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One of the most frequent requests we get for our Award Booking Service is finding premium cabin tickets between the US and Australia/New Zealand. People have been saving up their hard earned miles and want to splurge on a dream trip Down Under.
Both US Airways and United miles can be used to book ticket on Star Alliance partners, and there are a host of nonstop options between North America and Oceania.
US Airways charges 80k/110k/140k for travel between North America and the South Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand.
United is more expensive for business and first class tickets. They charge 80k/135k/160k for travel to Australia and New Zealand.
Unfortunately, nonstop premium award space is extremely difficult to find. I always begin searches for Star Alliance award space at United.com. Scott wrote two great posts about these searches. For more information, check out Star Alliance Award Searches on United.com and Tricking United.com’s Award Calendar.
To show you the lack of premium award space, I ran searches for two travelers in September and October. The proof is below. Los Angeles doesn’t display a single day with business or first class space.
San Francisco to Sydney is actually an improvement! I found a single day with direct business class space in my search (September 1st). It will probably be snapped up by the time this article is published, though.
Air Canada’s direct flight between Vancouver and Sydney had even worse award space than the two previous searches. Even economy tickets are hard to find.
For those with huge Dividend Miles and Mileage Plus balances, this post isn’t meant to discourage you! I want to show you the routes I use to book travelers to Australia.
Hands down, the best Star Alliance award space to Australia is via Asia.
Is that legal routing?
As Scott wrote in his post US Airways Award Chart Sweet Spot: Australia via Asia, US Airways allows this routing. You are even permitted a stopover on US Airways award tickets, so you can build in a long stop in Bangkok or Seoul before continuing on to Australia. That’s an incredible value: two trips and two continents for the price of one!
I actually just booked two business class tickets for a couple traveling from Australia to the US. The US Airways agent mistakenly priced the award at 120,000 miles each, 10k more expensive than the award should be. I had to politely ask her to verify with the rate desk. After a 15 minute hold, she returned with the correctly priced itinerary.
What about award tickets using United miles?
I don’t know anyone who knows exactly what United allows. Scott doesn’t know. He wrote: I Don’t Know United’s Award Rules.
But we do know from experience that United will let you route to Australia via Asia on certain routings. The common elements of successfully ticketed itineraries are fewer segments and simpler routings.
Which routes have the best availability from Asia to Australia?
In my experience, Thai Airways’ twice-daily flights from Bangkok to Sydney are an absolute treasure trove of premium award space.
It’s hard to find a day without business and first class space. That makes this segment an award booker’s dream! Here is the same September/October search for two travelers from BKK-SYD.
If the options out of Bangkok don’t suit your needs, there are plenty of alternatives. Asiana has good availability from Seoul to Sydney on their nonstop.
Don’t forget Air China or even Singapore, which have plenty of business space from their respective hubs in Beijing and Singapore. (Note that the Singapore business class space available is NOT on the A380s that service this route. For space like that, you need to use Singapore miles.
Note that not all business class space on Singapore is bookable with US Airways miles. Certain aircraft are specifically excluded from US Airways partner award chart. I have pasted the full restrictions below to help you on your search.
What are the best routes from Asia to New Zealand?
For many, Australia isn’t the goal. New Zealand offers its own charms. Scott had a fantastic time in Wellington and Queenstown.
Logistically speaking, Auckland is the easiest city to find award space from Asia. Air New Zealand is notoriously tight fisted with their premium space on the nonstop from Vancouver, but they offer two solid alternatives: Tokyo-Narita and Osaka.
Business class space from Tokyo-Narita was decent in September, but almost nonexistent in October.
Air New Zealand’s thrice-weekly nonstop from Osaka, Japan had business class space on nearly every flight! That’s a hidden gem route you should keep in your back pocket. How did I even find out about this route? Wikipedia. For more details, make sure to check out Scott’s post How to Use Wikipedia to Book Awards Like a Pro.
Don’t forget about Thai Airways from Bangkok, either. The award space isn’t nearly as good as their segment to Sydney, but I found plenty of days with space.
Any other tips or tricks when planning these awards?
Remember that US Airways charges 110k/140k for business/first class tickets between North America and the South Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand.
Interestingly enough, US Airways charges 120k/160k for business/first class tickets between North America and the South Asia region. This region includes Thailand and Singapore, so if you are planning on visiting these countries, adding a leg to Australia or New Zealand will actually save you miles!
Recap
North America to Australia is one of the most requested and most difficult award tickets to book. United and Air Canada are notoriously stingy in releasing premium cabin space on their nonstop flights. They know they can sell those seats and that people will pay for more expensive Standard award tickets.
To get around this lack of space, consider routing via Asia. Star Alliance carriers including Thai, Asiana, Air China, and even Singapore release a good number of seats from their hubs to Sydney.
If New Zealand is your goal, consider Air New Zealand (Tokyo and Osaka) and Thai Airways from Bangkok.
Your trip will certainly take longer by traveling through Asia, but the opportunity to fly great carriers like Thai and Singapore is hard to pass up. You also won’t be stuck in economy on those long haul segments!
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Which of these routes/airlines offers the best premium cabin experience to Australia/New Zealand? Specifically, I’m interested in complete lie-flat seats as opposed to angled lie flats.
I actually think none of these are fully flat.
Bookmarking this post.
What about getting back? Does star alliance fly out of any city besides Sydney to US?
Auckland on Air New Zealand, but no business class space from AKL to the US direct. You will probably have to route back through Asia.
Rick,
NZ flies out of Auckland to LAX/SFO/YVR but thats hard to get ahold of.
There is better luck taking the island hopper flights (via HNL or RAR) But those lack Lie Flat Seats.
I have no idea on either availability or product but UA flies CNS->GUM->HNL as well.
I’ll pass on those, and would rather save miles and get an E+ seat on united. Blowing that many miles on a recliner, and with a stop-over in the middle is a waste. The whole point is to be able to get some good sleep.
When I was planning my round-the-world trip in biz on *A, needed to go from Australia or New Zealand to South America, which was not possible direct so they made the exception for route through US/Canada and I faced exactly the issue you have described – pretty much no premium availability from anywhere in AU/NZ to anywhere in US/CA in January. I was able to solve that flying through Hawaii – I was able to get an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Honolulu, connecting next day on one of plenty of United flights to the mainland.
But the I extended my stay in Asia and had to push back AU/NZ to South America segment. It was hell. Hawaii no longer had any availability and I also had to deal with just as bad availability from US to South America in February. I spent good part of two days searching and another two hours on the phone with GlobalDesk before finally setting it up: AKL-SYD(overnight to pick up my Brazilian visa)-ICN(overnight, check out Seoul for half a day)-LAX(quick In-n-out Burger run)-ORD-GRU. Not something I would of done in economy.
What did they charge you for this in points? I’m looking to get from Australia to SA next year and just trying to sort out the most optimal award routing.
It was round-the-world award so 220k plus $368 for the entire trip in business class 🙂
@rick b – Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland are your choices. Air Canada, Air New Zealand, United, and US Airways (but the availability is the same as getting there – good luck!)
That’s what I’ll have to do. It just seems that *A has less routing choices than oneworld.
I think the big thing for me is time. Is 14 hours direct from LAX, SFO or YVR to Sydney in economy better for just “getting there” or 26-30 hours or more changing planes, hanging out in Airports just to sit in Business or First? With my upcoming trip and lack of direct flight options in premium I think I may just sit in cattle class, take a pill and look forward to the destination arriving in half the time than flying via Asia.
That’s a great option too. Save a bundle of miles for the next trip where you can get better routing.
The problem you’ll find (at least when booking using United miles for C awards) is that while you can route one way (inbound or outbound) via Asia with a stopover, you can’t do that BOTH ways. Kind of kills the utility of your post.
So while you are correct that you can get between North America and Australia with a stop in Asia easily….you can’t do that twice on a single trip. You still need to get a flight between North America and Australia without a stop in Asia either outbound or returning, and that is a very tough nut to crack….I know, I worked damn hard do accomplish it for a trip this fall – I was able to, but the US-Australia leg in C using United miles was the hardest award booking I’ve ever made.
You do your readers a disservice by glossing over this challenge. Fine if they’re only going one way, I suppose, but if they plan to ever come home (and want to use United miles for the trip)…good luck.
United website does give options to route through Asia on the way back, but no stopovers.
At the moment, there’s not a single award seat of any kind for early january, and the entire plane has all seats available for sale, so the trick to this is to plug it into ExpertFlyer and keep your phone handy for when the alert pops up.
Just book two one ways… problem solved.
If you want to book a stopover too, then just book USA-ASIA, then cash ticket to Australia and then Australia-USA via Asia. You’re visiting two continents, don’t complain about the $400 ticket from Asia to Australia. Two one ways also allows you to book both legs the day they are released–whereas people who are booking a round trip need to wait for their last leg to become bookable (sort of…ways around it, but in general availability will be much better for that reason).
Also allows you essentially unlimited time and destinations in Asia as long as you buy cash one ways — super cheap intra-Asia.
You can route through Asia both ways. Only one of those ways can you stop >24 hours. We’re not doing anyone a disservice by giving them more information.
I think you mean Air New Zealand’s thrice-WEEKLY service. Not to be a pedant – but I did a double-take when I read what you wrote.
Thanks for catching that.
Can I fly to SYD 1st for stop over and visit another Asia city before coming back to US — through this approach?
Yes
Your post fails to discuss redemptions of delta miles on Virgin Australia. Award space on the direct LAX to BNE or SYD direct has been outstanding in Business Class and the excessive fuel surcharges have been eliminated. It’s abit pricier than other programs at 150k return but a good use of sky pesos in my opinion if you really value the direct flight.
This post is about Star Alliance options. Here’s a post on Virgin Australia –> https://milevalu.wpengine.com/delta-still-not-charging-surcharges-on-virgin-australia-awards-and-space-to-australia-over-christmas/
Here’s a question for you: I’m looking at one way awards availability to New Zealand next Dec. and I have found flights through Singapore that work for me. When I price this route on united, it asks for 105,000 miles total in business class, but 40,000 miles in economy. So it is charging for a standard North America – Oceania ticket in Economy, but a North America – S. Asia – Oceania ticket in business. Is this an error?
I would try to reserve the itinerary online and then call in to have it correctly adjusted by an agent.
Is it still possible to put reservation on hold online? I tried doing that two days ago and there is no longer a link to do so in the Payment Information box. Just checked again and I don’t see it:
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Hopefully I’ll have a post soon about a new way to put it on hold because the phone hold link is gone.
That must be what’s happening. If you called it in, you’d get in for 67.5k miles in business.
Hi,
I was just wondering have you every book United award on AZ from LAX to LHR?
Any lucky I am waiting on an Open but will not travel in 3 month!
Thanks!
I see space on the route in economy occasionally.
Unable to find award travel Auckland to LAX Jan 31 with Aeroplan points on their site. Can I access United.com award site and book with Aeroplan points?