Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
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Update 2:00 Eastern: I’m not going to mark this expired yet, as there are still a couple dribs and drabs out there (possibly due to cancellations or flights falling back into inventory), but it’s going to be next to impossible to find RT availability to and from the same city pair. Take a look at the comments to see what people are still finding.
A unicorn sighting! Thrifty Traveler Premium has reported that there is wide-open business class availability in February 2023 on Qantas from the US to Australia. I poked around a bit further and was able to find spotty availability in January 2023 as well.
Also, it looks like AA has availability from BNE-LAX on the return that Alaska isn’t showing.
The best way to book these is via Alaska Airlines at the incredible rate of 55K each way. Alternatively, you can also use American AAdvantage for 80K each way. Non-stops are from DFW and LAX to both Sydney and Melbourne, but both Alaska and AA will allow positioning flights on their own metal.
I’ll be updating this post over the next 20-30 minutes, but I wanted to get it out there ASAP as this peak season availability will most likely dry up quickly.
The Deal
- Qantas Business Class availability from the US to Australia with 2+ seats. Can be booked for 55,000 miles each way using Alaska Mileage Plan or 80,000 each way using American AAdvantage.
- Wide-open in February 2023, additional options in January 2023.
- Non-stop availability from LAX/DFW to Sydney and Melbourne with connecting options available from other airports.
- AA shows some availability between BNE and LAX
How to Book
Use the flexible calendar options in either (or better yet, both) AA or Alaska to search for inventory. Here’s LAX-MEL in February. Note that the non-stops are the ones that have $35 in fees:
This is where Alaska Mileage Plan shines, for now at least. You could certainly book using AAdvantage or Avios for 80,000 miles and indeed if you’re of the SimplyMiles nouveau riche, you almost certainly should. If so, you can book directly through their websites with free cancellation.
But Alaska sells QF Business for only 12,500 miles more than regular QF coach. Add to that the stopover feature that Greg talked about on the this FM on the Air and there’s some fun stuff available. If you have Alaska miles, this is one of the best deals in points and miles.
For instance, my wife and I plan to go to the Australian Open next January, but want to make a pit-stop in the Sydney area first, so here’s what we can get for 55K each:
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FYI for anyone still searching, within the next 30 minutes I will be cancelling the flights I booked:
2/9 LAX -BNE with included stopover then 2/11 BNE-SYD in J
2/14 SYD-MEL in J with included stopover then 2/15 MEL DFW in PE
done
Thank you!! I booked my parents to New Zealand from New York, all in business. Nearly 24 hours in LA, then Qantas to Sydney, stopover for 4 days in Sydney. Then on to Christchurch, NZ. 55,000 miles per ticket.
To get them back, I did AKL > NAN (stop in Fiji) > Tokyo, in business. Note that Alaska doesn’t allow NAN > NRT. It’s not a valid routing on Fiji. Had to use AA miles. After 3 weeks in Tokyo, finally got them both tickets from Tokyo > JFK in JAL First Class for 70K Alaska. It’s a shame I couldn’t combine Fiji with JAL (two carriers) with the free stopover.
All for 195,000 points at a value of 12.8 cents per point. Thank you!! They’re very excited.
that is a winner play right there. one for the record books. Kudos
Also via Nadi. Can do a stopover in Fiji, hop around the pacific islands with AA miles (good luck finding availability thou) then continue to Australia.
I’ve looked at that LAX-NAN stopover a lot. I believe that they’ve finally switched that route to the A-350 (everyday, I think) so that it has the new lie-flat seats. The old A-330 seats were tough.
Is there any way to see business class availability with Alaska without those damn “mixed cabin” flights that always turn out to be economy on the trans-Pacific leg? So annoying.
Yep, and I just looked for one way DFW-MEL (all end up via SYD, as noted) and not a single date in Feb. was NOT mixed cabin with the non-biz seat on the long leg. I sure hope those who booked caught that or were lucky. Looks like I missed this one.
It’s not foolproof, but I like to do simultaneous searches with AA and Alaska. Then, I can use the AA availability to hone into specific dates on the Alaska calendar. I still come across availability that exists on one and not the other, but it’s a good starting point. Alaska needs to add a mixed cabin filter on that award calendar ASAP.
Was able to get LAX-BNE/stopover/BNE-SYD in J going out
SYD-MEL/stopover/MEL DFW in PE on return
it looks like the returns are nada overall, at least for Feb
Did not look at Jan or Mar
Nice! I saw that AA was starting to spit out some stopover availability…good catch!
was able to get tickets to MEL for February. Not the greatest routing, may end up finding a different way back, but gotta jump on this when you see it.
The painful thing was I had 104k Alaska miles and P2 had 160k, so we ended up booking one ticket one way on AA, the other 3 with Alaska.
Shoot! Well, at least you had enough for three tickets on Alaska. Honestly, one of the best P&M deals out there…I imagine it’s not long for this world.
There is still SYD-MEL-DFW availability for EMD of March-April. Weirdly, on those same dates MEL-DFW has nothing so the routing rules want you to go from somewhere else (SYD, AKL, etc.)
too bad amex not transfer to alaska airlines.
Or anyone else!
If it is on American, but not Alaska, be cautious as there has been a fair bit of phantom availability on AA lately.
Using phone app for single seat, even one way, can’t find a single date. I’ll try again from pc when I get to office. I’m not sure phone app really understands “flexible dates” even though it’s an option.
Looks like LAX to Melbourne and Sydney is all gone in Feb but there’s still some availability of LAX to Brisbane direct.
I’m not even seeing Brisbane now
I can’t find LAX to Brisbane during Feb in J at all.
Try Wednesday 2/22 8am flight LAX to BNE. I booked the 8pm flight but the 8am flight had 2 seats 30 min ago.
unfortunately, cannot find 3 seats.
I don’t see any dates with 3 seats left either 🙁
Is there any way to get Alaska miles via any of the credit card rewards programs?(Citi, Chase, Amex, Capitalone, etc.)
Unfortunately, no. The only options are with the Alaska card, or by transferring Marriott Bonvoy points at 60,000:25,000