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I get a ton of requests at my Award Booking Service for people who want to fly from the United States to Australia or New Zealand over Christmas and New Year’s with their frequent flyer miles. Usually the request is to fly in Business or First Class.
I want to dissuade you from this goal because it is one of the toughest awards to book.
Last month I wrote “The Easiest Places to Get with Miles.” Miles are awesome and can get you almost anywhere in the world cheaper and more luxuriously than most people realize. But some awards are easier to book than others. Focusing on easier awards, especially at first, can get you some award-ticket “wins” that will hook you and lead to more successful bookings in the future.
Trying to book two people from the United States to Australia in Business Class from December 21 to January 3 is very hard to turn into one of those wins. It will mainly lead to frustration.
- What is the award space picture to Australia this holiday season with American, US Airways, United, and Delta miles?
- What is the most likely strategy to find award space?
- What other times of year does Australia have better award space?
Award Space over Christmas and New Year’s to Australia/NZ
I took a look at the award space on most of the North America to Australia and New Zealand routes in December 2014 and January 2015.
With United Miles
United flies:
- Los Angeles to Sydney
- Los Angeles to Melbourne
- San Francisco to Sydney.
On the flights to Sydney, I see a few days in December and January for one person to fly to and from Australia. The days don’t quite line up with a holiday trip because neither route has award space from Sydney to the United States from December 26 to January 12 in any cabin. Also, award space for two people is basically non-existent.
Los Angeles to Sydney and return
San Francisco to Sydney and return
United’s third route from Los Angeles to Melbourne is operated by a brand-new 787-9, and United is releasing no award space on it over the holidays.
Vancouver to Sydney and return
You can use United miles on Air Canada’s flight from Vancouver to Sydney. Unfortunately, there is no Business Class award space on the route in December or January in either direction for even one passenger. Furthermore, the economy space doesn’t even line up for a holiday trip.
Air New Zealand Flights
You can theoretically use United miles on Air New Zealand’s flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Auckland, but Air New Zealand never releases Business Class award space on the flights, and there is no relevant economy award space for a holiday trip this year.
With American Airlines or US Airways Miles
American Airlines and US Airways partner with Qantas, which flies from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane and from Dallas to Sydney.
Qantas rarely releases even one Business or First Class seat on these flights, and certainly doesn’t release two around Christmas and New Year’s. (Check Qantas award space 331+ days out to snag these rare premium seats.)
Even the economy award space dries up around December 10 on these routes and only reappears in mid-January.
The days right around Christmas and New Year’s look like this, with zero award space in any cabin for even one person. 
With Delta Miles
Delta doesn’t release Saver award space on its own flights to Australia at peak times because they’re, well, Delta. However Delta does partner with Virgin Australia, which historically has the best award space to Australia, even around Christmas time.
Los Angeles to Brisbane
Virgin Australia award space is searchable on delta.com, but Delta’s calendar ignores the space, so you need to search it day-by-day or pay Award Nexus to show you a calendar of the space. Here’s a look at days with one seat in Business Class from Los Angeles to Brisbane, usually the route with the most award space.
As you can see, there are a few potential days for one person, though two-person award space is less common.
For instance, here is a look at returns from Sydney to Los Angeles for two people over the same time period. The only day with award space for two passengers in Business Class from Sydney to Los Angeles is January 15, probably too late for a holiday trip.
Solutions
You should abandon your holiday trip idea for two people in Business Class to Australia.
If you really want to try for this trip with your miles, there is some chance you can find Saver award space on Virgin Australia with Delta miles, particularly as Christmas approaches.
Or you can look for award space on Cathay Pacific via Asia with US Airways miles, particularly within a week or two of departure. Note that this will require US Airways miles, not American Airlines miles because while both partner with Cathay Pacific, US Airways has far better routing rules.
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Realistically, you’re much better off trying to plan a trip to Australia for February or March, when the weather is just as good or better. I know that this is not what people with very set vacation days want to hear, but frankly this is the deal with miles: you get the leftover dates, not the prime dates.
Since this post was a bit of a downer, I’ll have a post tomorrow about the region that I think offers the best value awards.
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How many fly miles was the Delta RT example above?
Delta charges 160k miles roundtrip in Business Class from USA to Australia or NZ.
…another solution is to go to Australia during our summer. The coolest parts to see are in the Northern territory and north Queensland, and diving is best during that time as well. North Australia is easy to get to from most Asian destinations, worst case on a cheap JetStar flight. Australia is a giant overpriced tourist trap to begin with but at least the above areas are worth seeing and easier to reach with miles. I would make an effort for New Zealand though, for 2-3 weeks if possible.
Australian summer is December to February and Xmas is right in the middle. That’s kind of the problem.
you don’t want to visit North Australia during their summer, it’s the hot wet season. The best time to go is May to September….I just did it and weather is perfect, plus you have 3 months of school holidays to play with.
So when is the good time for award travel to Australia? I’m not set on any specific time of year and have enough US Airways miles( and AA and Chase and Starwood) for RT first class for two. That’s my honeymoon destination and I want to get a good sense of when I should be looking but searching LAX-SYD with AA I get a few occasional 1 seat in business and not a single 2 seats biz or first at all. I want to hire you guys but I want to get a better sense of when during the year there is better space or best bet is always 330 days out?
There is NO time of year when Qantas releases two biz or first seats on the same flight to Australia. Most of the year, you can fly from USA to Asia to Australia in biz or first, but that requires two separate awards with AA miles.
This time frame is a problem not just for Australia but SE Asia as well for families needing 4 tickets. Even in Economy, these dates go VERY quickly (especially the weekends when it is ideal to leave and come back) and trying to get to Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia is very difficult. Since Cathay Pacific opens dates so far out in advance and we can’t use our AA/US Air/Alaska miles until weeks after the availability opens up, trying to find ideal days over this holiday time has been difficult to say the least. Waiting until the end is an option hoping something opens last second on CP, but that is tough to do when traveling with a family. As you said though, this is what you get for award travel. 🙂
My husband and I are hoping to get to South Africa over Thanksgiving next year. Is that pretty doable or will I run into this same issue above of limited award space over holiday time?
Thanks to your award booking service I was able to obtain a Business Class seat from LAX to SYD 25 November 2014 on Asiana via Seoul, then 10 December SYD to TRG (NZ Coach of course) and return TRG to LAX via SYD and ICN 10 February 2015. Even for those dates I needed to book 331+ days out. As I had basically THREE separate segments this was a tough booking. Being from NZ I knew I had to do it ASAP to get the days I want being Summer, School Holidays and Christmas. This route definitely takes advance planning; and coach on NZ’s 777-300 is definitely dismal 3-4-3 and should be avoided at all costs.
I booked a business class flight from LAX-SYD for February in Qantas using Alaska miles. I am having a hard time booking the return in business class for the same month, however.
My award was a headache to book but I did end up making it happen so it’s not out of the realm of possibility and so I thought I’d share it. First off, all these flights are in economy. In March of 2014 I was able to book 2 economy tickets on Qantas using AA miles from LAS-SYD via LAX departing on 12/28 and arriving in SYD on 12/30. I’m using Southwest pts and a Companion Pass to position myself/SO in LAS (on 12/27) because there was no availability from my home airport (TPA) to LAX on 12/27 or 12/28. So before we head to SYD we get to spend 1 night in Vegas and about 8hrs exploring LAX before our flight to SYD!
The return flight is 2 economy tickets on United using UA/UR pts from SYD-YVR-DEN-EWR-TPA with a 23hr layover in YVR on the return which departs SYD on Jan 12th and arrives in YVR on Jan 12th and then arrives in TPA on Jan 13th. The downside to this is that we’ll be going from summer in Australia to dead of winter in YVR…so I doubt we’ll do much exploring while in YVR.
Moral of the story is that I had to 1) book 9+ months in advance and 2) get pretty creative with the routings (i.e. positioning myself in LAS on the outbound & concocting a return trip via YVR that included an overnight stay in YVR before continuing on on a 2-stop itinerary to make it home). It can be done and if you read MV consistently you should have all this knowledge. Just gotta put it into play!
Oh and I was searching for Biz class incessantly from 340 days out on Qantas (using AA miles) for 2 people and never once saw any availability during this time. Economy might be doable…Biz/1st probably not around NYE.
My situation is different because I’m flying solo and have the miles to burn, but I read milevalue everyday. I saw that flights to australia are easier flying from asia. I live in vegas and flying from here to korea is simple, 35,000 united miles and 60 dollars our of pocket. I can fly from korea to sydney on air China first class but I looked at flight reviews and it’s just okay at best, so for 10,000 delta miles and 28 dollars I fly to tokyo. Tokyo to sydney business class and 35,000 miles and 60 dollars with united miles. The trip back I fly japan airlines first class to tokyo. I used the United open jaw rule, my last flight is tokyo back to vegas…this trip is from jan 15th until jan 28th, with 3 days in korea and 2 days in tokyo. So the trip is possible but more practical if you don’t fly to australia from the u.s.
I believe cathay won’t help you in this case because us airways now requires a routing NOT via hong kong—->syd-hkg-lax is NOT permitted because of maximum permitted miles so you would need to take a flight via tokyo JAL and then qantas/cathay from there to lax/syd
I don’t know how far in advance you get these requests but when I booked my NZ itinerary back in August I had a different experience. I’m flying out on December 29th from JFK to AKL via ICN on Korean F. Last I checked (which was two months ago), many of the flights had 2-4 award seats available and not just out of JFK either. IAD, ATL, and LAX (fewer seats) all had availability to Sydney and Auckland via Incheon around Christmas/New Years.
I don’t know. Maybe Korean air isn’t all that popular with your clients. But I’d rather have that option than be told to go on my vacation in March.
FYI for readers- to fly Korean First Class, you need Korean miles (an Ultimate Rewards transfer partner.) Although Korean is in SkyTeam, Delta miles cannot book international first class.
Best miles to Australia for Christmas are Aeroplan. Route via Europe (United does not allow). Just booked some tickets.
Scott Grimmer- What you expect people to pay you $100+ to get easy to find award seats?
There is plenty of award space in business and even first. You just need to try a bit harder to search for it. Scott, you are getting too lazy.
On direct flights, no there isn’t. On other routings, there is some.
For award booking service, all you need to do is to follow what the trick VFW disclosed recently. It may not work perfectly but it is still working. Since you have tons of requests for this route, holding tickets would not be an issue for couple of weeks. That is why people trusts you and puts their dollar faith on your service. Don’t be lazy and it works for direct flights.