Year end trip for 4 to australia

[therealtruth]

So, at the outset i agree its quite ambitious to even think about a business class trip for 4 (on the same plane, no less ) to australia during winter vacation of 2016. Still, any tips? It doesnt matter which coast (east or west). It also doesnt matter which city in Australia OR NZ. I can manage to get back to where we need to go. We would like to leave around 19th december and be back by 3-4 january. Finally, if not business, which alliance would be manageable for economy? Should we wait for business or just book economy? We dont have any status with any airlines but at least 500k miles in all the major alliances.

 

[stellar]

So, at the outset i agree its quite ambitious to even think about a business class trip for 4 (on the same plane, no less ) to australia during winter vacation of 2016. Still, any tips? It doesnt matter which coast (east or west). It also doesnt matter which city in Australia OR NZ. I can manage to get back to where we need to go. We would like to leave around 19th december and be back by 3-4 january. Finally, if not business, which alliance would be manageable for economy? Should we wait for business or just book economy? We dont have any status with any airlines but at least 500k miles in all the major alliances.

My suggestion is to try Virgin Australia using Delta SkyMiles. Availability is usually pretty good in business class from LAX. It will take 160k points each.

 

[NEPIC]

My suggestion is to try Virgin Australia using Delta SkyMiles. Availability is usually pretty good in business class from LAX. It will take 160k points each.

Unfortunately, DL just raised the cost of this particular award from Oct 1 to 95k one way in Business. No notice, no announcement; just a new lowest price for you!

@therealtruth Business will be tough on one airline/flight "direct". However, Qantas typically releases 2 Biz and 9 economy seats per flight (plenty of options MEL/SYD/BNE) at the start of their schedule. I think they are up to around Dec 31 now. I would not wait if you wanted these Y seats though.

If you had a good supply of AS miles, you can also access QF's premium economy. And it may also be possible to find 4 seats in this cabin.

If you were open to going through Asia, you may have some better options in Business class.

 

[TheBOSman]

My suggestion is to try Virgin Australia using Delta SkyMiles. Availability is usually pretty good in business class from LAX. It will take 160k points each.

That was a while ago, availability with VA using SkyMiles has gotten really poor (almost nonexistent in fact) now that VA is introducing their new, much improved business class hard product.

@NEPIC QF has released few economy award seats for the OP's departure dates, and what is there hasn't even reached the ability to book with AA yet.

OP, if you're willing to flying through Asia, you may have an outside chance of getting four business class seats on Korean Air using DL Skymiles, to Brisbane or Sydney or Auckland via Seoul-Incheon. LAX-PVG on DL also has decent availability for four business class saver awards, but you'd probably have to fly China Eastern to Australia or New Zealand in coach, plus transiting PVG quite honestly stinks (especially with children). But you're highly unlikely to find 4 business class awards on the same plane on Qantas metal, or United metal, definitely not on AA or Delta or Air New Zealand metal, and highly unlikely on VA. Wish I had better news for you .

 

[NEPIC]

Thanks @TheBOSman !

Surprisingly, China Southern has some flights with 9 business seats available around that time frame. The potential problem is that Delta's booking window is only open till Dec 7, and the seats can obviously be snapped up before Delta has access to them. @therealtruth do you have the Skymiles to possibly make that work?

I don't have any personal idea of how much fun transiting Guangzhou (CAN) is but I will guess it's probably on par with PVG at best!

 

[stellar]

That was a while ago, availability with VA using SkyMiles has gotten really poor (almost nonexistent in fact) now that VA is introducing their new, much improved business class hard product.

@NEPIC QF has released few economy award seats for the OP's departure dates, and what is there hasn't even reached the ability to book with AA yet.

OP, if you're willing to flying through Asia, you may have an outside chance of getting four business class seats on Korean Air using DL Skymiles, to Brisbane or Sydney or Auckland via Seoul-Incheon. LAX-PVG on DL also has decent availability for four business class saver awards, but you'd probably have to fly China Eastern to Australia or New Zealand in coach, plus transiting PVG quite honestly stinks (especially with children). But you're highly unlikely to find 4 business class awards on the same plane on Qantas metal, or United metal, definitely not on AA or Delta or Air New Zealand metal, and highly unlikely on VA. Wish I had better news for you .

Good info, thanks for the update!

 

[therealtruth]

Wow! Great thoughts guys! Appreciate it very much! I did know about the issue with Virgin lately..

@NEPIC do you know when Delta will open the schedule for that time? I have enough miles to go one way at least if they do increase it to 95k one way.

Korean air via Seoul is not a bad option either! Will keep an eye open for that one also.

Thanks again!!

 

[NEPIC]

DL opens their schedule 330 days in advance, so Dec 19 should be bookable Jan 24.

 

[NEPIC]

Falling off my chair here. Just got an alert for QF space in October and thought I'd check around your dates:





Now you can't hold or book them yet (with AA) but a lot of QF space doesn't seem to be showing on AA's site anyway right now...so there's a chance they may stay around.
Nick

 

[therealtruth]

Dang it! Thanks so much! I will keep my eyes peeled!

 

[TheBOSman]

Falling off my chair here. Just got an alert for QF space in October and thought I'd check around your dates:


Now you can't hold or book them yet (with AA) but a lot of QF space doesn't seem to be showing on AA's site anyway right now...so there's a chance they may stay around.
Nick

Good luck, hope those hang around! And I said "highly unlikely", not "impossible" with QF .