Teddie2

I have enough miles for two tickets on a saver award ( the least number of miles) I am planning to go to australia in Jan 2014 and its a popular time there.. just wondering how far in advance i should get the tickets to be sure to get the lesser miles award

rankourabu

You will have no trouble getting seats to Australia if you are willing to go via Asia. But if you have a date set in mind, book as early as you are allowed - Feb.2013

You can book one-way tickets, but will lose out on the stopover allowed.

Teddie2

I am sorry I don't know what you mean by losing out on the stopover? i plan to go to australia and new zealand and thought we could not get an open jaw ticket with FF miles at least not with the lesser amt.. I will only have 160 thousand for two round trip tickets by Jan so need to get tickets for the least number of miles.. seems they go fast so yes as soon as they become available..
Were you saying that I could do a stopover somewhere in Aisa if I do a round trip which I am doing (round trip) and still use ff miles>

rankourabu

yes, you can open jaw AND stopover for free.

You can fly via Asia and stop in Bangkok, Singapore, wherever you fancy really, and then go down to Australia.
You can return home from New Zealand, just make your way in between.

Alternatively, you can travel to Australia, and make New Zealand your stopover, all on the same ticket

It will be hard to get 2 seats direct from NAmerica to NZ/Australia (although coach is easier), so by default you may get routed via Asia - so why not stopover for free

rankourabu

here is an example of a quick multicity search on United.com

NYC-SYD Mar.7
SYD-AKL Mar.21
AKL-NYC May.5 (I suspect this will be the hardest part)

As you see in the end it prices out at 80000 miles, one stopover, you can do CHC/ZQN/any NZ city instead of one AKL, or a different city in Australia, so you dont have to backtrack.


also check this out
NYC-BKK Mar.7
BKK-AKL Mar.21
SYD-NYC May.5

as you see one stop over and one open jaw, also 80000 miles

Teddie2

the 80,000 miles one way or round trip? I can only do 80,000 round trip for two as that 160,000 or a bit more is all I will have by Jan when I will be able to book for the next year.
If what you say is so and I can get a round trip with a stopover at no extra cost that might be interesting .. there are flights that go non stop to Melbourne out of the west coast so we were looking at those --some did go through aisa as you said..

docbert

There are no non-stop flights to Melbourne, only to Sydney and then a continuation flight on to Melbourne. The flight number remains the same on the LAX-SYD leg as on the SYD-MEL leg, but it's not non-stop.

Teddie2

I guess what I meant is that I don;t need to change planes one we board in LA but you are right they do stop for an hour or two in Sidney

Asuka

You deplane in SYD, go through International Transfers (not Imm/Customs) then reboard to MEL where you clear Imm/Customs.

If you have Lounge Access, the AirNZ lounge has showers/breakfast which is good after a long flight before MEL.

Teddie2

So I am at just about the right amount of time to start seeing seats for the date I want outbound but its too early for the return and i am not seeing any FF seats at all for any class..is it too early??I have been checking every day

UAPremExecflyer

The calendar -- 330 days out -- doesn't always match up to the release of award seats. It just means that is the first day(s) the airline may open up seat(s). Have you tried www.expertflyer.com ... you can put in a search there and it will email when inventory opens up. Also, you can keep doing what you're doing: checking every day (or several times a day). And if it's any comfort, many others before you have been in the same situation http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ut-merged.html

Teddie2

So I see saver seats available this morning for the day i want to leave but my return date is too far out and I cannot even book yet as its not 330days so by the time I can book my return availability for the time I want to leave may be gone.. wonder if there is any way around this

COSPILOT

You can book it as a one way instead of round trip, then book the return when saver award shows up.

dgwright99

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at SFO and LAX to SYD, and there seemed to be a pretty good premium cabin award space in May.

Then I dropped from Plat to Silver, and now I'm looking again and there's almost nothing (UA metal)

I haven't really been paying attention to UA since I dropped from 1k a couple of years ago, and IIRC the the extra 1k award space was in eonomy only.

Can somebody tell me if I would have had access to premium cabin award space as a plat that I don't have now as a lowly silver ?

KathyWdrf

Don't assume that ALL award flights are made available 330 days out.... on the contrary, they are released (dribbled unpredictably) throughout the time period leading up to the flight.

Personally, I have NEVER booked award tickets anywhere close to 330 days out.... usually, just a few months in advance, often even just a few weeks in advance.

It's an ancient myth that somehow, you MUST book award flights 330 days in advance, or else they will be gone forever. This myth may have been true once upon a time, but certainly has not been for many, many years.

Personally, I don't like to book such a long time in advance, because of the possibility/probability of 1) my having to change plans (with possible change fees to pay) and 2) the flights being changed/cancelled/rescheduled by the airline itself.