australia
 

I havent' redeemed awards wiht ual
i tried bus to australia and wasn't availbale but coach was
i was told i couldn't used sia but only air newz and ual, is that correct?
can't i connect in another region and get to australia and pay higher award ?

Yes that's correct. If you wanted to use SIA, you would need two awards (US-Asia and Asia-OZ). Have you considered a paid ticket to Asia and then an award from Asia to OZ?

I asked this a long time ago, never saw a reply if one was posted and haven't tried this myself, but has anyone ever tried for an award to ADL? Star carriers fly there but only via Asia.

I thought NZ flew to ADL from AKL, but I checked, and they do no more :td:

Just because there is no legal MP routing between two city pairs does not necessarily allow you to go via a third region. MPM is your biggest enemy here. I don't know the MPM between LAX & ADL, but I'd bet going via SIN would be OK. MP allows travel through a thrid region if no direct flights are possible, but only if you conform to the routing rules (basically). For example, MEL-NRT is impossible, as you have to fly via SIN or BKK which make it an invalid fare. You can do it, but it costs you 2 awards.

On a more pragmatic note, if you take UA (or NZ) to MEL, then you can usually get very cheap flights between MEL & ADL very cheaply.

Can you ever get an expensive flight very cheaply? :D

Sorry, it's late and I'm sarcastic. I think the reason that the routing to ADL was asked is to use a different carrier than UA or NZ. Well, that's why I would do it. The next time I book an award ticket to Australia I will try to see if I can get a routing to PER through SIN. I know that NZ have a flight to PER through AKL though. I'm not sure how the MPM is calculated, but the SIN routing is about 2,000 miles further.

SML

Well, we know that if NZ flies to PER then you're going to have to fly them there, no routing via Asia.

My question was simply whether you could route through Asia on a single award if that was the only *A routing to get to a destination. I've never tested it.

Travel to Perth, WA
 

It would be more correct to say to get to Perth (on *A Australia-New Zealand award) from the USA your only option is on NZ via AKL. To get to Perth (on a *A South Asia award) your only option is on SQ via SIN...and that segment is an additional (50/75/100) award.