Questions and Answers

Hello!
I have a question, maybe someone as knowledgeable can advise me?
– me and wife are looking to buy 2 tickets for travel in Australia, SYD-MEL-CNS-SYD.
They have 2 major airlines flying these routes, Virgin Australia (VA) and Quantas.
– Quantas belongs to oneworld partners (AA, BA, etc.), I have AAdvantage account (w/~30K), and their credit card.
– VA is in Star alliance (United, Air Canada, etc.). We’re flying United to/from SYD (from ATL), and I have their credit card, too. Have about 30K pts in MileagePlus account (points for the flight there and back are pathetic, since tickets were $500/pp, so it’s not increasing a lot).
– Finally, VA has reciprocity with Delta, where I’m Million Miler and lifetime Silver Medalion. 200K points, and I have Delta Platinum card as well.

Q: Which airline(s) should we fly in Australia? And which credit card should we use to maximize the points/miles earned?
I’d like to get either AA or MileagePlus miles/points to fly to Hawaii (preferrably, with wife

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Unless the flights are code shared or marketed through DL or AA, you won’t benefit from using those cards other than no forex fee. Sounds like the only card that might provide benefits/bonus is the VA card.

With respect to crediting, I would start with: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2016/08/06/credit-airline-miles/[/URL]

Good luck!

Virgin Australia is NOT part of Star Alliance. The 3 Virgin airlines (Australia, America, Atlantic) are all independent and have partners in all 3 of the major alliances, including Air NZ and Singapore which are part of the Star Alliance.

Just curious why you’re looking to use AA/UA miles to get to Hawaii when you can get a flat-bed seat non-stop from ATL? (Unless it’s that DL wants a zillion miles for those seats.)

Whoops, I read that as the OP having a VA credit card, not a United. Scratch that cc advice. Unless you are able to book through the co-branded credit cards, use a general purpose card with travel/airline category bonus.

I assume DL is out of the picture because business reward space to HI is not something they like to offer. But to answer your question, consider this, fly Qantas and get points credited to your AA account (should be mileage based not revenue based) and charge to a travel card that gets 2-3x for airfare (AA card will only get you 1x). I doubt there is much price difference in fares between VA and QF. Then you’ll also have the Hawaiian option with AA for redemption.