Buying miles as an option for cheap tickets

[peachy3333]

Hi all,

Was perusing through the aa advantage website and came across something.

Their south pacific - south pacific return awards are:
30,000 points one way business

They have a promotion on bonus miles if you buy them. Every 6000 miles you buy, you get a bonus 2000 miles.


Coincidentally, I'm booking a trip to NZ start of next year. Would it be reasonable (or has anyone done similar) to:

1. Buy miles.
2a. Redeem the miles for a PER-SYD-AKL-PPT one way ticket in business, costing 30,000 miles. (I'm not sure if the Air Tahiti Nui codeshare can be
redeemed as an award....)
2b. Or simply, a PER-SYD-AKL one way ticket in business, also 30,000 miles.

All up, that would be 24,000 miles you have to purchase (Getting 8000 bonus), costing $600 US (Around $660 AU) Not very expensive!


Love to hear comments/replies to this.

Thanks

 

[tuapekastar]

Hi all,

Was perusing through the aa advantage website and came across something.

Their south pacific - south pacific return awards are:
30,000 points one way business

They have a promotion on bonus miles if you buy them. Every 6000 miles you buy, you get a bonus 2000 miles.


Coincidentally, I'm booking a trip to NZ start of next year. Would it be reasonable (or has anyone done similar) to:

1. Buy miles.
2a. Redeem the miles for a PER-SYD-AKL-PPT one way ticket in business, costing 30,000 miles. (I'm not sure if the Air Tahiti Nui codeshare can be
redeemed as an award....)
2b. Or simply, a PER-SYD-AKL one way ticket in business, also 30,000 miles.

All up, that would be 24,000 miles you have to purchase (Getting 8000 bonus), costing $600 US (Around $660 AU) Not very expensive!


Love to hear comments/replies to this.

Thanks

I'm aware of the offer peachy3333, and on the surface it seems like it would be good value for J class fares (I haven't really done my own research as yet).

I do think PER-SYD-AKL (or PER-MEL/BNE-AKL) would only be 17.5K miles one way, being that Australia and NZ are viewed as one country for the purpose of redeeming AA miles. So if you topped up to 35K you could do that trip return. All dependent on award seat availability of course.

 

[imagineertobe]

All dependent on award seat availability of course.

There are stories of AAdvantage members having trouble booking flights on QF, even when the QF website shows award availability (cf. flyertalk.com). If you decide to use this route to a cheap Business award (I agree with your strategy, BTW), you'd best

1. call AA to find available routing
2. put the itinerary on hold (you get a few days - 7? - with an award)
3. buy the miles
4. and then go to ticketing

It would be a shame to buy the miles and then find out there's no way of using them.

Best of luck!

 

[NM]

There are stories of AAdvantage members having trouble booking flights on QF, even when the QF website shows award availability (cf. flyertalk.com). If you decide to use this route to a cheap Business award (I agree with your strategy, BTW), you'd best

And there have been reports of AA members getting access to the "enhanced" pool QF award seats usually only visible to QF Gold and Platinum members. So YMMV.

In my own personal experience I have been able to book awards using AA miles when seeing visibility on QF web site.

 

[adrian]

I have been taking advantage (no pun) of these offers the last couple of years. The current offer, combined with the exchange rate, is great value for me.

60000 miles + 20000 miles bonus is 80000 miles

Cost is US$1500 + around 10% fed excise tax plus $30 fee is around A$1812, give or take. Around 2.3c per mile.

Generally I redeem my awards on Sydney-Europe in J for 60000 miles o/w. To me this is worth at least A$2500 (4.2c per mile) to A$4500 (7.5c per mile). So buying miles at around 2.3c each is great value. I have even been known to purchase them for my family, who generously use the points for an award ticket for myself!

 

[futaris]

You might find that availability in *A is better, so do consider making use of the current US Airways promotions, if you want to buy/earn miles.

 

[drron]

And there have been reports of AA members getting access to the "enhanced" pool QF award seats usually only visible to QF Gold and Platinum members. So YMMV.

In my own personal experience I have been able to book awards using AA miles when seeing visibility on QF web site.

Puts hand up.Reported it a few times.

 

[benhadi]

You might find that availability in *A is better, so do consider making use of the current US Airways promotions, if you want to buy/earn miles.

Hi futaris, i've had a look at the usairways promotion and it looks pretty sweet. Only thing is that i cannot tell from their *A award chart whether the burn rate is for return or one way. Are you able to advice on that? Many thanks.

Benhadi

 

[markis10]

Biggest trap I see is availability, thats the downside, there is a similar advantage available with Priority club where you can buy up to 40000 points a year, at times with their pointbreaks you will get good hotels available at 5000 points such as recently with IC Burswood, so buying points for a stay values the room at $76 for the night, but you often have to move quick to grab the better value ones! I recently pointed out this to a collegue from Canada who was visiting and he got 4 nights for what was effectively the price of 1 night.

 

[peachy3333]

Hey all,

Thanks for the replies!

Same to futaris, I cannot make whether the charts are one way or return! They look to be return though...

I will be trying to do this with zero points currently in either US airways or in my AA account. Do you think they would let me do it anyway?

And as for AirNZ and QF availability, which one do you guys think would be more available?

And for the USairways booking desks, how good are they in comparison to AA. I hear everyone uses AA for their XONEs so they must be rather good.

Thanks again

 

[anabolism]

Was perusing through the aa advantage website and came across something.

Their south pacific - south pacific return awards are:
30,000 points one way business

They have a promotion on bonus miles if you buy them. Every 6000 miles you buy, you get a bonus 2000 miles.


Coincidentally, I'm booking a trip to NZ start of next year. Would it be reasonable (or has anyone done similar) to:

1. Buy miles.
2a. Redeem the miles for a PER-SYD-AKL-PPT one way ticket in business, costing 30,000 miles. (I'm not sure if the Air Tahiti Nui codeshare can be
redeemed as an award....)
2b. Or simply, a PER-SYD-AKL one way ticket in business, also 30,000 miles.

All up, that would be 24,000 miles you have to purchase (Getting 8000 bonus), costing $600 US (Around $660 AU) Not very expensive!

I haven't verified the miles needed for the award, but assuming it's 30,000 as you say, then it sounds like a sweet deal. You could try checking availability first, put an award itinerary on hold, buy the miles, and hope they show up before the hold expires. They say "allow up to 72 hours" but not having purchased any, can't say how long it takes in practice.

 

[kamchatsky]

Hey all,

Thanks for the replies!

Same to futaris, I cannot make whether the charts are one way or return! They look to be return though...

I will be trying to do this with zero points currently in either US airways or in my AA account. Do you think they would let me do it anyway?

And as for AirNZ and QF availability, which one do you guys think would be more available?

And for the USairways booking desks, how good are they in comparison to AA. I hear everyone uses AA for their XONEs so they must be rather good.

Thanks again

Not sure about Qantas availability, but NZ has good availability and has excellent South Pacific network compare with QF/TN. I have been redeeming SYD-NZ-PPT a number of times this year without any problems. However I use SQ krisflyer points for redemption instead of US.

 

[futaris]

NZ availability can be checked using the ANA Tool.
QF availability can be checked using QFF Search (as a Bronze).

Not sure how you can check TN availability.

In general trans-tasman, QF has better long-term availability, NZ better short-term. i.e. QANTAS generally release all their seats at once, whereas NZ will often release closer to departure date, at 3 months before, etc, etc.

 

[adrian]

I haven't verified the miles needed for the award, but assuming it's 30,000 as you say, then it sounds like a sweet deal. You could try checking availability first, put an award itinerary on hold, buy the miles, and hope they show up before the hold expires. They say "allow up to 72 hours" but not having purchased any, can't say how long it takes in practice.

Purchased miles turn up pretty quickly - maybe it is the next day? But bonus miles take longer, sometime after the promo has ended - it is in the fine print somewhere.

 

[Bang4Buck]

Hi futaris, i've had a look at the usairways promotion and it looks pretty sweet. Only thing is that i cannot tell from their *A award chart whether the burn rate is for return or one way. Are you able to advice on that? Many thanks.

Benhadi

All reward points quoted are for return flights on the USair chart.

 

[peachy3333]

Thanks everyone.

I will be taking up the US airways offer, hopefully netting two accounts with 150k each. 30k for South pac-South pac, 120k for South pac-Europe, both in C.

Will let everyone know how it goes!