A big, bucket list trip to Australia is the perfect use of your points and miles.
The long, long flights Down Under can get pricey, so that stash of points you've been adding to might be the only way to make a trip like this affordable. But beyond affordable, you're going to want to make this journey comfortable, too.
Many flights to Australia are 15 hours or more each way. That's a lot of time in an economy seat. So I don't blame you if you have lie-flat aspirations for your trip to Sydney (SYD), Melbourne (MEL), or Brisbane (BNE) this year or next.
If you've been hunting for good ways to use your miles on flights to Australia, you're in luck. It's boom times for award availability Down Under right now – especially up front in business class.
Our Thrifty Traveler Premium members know all about this, because we've been peppering their inboxes with alerts for these hard-to-find seats flying to Australia this year.
Qantas Opens Things Up
When it comes to flying to Australia, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better ride than Qantas – the Australian airline.
Qantas, a OneWorld Alliance partner of American Airlines, flies several routes from Australia to North American destinations like Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA), Dallas (DFW), and Vancouver (YVR).
And on every one of those flights are sweet business class seats that look like this…
Over the past month, we've found several instances of Qantas suddenly making its business class seats bookable with Qantas miles. And trust us, these are seats you want to fly.
Read Next: Our Review of Qantas Business Class on the A380
Here, you can see the Los Angeles (LAX) to Melbourne (MEL) route bookable at 108,400 points each way and $170 in taxes and fees.
If you're thinking, “Buddy, I don't have Qantas miles. I live in North America and have never flown that airline,” I hear you. But here's the best part:
Easy-to-earn American Express Membership Rewards points, Capital One miles, and Citi ThankYou points all transfer 1-to-1 to Qantas, meaning you might have the points needed to book these flights even if you've never flown with Qantas before!
That said, can I interest you in some more Qantas business class routes?
The New York (JFK) to Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) award space is ultra-rare (I know it's not Australia, but aren't you glad I showed you anyway?), and the Los Angeles (LAX) to Brisbane (BNE) route featured availability we hadn't seen in nearly a year, too.
Then came some San Francisco (SFO) to Sydney (SYD) availability just a day or so later.
Each time our team found availability like this, we sent our a Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal alert email to our subscribers. In those deals, we hunted down each individual date that these flights were bookable and put them into a box that looks like this. That way, you don't have to waste time searching – you just read your email and punch in the date to find the availability ready and waiting for you! How nice is that?
As you can see from this list, most of the best availability is in the spring, winter, and fall in Australia (the opposite seasons for us). But the weather in Australia doesn't fluctuate as severely as our seasons, meaning you're going to get temperate conditions any time of year in these places.
We did this for our friends in Canada, too. This Vancouver (YVR) availability to Sydney was also a fantastic find.
And while the points and miles rate is slightly higher because of the length of the flight, the availability we found from Dallas (DFW) to both of these Qantas hubs also called for a flight deal alert for our members.
The business class availability on these flights will make for a spectacular journey Down Under, and if you have enough points to make it happen, this is clearly the best way to get there.
But there's another, less expensive option, too.
In Economy, Too!
Qantas flies economy, too, and to book those seats, you need far fewer points and miles.
Thanks to a flash sale from their partner Alaska Airlines, you could use Alaska miles to book these Qantas flights for just 60,000 miles roundtrip! And it wasn't just from cities with Qantas nonstops, either, you could book connections on American or Alaska from all of these cities for that same, low price.
Best of all, this deal featured low taxes and fees at just $145 roundtrip, making this one of the least expensive ways to visit Australia, period.
Cathay Pacific First & Biz Class, Too!
We've done business class, and we've done economy … but there couldn't be a first class flight deal down to Australia, right?
Right…?
Our Thrifty Traveler Premium members were treated to this sizzling Unicorn Fare we found for ultra-rare first class availability flying Cathay Pacific down to Hong Kong (HKG), with quick connections in business class all the way down to Australia.
All of these flights, departing New York (JFK), were priced below 160,000 miles each way. Crazily, if you tacked on a connection, the price went down! That's how you can get 140,000-point rates to Auckland (AKL), Brisbane (BNE), Melbourne (MEL), Perth (PER), and Sydney (SYD) on this screaming deal.
To book, you need Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. But like Qantas miles, you don't have to be a Cathay frequent flyer to earn these. Cathay miles can be transferred in from American Express, Bilt, Capital One, or Citi!
A layover in Hong Kong might be unorthodox, but it's not an inconvenient pitstop, especially when you can head into the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge when you get there. (And believe me…you'll want to.)
Bottom Line
Points and miles can take the sting out of the long, expensive flights to Australia. Lucky for you (and I), booking these award flights has gotten a lot easier over the past month.
It's one of the biggest and most exciting trends in the world of cheap flights. And we're guessing it won't be long before our Thrifty Traveler Premium members get the next deal.
