Using AA miles to Tasmania in spring 2014?
Dec 8th, 2013, 02:37 PM
#1
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Using AA miles to Tasmania in spring 2014?
I am trying to meet up with my daughter in Hobart Tasmania in March 2014. I have AA miles to use to get down there but every option I have suggested to the AA agents has been said to be full? (Part of the problem appears to be that most of their Advantage agents don't appear to speak English as their first language so there has been great difficulties in trying to convey what I want).
Do any of you airline whiz kids have a routing using AA miles and their partners to get me from ORD to Hobart? Thanks for any info and help!
Do any of you airline whiz kids have a routing using AA miles and their partners to get me from ORD to Hobart? Thanks for any info and help!
Dec 8th, 2013, 04:15 PM
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AFAIK your only option is a Qantas flight, none of AA's other Award-sharing partners (airberlin - Alaska Airlines - BA - Finnair - Hawaiian Airlines - Royal Jordanian Airlines) fly from the US to Australia
Start with the Qantas flights - make a big chart of the QF flights at the center and then - in front - add all possible AA and Alaska flights that can get you to the two Qantas departure airports DFW and LAX, and in back, note flights from BNE and SYD and MEl to Hobart.
The Qantas flights are
QF 8 DFW-BNE 10PM - 05:15 AM
QF 12 LAX-SYD 10:20PM - 07:20AM
QF 108 LAX-SYD 11:55 PM - 08:40 AM
QF 94 LAX- MEL 11:30 PM - 09:20 AM
QF 16 LAX- BNE 11:50PM - 07:00 AM
You don't really care which of those you can get on, from Brisbane it's just as easy to get to Hobart as it is from Sydney or from Melbourne, as long as Qantas honors your AA miles for any one of those routes, later on the day of arrival from the US (you'll have all day, all US flights get in first thing in the morning)..
So your chart will have three components:
1) The US portion ORD-to-DFW or ORD-to-LAX, with AA or Alaska if Alaska honors AA miles for either of these two routes (ascertain that beforehand!)
2) The transpacific portion - QF as per above
3) The Aussie portion - flights to Hobart from BNE or SYD or MEL
Then chart the same in reverse.
If worse comes to worst and you can't get 3) the Aussie portion on miles, it's not the end of the world, you'll pay, one of the Aussie airlines will fly you to Hobart fairly cheaply if you book this far in advance.
I have never had a language difficulty with an AA Advantage agent, they've always been extra great, and I've dealt with them over the last thirty years or so, putting together itineraries that were a lot gnarlier than yours, so if you have your chart in front of you and are appearing to be helpful and patient, you should get there IF there is any availability at all. Call late in the evening when things are relaxed!
Don't forget that if you arm yourself with a homemade chart as suggested, you'll have much more info at hand than the poor agent who has to switch screens from one route to another and from one airline to another and never sees the big picture that you're talking about.
Use the search engine at www.itasoftware.com, it is one of the best and most flexible (use the plus/minus 2 days feature).
Good luck - start now with your homework and let's hope it all works out!
Start with the Qantas flights - make a big chart of the QF flights at the center and then - in front - add all possible AA and Alaska flights that can get you to the two Qantas departure airports DFW and LAX, and in back, note flights from BNE and SYD and MEl to Hobart.
The Qantas flights are
QF 8 DFW-BNE 10PM - 05:15 AM
QF 12 LAX-SYD 10:20PM - 07:20AM
QF 108 LAX-SYD 11:55 PM - 08:40 AM
QF 94 LAX- MEL 11:30 PM - 09:20 AM
QF 16 LAX- BNE 11:50PM - 07:00 AM
You don't really care which of those you can get on, from Brisbane it's just as easy to get to Hobart as it is from Sydney or from Melbourne, as long as Qantas honors your AA miles for any one of those routes, later on the day of arrival from the US (you'll have all day, all US flights get in first thing in the morning)..
So your chart will have three components:
1) The US portion ORD-to-DFW or ORD-to-LAX, with AA or Alaska if Alaska honors AA miles for either of these two routes (ascertain that beforehand!)
2) The transpacific portion - QF as per above
3) The Aussie portion - flights to Hobart from BNE or SYD or MEL
Then chart the same in reverse.
If worse comes to worst and you can't get 3) the Aussie portion on miles, it's not the end of the world, you'll pay, one of the Aussie airlines will fly you to Hobart fairly cheaply if you book this far in advance.
I have never had a language difficulty with an AA Advantage agent, they've always been extra great, and I've dealt with them over the last thirty years or so, putting together itineraries that were a lot gnarlier than yours, so if you have your chart in front of you and are appearing to be helpful and patient, you should get there IF there is any availability at all. Call late in the evening when things are relaxed!
Don't forget that if you arm yourself with a homemade chart as suggested, you'll have much more info at hand than the poor agent who has to switch screens from one route to another and from one airline to another and never sees the big picture that you're talking about.
Use the search engine at www.itasoftware.com, it is one of the best and most flexible (use the plus/minus 2 days feature).
Good luck - start now with your homework and let's hope it all works out!
Dec 8th, 2013, 04:26 PM
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I've called AA dozens of times, never had any issues with language.
You can use American miles for an anytime award from Chicago to LAX. Then, get a separate award for LAX-SYD-Hobart on Qantas (plenty of availability in March).
You can use American miles for an anytime award from Chicago to LAX. Then, get a separate award for LAX-SYD-Hobart on Qantas (plenty of availability in March).
Dec 8th, 2013, 08:32 PM
#5
You can get to Australia using any combination of AA partners, including AA itself, Alaska (mainland to Hawaii), Hawaiian (mainland to Hawaii and Hawaii to Oz), Qantas, Fiji Airlines (formerly Air Pacific) and Air Tahiti. Some are available for award bookings online, others require you phone.
Economy or business? I can see a lot of availability in March, but don't know the class of service or dates.
Economy or business? I can see a lot of availability in March, but don't know the class of service or dates.
Dec 10th, 2013, 04:07 AM
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I'm surprised to find that you actually do have some options for business class awards, even at this date. Your best bet is to find award flights from a U.S. gateway (LAX or DFW) to Hobart. It will likely be much more difficult to find award seats from ORD to LAX or DFW. If you can't find the ORD-LAX/DFW award seats, break it into 2 PNRs, with the anytime award for ORD-LAX/DFW. You can do all of this online.
Dec 10th, 2013, 08:15 AM
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Definitely use the award booking tool online at aa.com instead of calling the agents. I wanted to use miles to get business class seats for October 2014 flying from ORD to Sydney. I spent 4 weeks following the patterns of how Qantas releases the business seats and learned a lot!
- Do not search round trips. It is easier to find options if you search one way at a time.
- I did not search ORD to Sydney, I searched DFW or LAX to Sydney non stops instead (same ones listed above by Michel) because it's harder sometimes to get business class to come up when you have multiple legs.
- After weeks of searching I realized there were very rarely any non stops available from the US to Australia, but for some reason there were a TON going from Australia to the US.
- The only business class seats from the US to Australia seemed to be on Hawaiian Airlines with an overnight connection in Honolulu, and on planes were business class seats were not lie flat.
- FINALLY in a stroke a genius I figured out it is possible to fly on AA's nonstop from ORD to Tokyo, and then you have a 4 hour layover and then get on Qantas from Tokyo to Sydney. Yes this takes more time and quite a few more miles, but I think you're only on a plane for 2 or 3 hours longer and arrive in Sydney mid day instead of early morning. The ONLY way to get this route to pop up is to search using MULTI CITY, plugging in ORD to NRT for the first leg and NRT to SYD as the second leg on the following day. And then you'll need to plug in SYD to Hobart on the third day. There seems to always be a lot of business and first class availability on the Tokyo flight, at least on the days I was searching.
- Then I booked the return flights as a separate ticket, I did not try to make it all a round trip.
In order to have enough miles to make the Tokyo thing work we had to purchase miles, but the cost was around $500, cheap compared to the cost of a coach ticket and totally worth it to fly lie flat the whole way.
Good luck!
- Do not search round trips. It is easier to find options if you search one way at a time.
- I did not search ORD to Sydney, I searched DFW or LAX to Sydney non stops instead (same ones listed above by Michel) because it's harder sometimes to get business class to come up when you have multiple legs.
- After weeks of searching I realized there were very rarely any non stops available from the US to Australia, but for some reason there were a TON going from Australia to the US.
- The only business class seats from the US to Australia seemed to be on Hawaiian Airlines with an overnight connection in Honolulu, and on planes were business class seats were not lie flat.
- FINALLY in a stroke a genius I figured out it is possible to fly on AA's nonstop from ORD to Tokyo, and then you have a 4 hour layover and then get on Qantas from Tokyo to Sydney. Yes this takes more time and quite a few more miles, but I think you're only on a plane for 2 or 3 hours longer and arrive in Sydney mid day instead of early morning. The ONLY way to get this route to pop up is to search using MULTI CITY, plugging in ORD to NRT for the first leg and NRT to SYD as the second leg on the following day. And then you'll need to plug in SYD to Hobart on the third day. There seems to always be a lot of business and first class availability on the Tokyo flight, at least on the days I was searching.
- Then I booked the return flights as a separate ticket, I did not try to make it all a round trip.
In order to have enough miles to make the Tokyo thing work we had to purchase miles, but the cost was around $500, cheap compared to the cost of a coach ticket and totally worth it to fly lie flat the whole way.
Good luck!
Dec 10th, 2013, 08:49 AM
#9
Use LAX instead of ORD. For some reason AA.com is hiccuping on tagging domestic first class flights onto international business class flights, even though there's plenty of availability in March for ORD-LAX-ORD. (On international business class award itineraries, connecting domestic flights book into first class unless AA runs business class on 3-class flights, mainly transcontinental 777s and 767s.)
I suspect this is due to AA's migration to its "Ventana" IT booking platform over the past couple of weeks (actually, years) and if you can see an itinerary that works, even if it's assembled by looking for first class seats between ORD and LAX, then business class from LAX to Australia, AA's web services people ought to be able to put it together for you, hopefully avoiding the phone booking fee.
I suspect this is due to AA's migration to its "Ventana" IT booking platform over the past couple of weeks (actually, years) and if you can see an itinerary that works, even if it's assembled by looking for first class seats between ORD and LAX, then business class from LAX to Australia, AA's web services people ought to be able to put it together for you, hopefully avoiding the phone booking fee.
Dec 10th, 2013, 08:57 AM
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One change to my instructions above. For the second leg plug in NRT to Hobart. If you do it the way I suggested above you'll use unnecessary additional miles for the SYD to Hobart leg.
I just looked at March on AA.com and you do not have a lot of business class options. Even doing the ORD to Tokyo I suggested will require Anytime Miles (100,000) in March. For my October ticket I luckily was able to use 50,000 MileSaver Miles.
I think using AA miles for Qantas business class is like the holy grail of award bookings. These routes are so popular it's best to jump on them the day they are released on AA.com which is 330 days in advance. Meaning unfortunately you are a few months too late to get the best options.
I just looked at March on AA.com and you do not have a lot of business class options. Even doing the ORD to Tokyo I suggested will require Anytime Miles (100,000) in March. For my October ticket I luckily was able to use 50,000 MileSaver Miles.
I think using AA miles for Qantas business class is like the holy grail of award bookings. These routes are so popular it's best to jump on them the day they are released on AA.com which is 330 days in advance. Meaning unfortunately you are a few months too late to get the best options.
Dec 10th, 2013, 10:00 AM
#11
Just a note that by routing via Asia you'd need either 3 separate awards (US - Asia, Asia - Australia, and Australia - US) totaling either 152,500 or 157,500 miles in business class (depending on where in Asia) OR you'd have to use an "Explorer" award for itineraries between 20,000 and 25,000 miles (150,000 miles required.) The Explorer award can only be used with Oneworld members (whereas the traditional award can mix and match Oneworld and non-Alliance airlines, like Hawaiian or Alaska.)
By comparison, a simple routing with any partners NOT including Asia is 125,000 miles round trip in business class.
By comparison, a simple routing with any partners NOT including Asia is 125,000 miles round trip in business class.
Dec 10th, 2013, 10:52 AM
#12
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Yes, you're correct Gardyloo, going through Asia as I did requires more miles.
ORD to NRT was 50,000
NRT to SYD was 45,000
Then going back home to the US was 62,500 since we did not need to go through Asia.
So that's 157,500 for the entire trip instead of 125,000 doing it the optimal way.
Nobodies first choice should be to go through Tokyo but for my dates it turned out to be the only way to fly lying flat all the way. And it might be an acceptable solution for future readers of this post.
ORD to NRT was 50,000
NRT to SYD was 45,000
Then going back home to the US was 62,500 since we did not need to go through Asia.
So that's 157,500 for the entire trip instead of 125,000 doing it the optimal way.
Nobodies first choice should be to go through Tokyo but for my dates it turned out to be the only way to fly lying flat all the way. And it might be an acceptable solution for future readers of this post.
