Non-stop award space in premium cabins between the US and Australia is one of the toughest things to find out of any frequent flyer award in the world.
And American has been anything but generous with premium cabin international award space generally, except during spurts when they open up space. So when they do you need to act quickly. And when they do for Australia and New Zealand it’s worth paying attention.
American Airlines business class saver awards between Los Angeles and Sydney are wide open for 2 or more passengers in November and into December (through end of schedule). Space is available in both directions.
Sydney – Los Angeles in November for 2 business class passengers:
Los Angeles – Sydney in November for 2 business class passengers:
There are even several days with 4 business class seats available. And there are a handful of days where first class saver awards are available as well.
American’s Sydney flight is operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, my favorite aircraft in their fleet with fully flat all aisle access business class and inflight internet. They’ve also upgraded the catering on this route.
American charges 80,000 miles each way between the US and South Pacific in business class, and of course British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Alaska and other partner miles should be able to book this space as well.
(HT: Avi R.)
i just had a look at BAEC and there is no availability using Avios. Shouldn’t there be?
Is there any availability on QF from DFW?
Click into those awards and its SFO-SYD in Coach on QF…
Might be phantom as flights not available when attempting to reserve.
Most of the seats available appear to be in First to SFO and Economy to SYD.
@Jeremy, there’s virtually no availability from DFW that I saw. Hopefully that changes.
several people have reserved seats
@jeremy – no
Why must you tease me this way. I so badly want to book and go back. Just doesn’t fit.
Thanks for checking all. That’s basically my holy grail flight. I could manage with. NZ IAH-AKL though.
I appreciate the effort – but it turns out to be just another bullshit American Airline’s website glitch. The flights do show is available when I logon, but not when I attempt to select them. It tells me that they are “no longer available”. Also bullshit because when you go back to start over they still show as being available.
All I encountered was phantom availability similar to @steve. And now nothing is showing on the calendar, even in economy saver.
“high season” depends on where in OZ one is headed, of course. There is much more to the country/continent than Sydney.
Eric, true enough!
While there is/was some fleeting space in U and Z on American metal in August/September, it looks like many of the routes returned by the AA website’s engine have the trans-pacific segments in X on Qantas with U or Z in just the domestic side.
Worked for me. Tucson to LAX to Sydney r/t in business in September on AA.
Thank you!