Australia in business class is one of the toughest frequent flyer awards out there. It’s a long flight, people pay for business class seats, and there aren’t that many ways of getting there through many frequent flyer programs. If you want to use United miles, for instance, you often have to travel through Asia – or pay triple the miles.
Right now Qantas is making quite a bit of business class award space available on its Dallas Fort Worth – Sydney flight over the summer in the U.S.
- This is a great flight for connecting with American Airlines flights in and out of Dallas
- The award space does not show up on the American Airlines website, or the Alaska Airlines website, but I tested calling American and agents had no difficulty seeing the award space.
- The space shows up on the British Airways website (though their award costs are higher). If the space is open at BA.com it should also be available to American AAdvantage (80,000 miles each way).
Here’s a look at space for 2 business class awards using partner frequent flyer miles in August, noting that there are even dates where (4) business class seats are available, especially returning from Sydney:
- Dallas Fort Worth – Sydney: August 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 17, 20, 21, 23, 27, 29, 30
- Sydney – Dallas Fort Worth: August 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
W Hotel From The Sydney Harbor
The Dallas flight is scheduled to operate with a Boeing 787-9, rather than the traditional Airbus A380. That’s a good business class experience with no first class.
July and August is the Australian winter, but winters are mild in Sydney by Northern standards and are a fantastic time to travel to North Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef (at other times the heat can be oppressive). You can include a flight beyond Sydney on Qantas without spending additional miles if booking through AAdvantage, as well.
Is the W open yet? Was just there in Jan and said it was closed?
I had asked how to do book these awards a month or so ago. There is no readily available information on how to do this ANYWHERE I could find online after searching for hours. Even a call to AAdvantage yielded reps who were not sure what was bookable online although they did offer to look but I had no firm dates and wanted to browse.
As I mentioned a month ago, a post about online booking of Award Travel and what is bookable and where or how would be of great value to your readers or One Mile At A Time.
I had basically given up. Now if there is some availability left. I might be late to the party now after waiting a month for information.
Thanks.
There is not 1 of those dates available on AA
@J J – not a single one of these dates is available at AA.com, as I note in the post. The seats are available when you phone reservations.
@Sandy kelly – not yet!
@A customer – you can always hire someone like point.me to do it for you, or … find the dates you want, search online using a british airways account for instance since this space isn’t showing up on the American Airlines website and then call American to book.
Not seeing anything on BA either. If as you said, they showed up. They seem long gone now.
Sounds like a good use of redemptions for those who purchased “millions” of AA miles by a SimplyMiles donation back in November, 2021!
Biz Fares are showing up in Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific) for 90k points each way. I was able to book flights in late July, DFW to SYD and then in August for the return trip. Premium economy fares are available for 65k, each way.
@MP – definitely still there on the BA website as of this comment.
You’re right. See that one now. I searched a a lot of dates that you mentioned. Most had 0 available. I think most got taken. But that one is available as of 6:19 pm. If I hadn’t already arranged a big trip to AUS and New Zealand/Japan this fall, I would jump on that right now.
I’m seeing availability on BA but called AS and they don’t see any
@John – I didn’t verify that Alaska could see the space. American had no problem with it, however.
AS agents are not showing any dates that BA site is showing.
@Gary – Just got off the phone with AA. They can see the space but can’t confirm it….HUCA didn’t help….same answer. Did you book or put one on hold? TIA
Great redemption for returning home from the Women’s World Cup!
Noobie. Do you have a newsletter or social media presence?
I booked it! Called AA and had a terrible connection. Called back and the connection was just as bad. I think it was their phone system. Got a really bad rep. Took him forever to book it , but I got it. I dont mind the cooler temps that time of year.
Hello again and thank you to Gary for posting this. I was able to book a late August trip. I have it on hold. I did not try to confirm yet. The AA agent was very very good and patient. I was trying to depart in late August and return to the USA un early Sep but there was no availability for the first ten days of September. The agent was nice enough to check. So I booked a trip returning on 31 August.
It will not be a long trip but I think it is worth it for the 160k miles RT. The agent was also nice enough to book it in two one-way segments with different reservations to make any possible changes easier, I think if I booked a longer trip I might end up chickening out. I do not take long trips much anymore and this will be a nice getaway,
I have already started looking at hotels and they are not cheap. I will probably end up using a corporate rate at Accor or Hilton. Accor has very good coverage actually.
Again, I have not tried to confirm the reservations but they are on hold and I do have two record locators I can view online. They actually say “On request” and “On Hold.” I will try to ticket them tonight. they say they are completely changeable and refundable.
I think Gary has said they are refundable also. Thank you again to Gary and good luck to all.
Booked a r/t in August. Just over 2 week trip. Didn’t have any issue. Easily and quickly booked. Also was able to include r/t ORD-DFW but that had to be in coach.
AS can’t “see” the space even after calling in twice. I’ve had this issue many times with AS; however, their partner desk is always able to “see” the space. But it looks like the tide is turning (shocking) at AS because even as a 100K they won’t take my calls unless it is an “existing” reservation.
The new and very enforced policy I’ve encountered with AS is that if you can’t see and book it online, it doesn’t exist to them.
I’ll be excited to return to UA this Spring. That says something about AS’ current state.
Booked two seats dallas to Melbourne to Sydney in mid aug. Found on ba. Used chat to book. Thanks Gary!!
Question for Gary. Will we be eligible to visit Flagship Dining based on the Itinerary alone or will we need OW Status?
Here is what the website says but I can’t translate it to regular English.
Access
If you’re flying on American Airlines in Flagship® First or Flagship® Business Plus on qualifying international or transcontinental flights, you automatically have access.*
Qualifying international flights
Flights between the U.S. and:
Asia
Australia
Europe
Middle East
New Zealand
South America
Qualifying transcontinental flights
3-class non-stop flights between:
New York (JFK) and Los Angeles (LAX)
JFK and San Francisco (SFO)
JFK and Orange County (SNA) – traveling on A321T aircraft only
LAX and Boston (BOS) – traveling on A321T aircraft only
LAX and Miami (MIA) – traveling on Boeing 777-300 aircraft only
*Departing flight must be marketed and operated by American on the same day (or before 6 a.m. the following day). Customers traveling on airline industry non-revenue tickets are not eligible for access.
It lists Australia but also says the flight must be marketed and operated by AA but AA does not fly DFW SYD. They do market the codeshare flight though.
Just curious but I am guessing probably no entry without status.
And/Or is there an equivalent QF Lounge we can use when traveling J on our returns?
@Rebecca Bast – you can subscribe to get each individual post or a daily email, find me on social @garyleff
@Angel – I did successfully book
There’s a lot of capacity on US-Australia flights and the demand pattern shifts considerably as the season shifts from Northern Hemisphere Winter to Northern Hemisphere Spring. Demand is year round, but it does level off a bit when Australia is in its Fall/Winter period.
Sometimes I wonder why I’m paying for that email alert service when you just turn around minutes later and announce it to the entire world for free. Sure you don’t post every alert, but anything that’s premium and scarce gets published for the public.
I might as well cancel Thrifty Traveler, since you provide the same service for free. Heck, you don’t even credit them anymore in the articles to try and get them another member sign-up or two. Just seems really sleazy to me
Gary, as an infrequent traveler trying to use most of my miles while they still have partner-award value, I appreciate the occasional posts like this. This trip alone will use almost half my available miles, so I will not have many more opportunities like this. I have been slowly collecting miles for decades. It is kind of sad that miles are being devalued to the point that I no longer want to collect them. There was something kind of fun about mileage runs to me. Now that it is all about the spend for the airlines, it does not seem that fun. And if airlines want to prioritize spend and not distance, then it needs to be a two-way street. If they want to use miles as a profit center, then they need to make sure they have a decent redeemable value imo.
If anyone knows about special lounge access either at DFW or SYD with a J-Class Award Ticket, please do share the information.
Thank you again to Gary.
Are the Aussies still anal about Covid?
Gary, I think they have shut the door. There are a few nice premium classic awards on QF but they don’t sync with AA.com. Was hoping phone agents in Oz/ USA could grab them but I have been told milesaavers are not eligible for telephone bookings any longer. So off you don’t see it online, there’s no other option. Temp tech glitch?
Just got 2 biz class tix 8/29 DFW-SYD on QS for 80k AA miles each. Gotta figure out when I’m coming home, but will get that eventually!
Pretty straightforward, went to qantas.com, had to sign up for an account, went to ‘make a flight booking’, put in cities and date, could view seven days at a time, and just tap on the calendar until I could see the low mileage ticket I was looking for. Don’t panic, 126,500 Qantas miles are only 80,000 AAdvantage miles. Which seems pretty reasonable for 16:45 in lie flat biz class on a 787.
PS – once I found the flights on qantas.com I did have to call aa.com, and ask for international award travel. It did take two tries until I got an agent who knew what he was doing. Being willing to HUCA always seems to help!
What about delta for 500,000 miles each way?
They always have seats left.