find nyc to Singapore then book ( LHR/Paris/rome/frankfurt/zurich to Singapore ) at flexible points.

when united/luftansa/ Swiss opens their schedule , add IAD/jfk/ord to Europe where ever ( LHR/CDG/FCO/ZRH/Frankfurt) you booked your flight to Singapore ( most likely economy but these tend to open bossiness as schedule get closer and December you will most likely get business closer to departure .

likewise return in opposite direction

If you are lucky you can find lax/sfo to nan and then to Auckland using Alaska or AA. I did not see any flight

Forget to find saver award on AA and united ( and 5 seats - climbing on mount Everest might be easier )

I did book this way for one way to use to Nz ( 8 seats with 2 family ) but ended up cancelling all since we booked star airlines RTW ticket startng from AMS ( this summer ) and returning back to AMS next year in 4500 USD ( two business trip - one to NZ and one to Europe )

Good luck

Looking at something similar in 2025. I am resigned that we will likely have to pay for all of our four seats. Question: historically any advantage in waiting to book if paying with cash as opposed to right when the buying window opens? Looking Premium Economy likely if that helps.

also have amex platinum - typically their International Airline Program For Platinum & Business Platinum Members hasn't been cheaper or better routes. Is the US to OZ better? Have other booked through them for significant savings?

I managed to save about $800 per J ticket thru the Amex IAP so a little over 10%. I'm flying out of SFO, and the direct flights were on NZ and UA metal, but the UA flight is a NZ codeshare. If the entire trip was on UA metal, it wasn't available fhru IAP. Since the program only partners with select (mostly non-US) airlines, I wonder each leg, including the domestic US legs, might need to be codeshare for it to appear in the program?