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For most of the last few years, booking Business or First Class awards to Australia or New Zealand with American Airlines miles has been very difficult. But as part of the deluge of premium cabin award space we saw six weeks ago, award space opened up on American Airlines’ routes from Los Angeles to Sydney and Auckland.
That award space is mostly gone. With the big American Airlines devaluation kicking in on March 22, the current picture of premium cabin award space is bleak.
Why This Matters
Ideally you’d book this award space now to save a lot of miles.
Current award prices:
- 37,500 AA miles one way in economy
- 62,500 in Business
- 72,500 in First
Award prices for bookings made March 22 or later:
- 40,000 AA miles one way in economy
- 80,000 in Business
- 110,000 in First
Award Space
Here’s all of the award space between Los Angeles and Auckland in Business Class (there is no First Class on the Dreamliner that serves the route):
That’s two days in the eight months between when the route launches in June and the end of the calendar.
Here is the award space in Business Class from Auckland to Los Angeles:
That’s three days.
From Los Angeles to Sydney, this is all the premium cabin award space over the next 11 months (this route has Business and First Class):
That’s three of the next 331 days with Business Class award space only.
From Sydney to Los Angeles, this is all the premium cabin award space over the next 11 months.
That’s three of the next 331 days with First Class award space only.
Bottom Line
If you’re looking to burn American Airlines miles before the devaluation, don’t look at Australia and New Zealand.
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I had been trying to book Cathay Pacific from JFK to Thailand, in 1st class from JFK to HKG, and it was nigh impossible. I ended up getting business class. (I know, waaaaah-waaaaah) And even then one of the flights I saw on British American’s site was gone by the time I called twenty minutes later, so I ended up with a shorter layover than I would’ve liked in Hong Kong (12 hr vs 17 hr). I’m not complaining, but the competition is fierce in these last few days.
It is the same from the UK to down under, no Qantas flights in business and first using AA miles at all.
I got lucky to book 4 business seats for my family in January for end of Aug. flight LAX-SYD( American)
4 Business NRT-LAX (JAL)
Waiting for my AA miles to get posted before 3/22 – need to book SYD-NRT..
Thanks!
Wow! That will be awesome!
August looks really good from here. 4+ coach seats open (SEA-CNS via LAX and BNE, SYD, or MEL on AS/QF) every Tues/Weds from the 9th on, and a half dozen others (Fri/Sat/Sun, only one Monday). We were picky with timing on our trip and actually chose to redeem Delta miles for Virgin flights a couple weeks ago. Gave up on securing Business/First seats long ago to Aus/NZ.