Questions and Answers

Folks,

What is the most economical way to get three people to Australia from the
West Coast of North America on points.

Travel will probably be in Economy Plus or Economy.

Looking for advice re: points programs and partners.

Obviously would prefer non-stop travel but going for “free” (points) with one stop would trump that.

Thanks for the help,

Joan
Schellville, CA USA

Hey Joan, what points do you have currently, and what time of year are you hoping to travel?

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 37380, member: 7″]Hey Joan, what points do you have currently, and what time of year are you hoping to travel?[/QUOTE]

Thanks Tiffany.

Unfortunately we need to travel Dec/Jan.
My biggest airline point stash is AA, but I’ve got bank in SPG & Chase, too.
We’re happy to sign up for more CCs for bonus points anywhere.
I’d even buy points if it came out cheaper than buying tix at retail.

Joan

Welp, if you’re looking to travel in 2017/2018, your best bet is probably going to be booking rule-buster awards and hoping something opens up closer to departure at the saver level.

If you’re planning ahead for 2018/2019, I would plan on doing one way using AA+SPG points, and the other using Ultimate Rewards. A connection in Asia is realistically going to be required that time of year.

Note that AA will require you to book 2 separate awards if you are traveling via Asia which makes them a good bit more expensive. However there are QF and AA direct flights which will require a lot less miles.

United is probably the best choice with your UR points. And you can book via Asia if you need to. However they do have direct flights from LAX to MEL on UA metal if you can stand it for that long of a flight.

I recently booked US to Australia but I am not going until next May. So I was booking pretty much end of schedule. Outbound is a UA award IAD-NRT-BKK-MEL on ANA and Thai. Return I used AA miles and just bit the bullet paying the extra miles MEL-HKG-ORD-DCA on Cathay Pacific and AA for the last leg. All in business. But there seemed to be a good bit more economy class available.