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I have spent quite a bit of time recently writing about the remarkable award redemptions you can book using Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (a 1:1 transfer partner from American Express Membership Rewards):
There are still plenty of similar Asia Miles tricks to share, but rather than rehashing the Asia Miles award rules (you can find all that information in the previous articles), today I thought we’d use a ‘reader success story’ to showcase the sort of value it is possible to get from Asia Miles.
InsideFlyer reader Andrew M recently booked London – Sydney (stopover for 19 days) – San Francisco in Qantas Business Class for 90,000 Asia Miles + ~£430 of taxes/fees. In total, that’s about 35 hours of top notch Business Class to enjoy:
To put that into context, you would need 87,500-105,00 Avios (off peak/peak) + £625 just to fly London to Singapore with British Airways – little more than a third of the total distance Andrew was able to book by transferring Amex Points to Asia Miles instead. Of course, the Qantas flight actually stops briefly in Singapore en route to Sydney (no stopover allowed though sadly!), so it’s an interesting comparison.
Here are a few words/practical tips from Andrew on using Asia Miles to book these sort of trips:
“Asia Miles, once you get used to its foibles, is usable.
One thing I’ve noticed about the Asia Miles site is that some routes that it doesn’t allow you to book initially such as Doha – Edinburgh on Qatar can be booked by using Doha – London and then amending it to Doha-Edinburgh.
As for finding the Qantas space, there was a lot of luck involved… I had (a) look at Qantas availability, searching individual segments. I was trying SYD and MEL as destinations and noticed that there was some decent LHR-PER-MEL availability which got me interested. That flight includes the Qantas 787 from LHR to PER before continuing to MEL (same flight number). I believe that’s currently the longest non stop commercial flight so it would have been pretty cool and definitely doable in Business Class! However finding a direct Trans Pacific connection from MEL to the US with Asia Miles availability proved impossible.
Qantas 787 Business Class
I tried using the LHR-MEL flight and then crossing the Pacific from SYD but of course it priced up much higher. I assume you have to fly out of the same hub that you fly into to get the 90,000 mile one way rate.
I could see there was availability from SYD to SFO so I had a further search to try and match it up with a flight from LHR to SYD. There is less availability on that route but with a little effort I found a flight from LHR to SYD with dates that matched up nicely with my Trans Pacific flight, giving me 19 days in Australia. I was actually aiming for the Qantas SYD-LAX-JFK (same flight number) for the Trans Pacific segment. That would have been the ultimate prize, however I didn’t find any availability at all on that flight.
One thing I noticed while searching for Qantas availability on the Asia Miles site was that on days when there was a Qantas flight from LHR to SYD showing, BA availability often also showed up. Presumably those are low yield days for both airlines on that route. Checking Reward Flight Finder for BA availability on the LHR-SYD route might give an indication of the times of year or even the days that Qantas availability may appear.
Bottom line
Finding Qantas availability is the big challenge with these awards, so I thought Andrew’s final tip in particular was great! As he also mentioned, the ‘ultimate’ Qantas redemption using Asia Miles would be to fly from London to Sydney (via Singapore); stopover in Sydney for x days; Sydney to New York (via LA):
As you can see on the map above (from GC Mapper), that would almost be a complete ‘Round The World’ trip for just 90,000 Asia Miles (+ taxes/fees) – the remaining distance between New York and London is a relatively tiny 3,450 miles.
If any reader manages to find availability and actually books the above, let me know ([email protected]), and I’ll personally send you a bottle of champagne to celebrate!
Obsessed with travel from an early age, Joe has visited over 60 countries and spends as much time away as possible.
By utilising his extensive knowledge of Points, Miles and travel bargains, he is able to travel better for less - and is here to show you how to do the same!
Excellent! Here I was thinking my LHR – SYD trip with HKG stopover for 85k is a deal!
If this feature is available for all one world partners, it opens up interesting opportunities.
“nsideFlyer reader Andrew M recently booked London – Sydney (stopover for 19 days) – San Francisco in Qantas Business Class for 90,000 Asia Miles + ~£430 of taxes/fees. In total, that’s about 35 hours of top notch Business Class to enjoy” Yeah, but you gotta get back to London !!
Very true – but you could start another Asia Miles award (eg. LAX-LHR (stopover for x months)-CPT with BA), use other miles, or just get a cheap cash ticket with Norwegian etc. Even if you have no particular wish to visit the US, getting back from there is an awful lot cheaper and easier than getting back from Sydney.
Getting home from California means more fun can be had with award charts, route maps and availability searches. Part of the fun is to come up with the craziest, mile efficient routing that lets you see as much of the world as possible for the least cost.
Completely agree. “I can only use my miles to fly to/from London” limits you to a tiny number of options, when an open mind can help you do wondrous things thanks to miles.
Nope – the key restriction with these one way awards is that you’re only allowed two segments (and one stopover). What you could do though of course is fly with Cathay to Sydney and have a stopover in HK – but your award would end in Sydney.
No one said it would be easy 😉 I had another look for LHR-SYD availability and I wasn’t able to find anything in May. The Southern winter is your best bet for finding availability. It seems to be harder to find anything at the moment although I haven’t searched beyond May. It’s possible that reward flights are loaded by Qantas in batches as and when demand dictates. Maybe when the reward flights are hoovered up by eager customers, there isn’t any more until the next batch is loaded? Just a guess….
Keep trying if you’re interested. It is possible to find availability with some work!
Also, I’d suggest searching for LHR-SYD separately. Once you find dates you can use, try to match it up with the Trans Pacific flight. If you try to search for both sectors at the same time on a multi stop award search, the chances of finding anything are very remote.
As you can see on the map above (from GC Mapper), that would almost be a complete ‘Round The World’ trip for just 90,000 Asia Miles (+ taxes/fees) – the remaining distance between New York and London is a relatively tiny 3,450 miles.
Excellent! Here I was thinking my LHR – SYD trip with HKG stopover for 85k is a deal!
If this feature is available for all one world partners, it opens up interesting opportunities.
Hi SPK – that’s still a great redemption!
Yep, all oneworld partners (at least in theory – I still haven’t experimented with a couple) are included.
Amazing! Thanks very much Joe and Andrew for this story and tips.
“nsideFlyer reader Andrew M recently booked London – Sydney (stopover for 19 days) – San Francisco in Qantas Business Class for 90,000 Asia Miles + ~£430 of taxes/fees. In total, that’s about 35 hours of top notch Business Class to enjoy” Yeah, but you gotta get back to London !!
Very true – but you could start another Asia Miles award (eg. LAX-LHR (stopover for x months)-CPT with BA), use other miles, or just get a cheap cash ticket with Norwegian etc. Even if you have no particular wish to visit the US, getting back from there is an awful lot cheaper and easier than getting back from Sydney.
Getting home from California means more fun can be had with award charts, route maps and availability searches. Part of the fun is to come up with the craziest, mile efficient routing that lets you see as much of the world as possible for the least cost.
Completely agree. “I can only use my miles to fly to/from London” limits you to a tiny number of options, when an open mind can help you do wondrous things thanks to miles.
Could you stop over in Hong Kong in one or both directions for a few days for the same points ?
Nope – the key restriction with these one way awards is that you’re only allowed two segments (and one stopover). What you could do though of course is fly with Cathay to Sydney and have a stopover in HK – but your award would end in Sydney.
Really curious as to how on earth you found this or if you could give me a date as an example! The above routing seems impossible to find.
No one said it would be easy 😉 I had another look for LHR-SYD availability and I wasn’t able to find anything in May. The Southern winter is your best bet for finding availability. It seems to be harder to find anything at the moment although I haven’t searched beyond May. It’s possible that reward flights are loaded by Qantas in batches as and when demand dictates. Maybe when the reward flights are hoovered up by eager customers, there isn’t any more until the next batch is loaded? Just a guess….
Keep trying if you’re interested. It is possible to find availability with some work!
Also, I’d suggest searching for LHR-SYD separately. Once you find dates you can use, try to match it up with the Trans Pacific flight. If you try to search for both sectors at the same time on a multi stop award search, the chances of finding anything are very remote.