Frequent flyer miles are a type of forex — earned by flying and picked up by way of the usage of cobranded bank cards, miles unlock journey experiences that you simply won’t in any other case be capable to afford. On this article, I’d prefer to share how I redeemed a few of my airline miles for a dream trip: a enterprise class journey to Australia that, had I paid with money, would have price greater than $20,000!

Regardless of a burning need and repeated makes an attempt to make the journey to Australia, together with one which resulted in a Singapore emergency room, I’ve nonetheless not been Down Beneath. That may change in January 2023, once I journey to my favourite grand slam tennis match, the Australian Open. It’s a visit that took some planning and a little bit of luck, however one which has been paid for nearly fully with frequent flyer miles. So, how did I do it and what did it price? Learn on.

Redeeming Frequent Flyer Miles for Journey from the US to Australia

There are a myriad of how to fly to Australia from the US, together with connecting by way of a unique continent fully. On considered one of my earlier (albeit failed) makes an attempt to make it to Australia, I had booked a flight with Cathay Pacific that linked in Hong Kong, China. This time, I made a decision to seek for a extra direct routing, specializing in presently accessible flights from North American gateways to Australia:

• Air Canada — Vancouver (YVR) to Brisbane and Sydney
• American Airways — Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney
• Delta Air Strains — Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney
• Hawaiian Airways — Honolulu (HNL) to Sydney
• Jetstar Airways — Honolulu (HNL) to Sydney
• Qantas — Los Angeles (LAX) to Brisbane and Melbourne; Dallas-Fort Price (DFW), Honolulu (HNL), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO) and Vancouver (YVR) to Sydney
• United Airways — Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) to Melbourne; Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) to Sydney

I wasn’t restricted to utilizing the working airways’ frequent flyer miles to e-book my journey. Carriers are sometimes aligned with an airline alliance (i.e. American is a Oneworld member, Delta is a part of SkyTeam and United is in StarAlliance) and it’s doable to redeem miles from any variety of accomplice carriers. Understanding the complexities of award ticket reserving choices requires numerous analysis — we’ll get into that in a future article.

For the sake of simplicity, I used miles from U.S.-based frequent flyer packages to e-book my enterprise class journey to Australia.

Restricted Award Ticket Stock and the Worth of Diversification

Award ticket stock, particularly in enterprise class, is commonly tightly managed. Simply because there’s a seat accessible for buy with money doesn’t imply you’ll be capable to safe it with airline miles. And, as U.S. carriers have embraced “dynamic pricing” for award tickets, good offers are more and more tough to search out.

I needed to begin my journey in Sydney, so I started looking for award tickets utilizing a easy Boston to Sydney question. Though there was availability, the costs have been astronomical. Right here’s what the “Huge 3” U.S. carriers needed for a one-way ticket:

• American Airways — 480,000 miles + $25.70 taxes/charges
• Delta Air Strains — 410,000 miles + $25.90 taxes/charges
• United Airways — 200,000 miles + $25.70 taxes/charges

United Airways was the winner for fewest miles required, however 200,000 continues to be a load of miles, particularly for a one-way ticket! What’s essential to notice right here is that, in case you have solely collected miles with a single airline, you received’t have the choice to buy round for one of the best deal. Because of this I diversify and put numerous my spending on bank cards with transferrable rewards currencies just like the American Categorical Platinum Card, which permits me to switch my bank card factors to 17 totally different frequent flyer packages.

Trying to find the Needle in a Haystack: The way to Get the Finest Deal on Award Ticket Redemptions

I wasn’t happy with the prospect of spending 200,000 United Airways miles for a one-way award ticket, so I modified the parameters of my search to discover a higher deal.

Though I reside in Boston, I can place to begin my journey from one other metropolis if the worth is true. I looked for award itineraries to Sydney from close by cities together with Windfall, New York Metropolis and Philadelphia. When these searches returned no offers, I expanded to incorporate cities West of the Mississippi and on totally different dates — nonetheless, nothing.

My ultimate searches targeted on departure cities in Canada and Mexico. That’s when I discovered it — an incredible deal, courtesy of Delta: Mexico Metropolis to Sydney (by way of Houston and Los Angeles), for 95,000 SkyMiles + $112.01 taxes/charges. I booked it instantly.

By reserving my journey with Delta SkyMiles and departing from Mexico Metropolis quite than Boston, I discovered a a lot better deal than United’s beforehand low value of 200,000 miles.

This brings me to a very powerful lesson in redeeming frequent flyer miles… be versatile! A little bit of flexibility can result in super financial savings and, because the saying goes, a mile saved is a mile earned. All of these saved miles can be utilized to fund future journeys.

Positioning to Catch an Award Flight

With a ticket from Mexico Metropolis to Sydney in hand, the following step was discovering a method from Boston to Mexico Metropolis. The most cost effective one-way money fares (in financial system) have been $274 and the lowest-priced enterprise class ticket was $475. That’s a steep value to pay, and would reduce into the financial savings I’d achieved by reserving the Mexico Metropolis ticket. So, I turned to miles.

This search was simpler, and led me to a enterprise class ticket on American Airways — 20,000 AAdvantage miles plus $37.40 in taxes and charges. Thus, the overall price for a one-way journey to Sydney from Boston (with a free aspect journey to Mexico Metropolis!) was 115,000 airline miles plus $149.41 taxes/charges, which I think about to be a improbable deal!

Utilizing miles to plan a inventive route dwelling

Reserving one-way award tickets permits vacationers to piece collectively fascinating holidays with extra stops. I needed to begin my journey in Sydney, Australia, but additionally wanted to go to Melbourne for the Australian Open. In that case, a round-trip ticket to Sydney wouldn’t have made a lot sense.

In interested by methods to return dwelling, I discovered a possibility so as to add a pair extra locations to my tour. Via Alaska Airways’ MileagePlan program, vacationers can e-book a one-way enterprise class ticket with a free stopover from the South Pacific area to the U.S. for simply 55,000 miles plus taxes/charges, utilizing accomplice airline Fiji Airways.

I settled on a singular itinerary that may take me from Wellington, New Zealand to Nadi, Fiji, the place I’ll stopover for a day and a half, then proceed on to Boston by way of a variety of U.S. airports. This ticket represents probably the greatest values on the planet of factors & miles, and I used to be excited to search out availability. All the flights are in enterprise class, except one quick flight from Los Angeles to San Jose, California. No large deal.

The aviation geek in me is happy to fly aboard Fiji Airways’ new Airbus A350 plane, however the probability to go to Fiji for the primary time is the actual draw. It appears completely marvelous!

Miles vs. Cash: Maximizing the Worth of Your Airline Miles

With an arrival in Sydney and a return to the US from Wellington, New Zealand, there have been some gaps in my itinerary. I might have booked the extra flights with miles, however determined these can be higher used on future long-haul journey. Consequently, I made a decision to e-book the remaining flights with money (and in financial system class). Right here’s what I discovered:

• Sydney to Melbourne, Australia — $71 with Virgin Australia
• Melbourne, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand — $216 with Air New Zealand
• Auckland to Wellington, New Zealand — $52 with Air New Zealand

Three separate flights for a complete of $339 isn’t a nasty deal! However, most significantly, accepting that price preserves frequent flyer miles that can be utilized to extract worth from costlier tickets sooner or later.

The Accomplished Itinerary: From America to Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji

My accomplished itinerary, constructed utilizing a mix of award tickets and money fares, options 13 flights operated by 7 totally different airways for a complete of 24,936 flown miles — that’s 35 miles greater than the Earth’s circumference!

When pals ask concerning the energy of factors & miles — and why I’m such a factors addict — I discuss with unimaginable itineraries like this one. For 170,000 airline miles (95,000 Delta Skymiles + 20,000 American AAdvantage miles + 55,000 Alaska MileagePlan miles), $217.78 in award ticket taxes and charges and $339 in money fares, I used to be in a position to piece collectively this thrilling journey.

The overall out of pocket price of $556.78 covers a world journey journey between the US, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in enterprise class, throughout which I’ll get pleasure from lay-flat beds on the longest flights and some glasses of champagne to rejoice the journey!

Ultimate Ideas (and the way a lot are miles price?)

Gathering and redeeming airline miles and lodge factors has been a passion of mine for practically 20 years — I get a thrill in researching what’s doable and piecing collectively itineraries for super worth. Had I booked these award flights with money, the price would have been $20,747 and, though I’d by no means have paid that, I recognize that factors and miles unlock distinctive experiences which can be in any other case out of attain.

To calculate the return on airline miles, divide the money value of the airfare, much less any taxes and charges paid, by the overall variety of miles redeemed — on this case, that’s ($20,747-$217.78)/170,000, which equates to a return of simply over 12 cents per airline mile. For my part, that’s a heck of rather a lot higher than the returns generated by cashback bank cards, which usually award between 1% and three% on purchases.

The keys to realizing outsized worth with airline miles are threefold: first, be versatile with dates, departure factors and locations to search out one of the best deal; second, combine and match awards to create worth past the fare (like free aspect journeys to Mexico Metropolis and Fiji); and three, diversify your mileage balances (I redeemed miles from three totally different frequent flyer packages to construct this itinerary). In future articles, I’ll dive into every of those ideas in additional element, with the goal of serving to you obtain your journey objectives utilizing factors and miles.

Featured picture courtesy Qantas.