Questions and Answers

Hey Lucky (and other OMAT readers),

I booked an award reservation for a Qantas first class RT flight from JFK-LAX-SYD a few months back when they sporadically became available (thanks for the heads up!). My dilemma is that I see flights for the same route and days on AA with SWU availability (let’s just assume for the sake of this exercise that they’re for business and not for first) and am trying to decide if I should purchase those instead.

I’m an EXP but likely won’t re-qualify, although I might try to with the 20K miles I’d bank with these AA flights. I typically take 3-4 “big” trips annually so some of my SWUs might go to waste if I don’t use them up, and I can’t think of a better use for an SWU than Australia. Qantas first class awards to the land down under are going up significantly after 3/22 so I probably won’t have a chance to fly their first class product unless I keep the award reservation. However, it’d be nice to get those 150K AA miles back along with the 40K RDMs from the paid flights, all of which I can use in the future when I’m no longer an EXP, although those 40K RDMs might be less since these flights are in June/July and AA is switching over to spend based mileage accrual sometime in the second half of the year.

If you were in my situation, what would you do? Is the QF first class hard product significantly better than business on AA metal (I’m good with a lie flat seat) and is it worth potentially losing EXP and 40K RDMs? or should I stick to using my miles for the aspirational flights that would otherwise be completely out of reach? Are there other factors I’m not taking into consideration?

Thanks!
Wannabe Aussie

The QF first class suite is quite large. I found the bed quite comfortable too. You can see Lucky’s review here: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/01/21/review-qantas-first-class-a380-sydney-to-los-angeles/[/URL]

I guess you have to balance the once-in-a-lifetime-ness of QF F vs. letting the SWUs go to “waste” and determine what’s more important to you.