Sydney to New York - points + pay vs upgrading

[stockdot]

Hi there mighty AFF questions forum,

I'm looking to fly (one-way) from Sydney to New York, on 19 or 20 October. I'm relocating over to the Big Apple for work.

My work cap for the flight is $4.5K and I'd prefer to use this amount to cover the flight, rather than redeeming points for an award ticket. I am open to using points if I can still subsidise the total points amount with my work allowance. The goal is to fly in Business (am I dreaming if I'm thinking about First?) and the work cap seems to cover premium economy on almost any airline, as well as business on some of the less reputable airlines.

I think this leaves me with two main choices:

Points + Pay

Upgrade

For reference I'm sitting on around 700K Velocity Points (happy to convert these to KrisFlyer) and ~110K Qantas Points. My only status is Platinum with VA.

Would love to hear the wisdom of the AFF crowd on this one

 

[n7of9]

Purchase VA SYD-LAX Y $1,380 (or Y+ $3,015 if you want more SC) and upgrade to J on points (45,000 last i checked)...J Reward available on VA1 19 Oct (at least until someone else reads this!)

Then purchase DL F LAX-NYC U$1,300 departing at lunchtime on the same day

 

[NM]

$4500 (or very close to that cost) can get you SYD-AKL-LAX with NZ quite regularly. Then just need to get yourself to final destination.

 

[Boof1]

Hi Stockdot,

Not sure if you are stuck with a corporate TA or if you can expense the $4500. If it's the latter then here are two options for you to consider:

Asiana have a one way for $3743 SYD to JFK in J class. You can get it direct on their website or through Kayak. Horrible layover (15.5 hours) but you could at least get some work done on the flights and get a decent nights sleep in a hotel in Seoul and I think if you ring Asiana and are in J class they might even provide the accomodation as part of the ticket. The ICN - JFK leg is on the A380 with the all aisle access seats similar to what EK have.

JAL also have a J class fare that is just shy of your $4.5k mark that is a 777 day flight to Tokyo and then a 787 overnight to JFK that is on Kayak as well.

Also something to consider:

Fiji Airways have J class fare for $3488 that leaves at 2pm to NAN with a near 3 hour stopover to LAX all on the A330 that has the same seats as VA used to have on their A330's (the paired angled lie flat that SQ also use for A330's). Then see what options you have with the leftover $1000 to get you from LAX to JFK. You would go close with Jetblue Mint that is $999USD on the 19th but you would have to tip in a couple of hundred of your own to complete the trip, or go one stop on Delta in F but not in a flat bed.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Boof