Hi gang,
This forum has been very good to me ... my trip to SE Asia is all ready to execute in 2 months. I only asked for minor help with Chile/Iguazu Falls in April and that's ready to go. Thanks. Did my own plans for 3 Washington NPs next summer and Scotland/Iceland in the fall. Next year is quite full and mostly booked barring some hotels. Time to start planning for 2020.
I've done quite a bit of reading and what I find mentioned as carriers/routes to chase seems not to be available or impractical. For example, one article suggested CX to Hong Kong and then onto either of these countries was "easy". I see no awards from HKG to either poking around all sorts of dates. AA and AS are supposed to offer possibilities but I don't see the ones mentioned. using BA's search engine doesn't help either. One route, mainland to Hawaii and then on showed some promise and offered to break the trip up, but to get to Hawaii is somewhat convoluted and greatly increases the total elapsed time to get to NZ or Australia and that's w/out spending any time in HI!
What I did find was a prototype nonstop from Houston (I'd still have to get from CLE to there, but I can do that) - 17:20 elapsed time for 80k UA in J. This either to Sydney or Auckland (with a 2 hour stop in Sydney, which could work out nicely if I can extend that). I did not check for a return flight home yet; I will tonight.
What am I missing? Is UA my best/only option? Flying with my wife from CLE and wanting to get there with the long flights in J and without wasting 3 days each way. We will have 14-15 maybe 16 days total. NZ is more of the priority for me, but if we have to fly through an Australian city and can make it a longer stay, even better. What happens in the middle is still not gelled, I just need to get over there and back over here.
We have:
360k+ UR and 70K UA,
370k + 370k AA (and constantly growing)
200k + 91k AMEX MR
200k + 110k AS
60k Delta + 38k BA
Small, loose change elsewhere that isn't going to help (CX, HA)
So a UA flight would work for us even if it takes most of our UR. But we have miles in other places, I just can't see how to apply them to this trip. Any creative ideas?
Do I have to book a RT on UA to get a stopover in Sydney? Or can I do that on a one-way?
Thanks in advance.
This forum has been very good to me ... my trip to SE Asia is all ready to execute in 2 months. I only asked for minor help with Chile/Iguazu Falls in April and that's ready to go. Thanks. Did my own plans for 3 Washington NPs next summer and Scotland/Iceland in the fall. Next year is quite full and mostly booked barring some hotels. Time to start planning for 2020.
I've done quite a bit of reading and what I find mentioned as carriers/routes to chase seems not to be available or impractical. For example, one article suggested CX to Hong Kong and then onto either of these countries was "easy". I see no awards from HKG to either poking around all sorts of dates. AA and AS are supposed to offer possibilities but I don't see the ones mentioned. using BA's search engine doesn't help either. One route, mainland to Hawaii and then on showed some promise and offered to break the trip up, but to get to Hawaii is somewhat convoluted and greatly increases the total elapsed time to get to NZ or Australia and that's w/out spending any time in HI!
What I did find was a prototype nonstop from Houston (I'd still have to get from CLE to there, but I can do that) - 17:20 elapsed time for 80k UA in J. This either to Sydney or Auckland (with a 2 hour stop in Sydney, which could work out nicely if I can extend that). I did not check for a return flight home yet; I will tonight.
What am I missing? Is UA my best/only option? Flying with my wife from CLE and wanting to get there with the long flights in J and without wasting 3 days each way. We will have 14-15 maybe 16 days total. NZ is more of the priority for me, but if we have to fly through an Australian city and can make it a longer stay, even better. What happens in the middle is still not gelled, I just need to get over there and back over here.
We have:
360k+ UR and 70K UA,
370k + 370k AA (and constantly growing)
200k + 91k AMEX MR
200k + 110k AS
60k Delta + 38k BA
Small, loose change elsewhere that isn't going to help (CX, HA)
So a UA flight would work for us even if it takes most of our UR. But we have miles in other places, I just can't see how to apply them to this trip. Any creative ideas?
Do I have to book a RT on UA to get a stopover in Sydney? Or can I do that on a one-way?
Thanks in advance.