Duke787

Plan for Y. I went to Australia and New Zealand last year on an F ticket booked at T331 for both outbound and return and in the days in between Now no single award J seat opened up on SYDAKL. And it was clear when boarding the 767 that a number of J seats went out empty.

Maybe you'll get lucky but I would plan for and expect to be sitting in Y for that flight.

TravelTheWorld66

There was an older thread back in 2007 that was closed, so I'm looking to get some newer info.

I have some miles saved up and I'm trying to get to Bora Bora from BOS solely using awards. Can anyone recommend the best way to do so? I have tons of hotel points so don't mind staying over somewhere for a few days on the way.

Should I go BOS-LAX/SFO-AKL-PPT? Or is there a better way?

Thanks for any info.

markgrammer

http://routemap.staralliance.com/

No awards to Bora Bora.

Madone59

NZ is the ONLY *A carrier serving PPT, and award space on NZ is extremely hard to find. Best way to do it may be to use UA miles to OZ either via LAX/SFO or an Asian connection spending a day or two then using a cash ticket XXX-PPT-XXX.

TravelTheWorld66

I should have been more specific in my post. I guess I'm looking to get as close to Bora Bora using miles as possible. I wouldn't mind spending the couple hundred $ from AKL-PPT for example. I'm looking to use miles for the big chunks (e.g. BOS-LAX-AKL).

I guess my question is whether or not routing through NZ is the best way to go? I can't think of any other ways but maybe someone else can.

Madone59

NZ award space is so hard to find, and space in C is really non-existent. HNL is almost equidistant from PPT as AKL is. I'd used miles to HNL, spend a day or two and pay cash to PPT. Why go all the way down to OZ on miles to fly north when you can go BOS-EWR-HNL//HNL-PPT-HNL//EWR-BOS

luckypierre

To go through AKL to reach PPT is a lot of backtracking. You will not find business class availability across the Pacific on Air NZ.

cavemanzk

As others have said there is an near zero percent chance of getting an award on NZ, LAX-AKL never has *A award seats, these flights are always packed with paying passengers.

LAX-SYD is going to be the closest you'll be able to get on an UA award, then need to purchase SYD-AKL-PPT with cash. Could be just as cheap to pay cash for LAX-PPT on TN.

TravelTheWorld66

That's a good idea...something I hadn't thought of. It would definitely be a much easier trip but it looks like flights from HNL to PPT are about 4-5x more expensive than AKL-PPT. And it looks like 90% of flights from HNL-PPT route through LAX anyway.

I'm looking now and am seeing plenty of business class availability from LAX-SYD-AKL for 70,000 miles plus tax. Albeit it's mixed cabin, and only the LAX-SYD segment is business. But that's the flight that counts. I'm 6'7'' so I need the extra space for a 15 hour flight. I don't care about the 3 hour flight from SYD-AKL. It might be nice to spend some time in Australia and New Zealand. I've always wanted to go but have never been to that part of the world.

Then I'd have to pay for the AKL-PPT segment but it only looks to be around $300.

luckypierre

I assume that is UA for the long haul?? Having spent several afternoons looking for J class availability on NZ over the past couple of years, I have not had the good fortune to see a single NZ J class seat from a North American gateway to AKL.

When obtaining your seat assignments from NZ, you may wish to spend some money and upgrade into a more comfortable econ seat. Based on my limited experience, the NZ econ award places you in their basic econ, which is fairly tight at 10 across.

Mwenenzi

And you probably never will
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...-nowadays.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...ard-seats.html

TravelTheWorld66

Yes it is on UA for the long haul. Why is everyone so fixated on NZ availability if UA has good availability from west coast to SYD/MEL?? I just want to make sure I'm not missing something.

MatthewLAX

Better product, food, service, lounge, IFE, etc....

But other than that, no difference.

WineCountryUA

Well there is the higher mileage redemption requirement for premium cabins (not too bad for Business to Oceania -- +10K miles, +14%, each way)

TravelTheWorld66

Ok, makes sense now.