Re: “Frugal Premium Cabin Flying” Discussion
Hi
ramboflyer,
The lack of availability between Australia and the USA, especially in Business class, is a major problem in most programs. AAdvantage is no exception.
In reality, AAdvantage and Qantas members have access to the same pool of award seats through the oneworld alliance. But Qantas release award seats on their trans-Pacific (and all other) flights 353 days in advance. The few seats that are released at this time are usually gone within a matter of hours - it can be very competitive! 330 days before the flight, any remaining seats will become available to AAdvantage (as well as Alaska Airlines) members. But by this point it's rare to find remaining Business or First seats.
Getting to North America using AA is usually possible, but probably not on direct flights. You may find that you're able to get a seat if you travel via Hong Kong (using Cathay Pacific), Japan (using Japan Airlines) or Fiji (using Fiji Airways). But for these redemptions you would need to purchase two separate awards, i.e. Australia-Asia and Asia-USA. It will be a little more expensive to do this.
Getting to Europe with AA miles is not as difficult as there are far more options. AA miles can be used to fly on the likes of Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines etc. via Asia or Qantas/Qatar Airways via the Middle East. You can even use
Etihad Airways via Abu Dhabi - and availability is pretty good - but for
Etihad you would need to pay for two separate awards between Australia-Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi-Europe. And if you get really stuck there is always the southern route via South Africa.
Having said all of that - if you are planning to travel in 2017, it is probably not a good idea to stockpile AA miles. American is increasing prices on award redemptions for bookings made after 22 March 2016. Some of those increases are substantial, and remove much of the value proposition out of buying miles. Flights to Asia are still good value, but not so much for Europe or the Americas. See here for more on that:
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....age-award-devaluation-bookings-mar-72185.html
If you're still keen to buy miles, Alaska Airlines still has an excellent award chart. The same problem with Qantas availability to the US exists, but with Alaska you can also redeem miles to fly Cathay Pacific or Fiji Airways with one stop to the USA. You can even travel on Korean Air via Seoul!
To answer your question about the cost of AA miles, the price quoted in the guide includes bonus miles in the calculation. I.e. if there was a 40% bonus promotion, then 62,500 miles would only cost the price of ~45,000 miles. (The rest are given for free in the form of bonus miles, to bring the total to 62,500.)
Regarding your final question, my personal view is that you should continue to work towards accumulating enough Qantas points for 2x 280K oneworld awards. These are one of the best ways to spend Qantas points and there is a great deal of flexibility with these. You will certainly be able to get to all the places you want to visit in 2017 if you are prepared and book well in advance, using oneworld awards. And you are more likely to find availability on Qantas flights to the USA using Qantas points, rather than AA or AS.
But if you aren't able to reach the required number of Qantas points, buying miles in other programs is certainly an option. And don't be put off by the difficulty of redeeming them between Australia and the USA - it should be easier on most other routes.
