Questions and Answers

Wondering if I’m missing anything as options here?
I was able to snag one F seat on QF LAX-SYD on Christmas Day. Very excited about that.

But I need to get home to any US destination in J or F (F preferred), leaving 3 or 4 Jan. Here’s what I’ve tried or have alerts set for:
QF in F or J
Krisflyer – I have 5 itineraries on Waitlist for either F or J with a couple of routings.
I’ve checked consistently on EY or EK but haven’t been able to map out anything coming in that direction.
Tried UA and AA and DL (none with any availability under 300-400K points for the one way).

I [I]almost[/I] snagged a seat on Asiana, but couldn’t book it by the time I went to buy the Lifemiles.

I’ve got point currency in SPG, Citi, and Chase.

Any hail Mary passes I’m missing? Do I hold out hope for Krisflyer to clear something?

Korean Air? Try searching segment by segment. You can find award space for oneworld airlines on BA’s website. You can also check JAL on Alaska

I suppose my first question would be which routes back to the US have you looked at? I have found sometimes availability is better out of Brisbane or Melbourne. To that end, I have also found better availability via Hawaii, as opposed to directly via LAX.

[QUOTE=”RTBones, post: 59738, member: 1686″]I suppose my first question would be which routes back to the US have you looked at? I have found sometimes availability is better out of Brisbane or Melbourne. To that end, I have also found better availability via Hawaii, as opposed to directly via LAX.[/QUOTE]

Nothing comes as an option at all through Hawaii. Thanks for the reminder to check availability out of Brisbane or Melbourne – I haven’t checked that recently or set alerts.

I’ve also started to call Singapore every couple of days to see if maybe the “nudge” to clear waitlists really helps.

Someone here also reported that United releases a bunch of space at the last minute. I’m planning a trip Down Under next year myself and am wondering if I’ll need to wait for that space to open up myself.

I’ve been looking at UA to see how often seats come available. So far, my experience is that they open J class at the non-saver level about a week out (sometimes more). Often those involve connections with ANA over to Japan and then UA from Japan-US.

The biggest issue with trying to wait for last minute, of course, is that: 1. I could actually be in SYD before something opens and I need to get home and 2. It is peak Christmas travel time.

[QUOTE=”Mr WD, post: 59740, member: 2411″]Nothing comes as an option at all through Hawaii. Thanks for the reminder to check availability out of Brisbane or Melbourne – I haven’t checked that recently or set alerts.

I’ve also started to call Singapore every couple of days to see if maybe the “nudge” to clear waitlists really helps.[/QUOTE]

Another possibility is Cathay into HKG, then onward into the US. Not sure if you need specifically the west coast – but the ‘long way around’ might be an option (depending on how many miles you have). SYD-Perth-LHR-USA. Not sure how Qantas/AA would count that.

On both of those AA will count them as two awards. With few exceptions AA doesn’t let you transit a 3rd region. Between the US and the South Pacific there’s no exception. You could also look at Fiji Air via Nadi. That award space doesn’t show up on the AA site but you can see it on Alaska. And even if you don’t see it on Alaska you may be able to see it in Expert Flyer. AA can access more seats than Alaska can.

Well tonight I snagged a seat SYD-SIN-LAX, albeit in SQ J.
I’m still waitlisted for several flights in F and hope that they might clear, but I’m at least relieved to know that I have a back up home from Sydney in the event that nothing else opens up.

I’m still looking for options “the long way” in case I can make that happen.