Airfare or points for flight to Australia

[buggins0402]

 

The components you need to look at are: a) what is available in terms of awards, and b) what points can I earn in order to obtain said award. You currently have a Chase card, which is fine, but what other cards can you obtain that will help you get the points/miles needed for the award? If you decide to transfer to United, for example, you can get their own credit card with its 30,000-mile sign-up bonus; also, there's the SPG AMEX card with a 25,000 SPG point bonus, and since with SPG points when you transfer 20,000 points or more to an airline you get a 5,000-point bonus, that would give you 30,000 miles. If you see availability on another airline, then you can see what CC bonus possibilities exist for them.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Starpoints transfer at a 2:1 basis for United? That isn't great rate compared to other tranfer partners.

 

OP, you could look at signing up for a Sapphire Reserve, which has a 100K signup bonus. It has a high annual fee...$450, but you get a $300 statement credit for a travel purchase. It will also reimburse one Global Entry application fee and gives you a membership for Priority pass lounges. It has a 3X point award on travel and restaurant expenditures.

Edited November 9, 2016 by buggins0402

[Twickenham]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Starpoints transfer at a 2:1 basis for United? That isn't great rate compared to other tranfer partners.

 

Yes, you're right - I'd forgot about that! I've only transferred from SPG to Aeroplan, which is a 1:1 transfer.

[4774Papa]

Some time has passed since I started this thread. Now, I am able to book my one way flight from Georgia (Brunswick) to Melbourne, Australia.

 

Delta is my preferred airline and I have plenty of miles to use. However, I am unhappy with Delta's choices.

 

The day that I want to fly is NOT AVAILABLE when I try to use points.

 

However, I can fly the day before, which isn't too bad with a 55,000 miles pp cost. I can pay for my ticket, flying on the day that I want for about $1250. Using points, the flight from LAX to Sydney is on Virgin Australia, but I have about a 9 hour connection there.

American/Qantas beats Delta with either booking with Qantas for about $950 or American for about $1050. Both are on the one-world alliance and I can obtain points, but I don't have enough points to use with AA or Qantas.

 

If Qantas and VA are about the same in quality, I suppose that I have a choice of using miles on Delta for the day before or Qantas and pay cash and get more miles on AA that I don't use a lot.

 

Also, I can wait and see it the Delta options get better in the next month or so?

[pinotlover]

Beware of attempting to go to and from Oz or NZ on points! Getting a points ticket down isn't so bad, getting a points ticket back can be near impossible! Then the airline s want more for the one way purchased ticket back than the round trip would have cost to begin with! A very few people get lucky, most do not!

 

I am one of many that has attempted it and failed. Had to pay the $$ to cancel my one way points ticket and put the points back in my account. Then buy a ticket before PE on Qantus sold out. A friend that did it points took two days and a bizarre route to get back home. I would buy the ticket, on the schedule and airline you prefer, and use the points to go elsewhere.

[4774Papa]

I managed to find what I wanted for our flights.

 

Delta had 45000 miles for one way BQK (Brunswick, GA) to Sydney one way. Since we are going to Melbourne, I purchased separate tickets RT Sydney-Melbourne for about 650 Australian dollars. Only hassle is we have a nine hour connection in LAX, so we will look for the Sky Lounge.

[Globaliser]

I purchased separate tickets RT Sydney-Melbourne for about 650 Australian dollars.

I hope that was in business class! In economy, that should normally be somewhere in the region of AUD 250-300.

[ISLABONITA]

I am flying from the east coast and probably spent way too many points for our trip down and back but here is what I was able to get.

From the east coast ROC to PHL to SFO in F class for 25k each ( 2 of us)

overnight using hotel pts in SFO for 2 nights

SFO to HNL on Virgin America using Alaska Air points plus a $30 pp upgrade to PE. 2 nights stay in HNL using points

HNL- SYD ,Using 47k Ultimate Rewards and 39k Jet Blue points on Hawaiian air with upgrade of $130pp

AKL to LAX mixed class bus to Nadi then coach to LAX using 55k Alaska air

overnight in LA. ( still looking to see if I can modify this)

LAX to SAN to CLT to F class AA 25k for 2 stops and Economy on last leg to ROC

[ISLABONITA]

I am flying from the east coast and probably spent way too many points for our trip down and back but here is what I was able to get for Jan/Feb 2018 flights.

 

 

From the east coast, ROC to PHL in Economy then to SFO in F class for AA 25k each ( 2 of us) overnight using Wyndham pts in SFO for 2 nights

 

 

SFO to HNL on Virgin America using 20k pp Alaska Air points plus a $30 pp upgrade to PE. Row 8, with a 2 nights stay in HNL using Hilton points

 

 

HNL- SYD ,Using 47k Ultimate Rewards and 39k Jet Blue points on Hawaiian air with upgrade of $130pp for extra comfort seats row 11

cruise starts in Sydney and ends in Auckland, NZ.

 

 

AKL to LAX mixed class Fiji air in bus to Nadi then coach to LAX using 55k Alaska air pp, overnight in LA. ( still looking to see if I can modify this flight)

 

 

LAX to SAN to CLT in F class AA 25k for 2 stops and Economy on last leg to ROC

 

 

Just added missing info..

[4774Papa]

I hope that was in business class! In economy, that should normally be somewhere in the region of AUD 250-300.

Sorry, the price that I mentioned was for two persons. It was a little more than 300 Australian per person.

[Globaliser]

Sorry, the price that I mentioned was for two persons. It was a little more than 300 Australian per person.

Ah, understood - that's not a bad price, then.