AA Frequent Flyer miles to the South Pacific

Old Apr 27th, 2009, 12:49 PM
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AA Frequent Flyer miles to the South Pacific

I want to use our AA frequent flyer miles to possibly Singapore or some other stopover city and on to Australia-would even be willing to go to London from the US and go on BA from there if we cannot get Qantas to Australia.
My questions are: we are about 30,000 miles short for 4 RT business class seats to book the Aadvantage award and I don't know if we would have them by August when we are planning on going.
Would you pay the $1000 for the extra 40,000 miles to complete the deal?
How hard is it to get Qantas business class seats on AA award?
Anyone ever used BA and done the "long way" to the South Pacific"?
Any suggestions? Son and Daughter are going in different directions in the fall but are hopefully going to be home in August so was hoping that we could do a last HURRAH as a family vacation. Thanks everyone!
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Old Apr 27th, 2009, 02:20 PM
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Are you 30,000 miles short of 4 All Partner business class North America-South Pacific awards (125K each)? Those don't allow transatlantic routings and I believe don't allow routing through a third region (i.e. Asia) either. You could do it on a Oneworld award but I'm pretty sure that would result in a greater amount of mileage required. Where are you originating?
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Old Apr 27th, 2009, 03:49 PM
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Traditionally business class seats on Qantas over the Pacific have been quite hard to score. Recent chatter is that they've become easier since the arrival of the whales on the route, plus the little matter of a collapsing global economy.

The all-partners award level (125K) can almost be matched with the 14,001 - 20,000 mile Oneworld award via Tokyo, provided you begin and end the award trip in either San Francisco or Vancouver, using SFO/YVR-NRT-SYD and v.v. You need to use 2 OW airlines (in addition to AA if AA is used at all) so you'd need to fly JAL between SFO or YVR and Narita, then Qantas on one of the NRT-Oz-NRT legs, to have two carriers covered. Not difficult, and JAL has been relatively generous on AA mileage redemptions.

That Oneworld award tier requires 130K miles in business, which jumps to 150K if your route needs between 20,000 and 25,000 air miles, which would allow such origin points as LAX or the eastern US, or, if you could get seats, an RTW routing like JFK-LHR-SIN-SYD-HNL-DFW-JFK.

As to buying miles to top up the account, that's your call, but just consider what the upcharge would be to pay for business class tix. IMO this sort of route is no fun in coach, so I'd probably pay for the extra miles, or perhaps look for killer credit card signup bonus deals.

I'd also mention that if it's August 2009 you're planning, you had better get on the stick, and I mean yesterday.
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Old Apr 27th, 2009, 08:21 PM
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Gardyloo is the Guru, but could one use Air Tahiti Nui or Air Pacific via Fiji/Tahiti?
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Old Apr 28th, 2009, 04:46 AM
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Have you considered Air Pacific in Business?

I have flown from Miami to London and to Sydney once and Perth once. Going over isn't so bad as the wind pushes the plane to over 700 mph, however, returning is one long flight as the plane struggles to go 550 mph. But if your in Business Class, you will be ok.

If you go with Air Pacific, put your swimsuit in your carryon bag just in case there is a delaya in Nadi.
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Old Apr 28th, 2009, 05:40 AM
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Air Tahiti Nui has suspended Papeete-Sydney flights through Oct 2009. It's possible to go Papeete-Auckland(Air Tahiti Nui)-Sydney(Qantas) but the service isn't daily and I think at this point, it would be difficult to find 4 business awards seats on TN in August.
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Old Apr 28th, 2009, 10:33 AM
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I don't know if you could get 4 biz seats there, but I think you can call AA and check availability and put the seats on hold even if you don't have quite enough miles yet. I would call them and check if you can put them on hold w/o the whole amount. Or just put three on hold if you can get them.

But you shouldn't have to pay 1K for 40k miles anyway; right now, AA miles are 30% off. You can get 52K miles for 1K (well, maybe $1200 inc. tax).

Good luck!
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Old Apr 28th, 2009, 11:58 AM
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You can put awards on hold for 5 days without the necessary miles. I wouldn't buy miles unless I had seats on hold. The purchased miles will post within that time frame but not the bonus.
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Old Apr 28th, 2009, 04:00 PM
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"How hard is it to get Qantas business class seats on AA award?"

To be honest with you, it's hard!
Of course, trying for 4 biz seats is going to be very, very tough!
We got two biz seats in 2004 and are trying to do it again next year.

What I have learned since then and am trying to apply this time is:

Observe the 330-day window and join Qantas' FF program so you can "see" the availability of award seats in the pipeline. At 330 days (+/- 1 day possibly) phone AA at midnight or possibly 1 or 2 A.M., whenever their inventory loads and be ready to pounce on those seats.

If you can snag your outbound seats, be willing to have them placed on hold (renew as necessary) until you get the return seats, days or weeks later.

Here are some very good references:
http://tinyurl.com/cqvq9j
http://tinyurl.com/9mu4hm

You might even want to research this issue on FlyerTalk. The depth of knowledge that some of those people have is amazing.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.
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Old Apr 28th, 2009, 06:39 PM
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To make the process much easier (not saying you'll get seats, but you can save a lot of effort in searching) you should sign up for the Qantas Frequent Flyer program(me) at https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyns/joinff. Don't worry about the joining fee - it's waived for non-residents of Oz/NZ.

Once you have your membership no. and password, you can look for award availability on Qantas' excellent award planning site. Qantas not only shows its own availability, but also availability on their partners including Air Tahiti Nui and Air Pathetic. In my experience if it shows as being available on the Qantas award site, you can generally get the seat through AA using the Aadvantage program.

As I say, it's a very useful tool, although it may or may not help you secure 4 seats on short notice.
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Old Apr 29th, 2009, 07:55 AM
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dutyfree,
This may be the easiest and cheapest way to get your additional 30K miles. Citi AAdvantage Credit Card Offers 30,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles after $750 in purchases within the first 4 months of cardmembership - more than enough for a travel award. Here is the information:
http://tinyurl.com/dkd544

Just have the discipline to cancel the card before the first 12 months expire and you are charged an annual fee to keep it.
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