sassy_cat

I know I've left this rather late but the stars have aligned and the trip is confirmed.
I'm not sure where to start but we need 3 tickets and I'd like to use points for one of them if possible.
My husband would get his ticket paid for (business class).
We have 245,000 AA miles (and 120,000 BA miles)
Dates are a little flexible, we can leave on or after June 22nd and must return before July 17th for a trip lasting 15-21 days.

The route is flexible too and we'd prefer open jaw
Plan is to spend minimum of 5 nights in Sydney (Mon-Fri) plus min. 2-3 days in Melbourne and min. 4 or 5 nights in Cairns.

Should I use the miles for return tickets to LAX? Call AA?

Thanks for advice!

Rastaguytoday

You will have to book this by calling AA. Part of the flight is through their One World Partner, Qantas.

This is the award chart. http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/a...rtnerChart.jsp

Be very polite, it always works.

Gardyloo

To be blunt, I think the chances of getting mileage seats in business class to Oz on this short notice is going to be a big uphill battle. By all means phone AA pronto, and ask especially about availability on other airlines (which may entail roundabout routing.) For example, you can fly from LAX to Fiji on Air Pacific, an AA partner, then on to Australia, or on Hawaiian Airlines through Honolulu, but although June isn't peak demand season for travelers from Oz (dead of winter there) it IS for travelers from North America, so you might have big trouble just getting to a US gateway for transpacific travel, never mind the TPac flights themselves.

There are more exotic routing options, e.g. using an "Explorer" award via Europe, but all would cost more in terms of miles, plus fuel surcharges, and because of summer demand for flights going everywhere, few redemption seats available. Sorry to be a poop, but that's the situation.

sassy_cat

Thanks for the responses. I will call AA
I was hoping to get just one seat with points (econ or business or first) and buy two (1 business, 1 econ) but I realize it's short notice.

Gardyloo

Oh if you're willing to use miles for a coach seat, much less an issue (although you may need to be a little flexible on dates.) Business/first are another kettle of fish altogether.

Orlando_Vic

Agree with Gardyloo. Your chances are best if you try 331 days out for business and F. This is a good discussion of the process: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...s-aa-load.html

_______________________________________________
Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

Gardyloo

<i>Agree with Gardyloo. Your chances are best if you try 331 days out for business and F. This is a good discussion of the process: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage/681036-331-days-award-tix-what-time-does-aa-load.html</i>

Actually, since Qantas opens redemption bookings earlier than AA does (either 360 or 365 days, I forget,) using the "330 day" rule seldom works for award itineraries involving Qantas. Seats appearing at day one of the booking window are typically snapped up by Qantas FFers, a month before AA will even look for you.

It's also a common misconception that you're more likely to score a seat by being the early bird on award bookings - like waiting until midnight (where? Sydney? Dallas?) on Day minus 330 and hoping for availability to appear at the stroke of midnight. Doesn't work that way. Airlines release seats into mileage redemption inventory throughout the booking window; you can only <i>start</i> looking at 330/360 days out. In fact, it's often the case that more award seats are made available closer to the actual flight date, once the wizards in Revenue Management, assisted by demons in their Black Arts, have determined that they're unlikely to sell all of those remaining seats between now and wheels up, so they'll release one or two now.

For example, I needed an award seat from Helsinki to Seattle for next week, in business or first class. I looked at award availability on BA from London to Seattle (a very busy flight thanks to a large software concern hereabouts, and also a noted builder of spun fiber airplanes) and bagged a prime (biz) seat just like that. Nothing had been open a month ago.

Qantas is notorious for being stingy with premium cabin seats over the Pacific. It's not impossible, but if you really need a seat on X day, you're going to find it really rough, unless you bring money and a lot of it to the party.

Oh, and Vic, that discussion on FT is out of date. AA will no longer hold award reservations for 14 days, only 72 hours max.

sassy_cat

Thanks for the updates.
We're still undecided whether or not we'll join my husband on this business trip to Sydney and Melbourne. If we go we'd add on a few vacation days for Cairns.

Orlando_Vic

<i>Actually, since Qantas opens redemption bookings earlier than AA does (either 360 or 365 days, I forget,) using the "330 day" rule seldom works for award itineraries involving Qantas. Seats appearing at day one of the booking window are typically snapped up by Qantas FFers, a month before AA will even look for you.</i>

Perhaps the key word is <b>seldom</b> rather than never, but knowing this has helped me snag two premium class RT seats twice before as recently as two years ago and the return trip (SYD-LAX) was in F. Granted that is was a shoulder season (March), but it can happen if you're lucky.

_______________________________________________
Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

sassy_cat

OK, we have decided to postpone this until mid June 2013.
By next year we will have more points, more time for the trip (3-4 weeks), all vacation/no work for DH and my son will join us (graduation trip).

I have over a year to plan and book so I'm hopeful we can use miles for at least 2 tickets!